Nevada City residents Gary Wescott and his wife Monika have made their living through travel. To be clear, this doesn’t just mean that they get paid to travel; they truly have found their lives by visiting faraway lands and having worldly experiences most people only dream of.
For over four decades, the Wescotts have been traversing a myriad of foreign countries all from behind the windshield of Turtles I, II, III, IV, V, each iteration a custom built F550 that doubles as a home during their travels. The two—along with their vehicles—are better known as The Turtle Expedition, Unlimited.
“I was in South Lake Tahoe before I met Monika,” Gary said. “I sold my first motorcycle and went to Amsterdam and hitchhiked to Afghanistan. On my way back I had fallen in love with travel. I had stopped at the pudding shop in Istanbul…I was having a cup of coffee there and I realized how much I loved traveling. There were three things I needed: I needed my own music, I needed my own form of transportation, and I also needed somebody to share those experiences with. I can’t stand in the middle of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and go ‘Holy (crap)! Can you believe this?’ I can’t go backpacking alone; it’s too beautiful. I have to share it.”
While in Istanbul, Gary spotted a long wheel-based Land Rover and the proverbial light bulb went off in his head. A vehicle like that, he surmised, could transport him practically. He thought that would be “the way to travel.”
“It was very slow and had a house on the back and we traveled very slowly so we called it The Turtle,” he said. “It became the Turtle Expedition Unlimited because we didn’t have to come back.”
Little did he know that his life would eventually revolve around his off-road adventures, and in Monika he found a willing and enthusiastic companion.
“He started Turtle Expedition with his (then) girlfriend,” Monika explained. “Then he started writing for magazines and it grew from there. The stories became very popular in Off Road, he worked for Off Road for nine years.”
His photos and stories were popular with Off Road magazine readers, and word of his journalism spread quickly through the industry. Over the years he would go on to have his and Monika’s work featured in Four Wheeler, Front Line, My Ford, Camping Life, Truck Trend, and many other publications.
The Wescott’s travel philosophy is broken down to two key components.
“I started to use The Secret,” Gary said, referring to the popular book and film based on the idea that one can manifest one’s desires by focusing on them intently; essentially, the law of attraction. “I didn’t realize how I was doing it and how I got my first car and so many things were happening in my life and I realized, after reading The Secret, and watching the DVD, ‘Oh, that’s how I am doing it!’ The Secret.”
The couple was also influenced by the work of John Steinbeck.
“I found a new rule in Steinbeck’s ‘Travels with Charley,’ Gary said. “It said ‘Don’t take the trip; let the trip take you.’”
The Wescotts have quit counting the number of countries they have visited over the years, Monika saying it just isn’t necessary.
“It’s like going skiing,” Monika said. “I’ve never counted how many vertical feet I’ve skied. (Gary has) been on all the continents but I am still missing Australia. We were in Antarctica last December and all the others we have traveled. We are not country counters and we go really slow because we travel everywhere.”
The next adventure on which the two will embark will begin in coming weeks. The destination is South America, namely Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia. They will be in no hurry, and the trip will ultimately find them in a rural village in Argentina where Gary hopes to capture a photo from a drone of the Turtle V surrounded by 35,000 sheep during shearing season.
“Getting the truck there is going to be an adventure in itself because they have all these regulations now- what you can put in the truck and what you can’t,” Gary explained. “We do have to watch the seasons because we do want to be in Argentina during the shearing season to get that drone photo. We want to see the interior of Argentina and Chile more and then we want to go to the huge salt flats in Bolivia.”
Gary and Monika agree that the sights they’ve taken in on their travels are just a part of the experience.
“What we’ve realized after doing this for 50 years now is it’s not the scenery—because we have beautiful scenery right here in California—and it’s not the food—you can buy a cookbook or go to a restaurant. What really makes what we do so amazing is the people that we meet everywhere, and we’ve learned that if you treat them with respect, you get double respect back,” said Gary.
Their extensive travels have also made them celebrities of sorts with people who long to see the world much in the way the Wescotts have. They often receive letters and emails from others who hope to mimic their explorations, and those who are equally impressed by the Turtle V and its predecessors.
“It’s to record what we see and experience,” said Monika of their inspired fans. “We aren’t in the magazines that much any more but the young people who were reading the magazines…we get these emails saying ‘you’ve always inspired me and I built my own vehicle…’”
“What we’ve realized over the years after going places like the Overland Expo and other places where we put our truck on display,” said Gary. “We get a lot of letters We realize what we’ve been doing is inspiring other people to go have an adventure. That’s the most important thing.”
For more information and to view some of the Wescott’s photos from their travels, please visit www.turtleexpedition.com.