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Midland Radio spoke to its overlanding partner, Asia Samson about his use of the new Jeep® walkie talkies.
Asia Samson wasn't always someone who enjoyed outdoor adventures.
“I went to school for media, graphic design, communications. When I got out of school I was in Miami, not really doing a lot of outdoor activities. I didn’t come from a family that did that type of stuff. I met my wife who is a big outdoors person. She would drag me out to places. I had camped, but my wife got me going on hikes. My Audi had broken down, I was into sports cars. When it broke down, I was thinking about how we lived on the beach, we should get a Jeep.”
Now living in Pensacola, Florida on the beach, the purchase of a Jeep led Samson to the world of overlanding.
"I started looking online at different mods and I ran into a thing called overlanding. This was back around 2016. I thought it was really cool and I started following all these guys, slowly getting into it.”
Samson began sharing his overlanding adventures on Instagram, something that felt natural for him.
“Everything that I’ve done before has kind of led to what I am doing now. I take pride in the videos, photos, and reels that I create. It’s been part of the creative mind that I’ve had since I’ve been young. Combined with my love for vehicles, it’s been great. Now, I get to utilize every skill that I’ve ever learned from production to video, to cameras. I like talking to people and educating people, doing mods to the vehicle, when you take all that outdoors on the trails."
Now, Samson is taking on new adventures within overlanding. After completing the Florida Adventure Trail, he's now seen every corner of his state, Florida.
"With the Florida Adventure Trail, I’ve seen all these areas I’ve never seen before like the little crook of Florida, where it kind of curves around and it’s just beautiful. There’s a whole road there where it’s basically this road where nobody else is on it, it’s a trail. On one side of you is the Gulf of Mexico and the other side is Everglades or inland part of the water. It’s water on both sides of the two-lane road. It is just gorgeous. You’re driving there and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. There are places to camp on the beach, places where you’re going into forestry. For me, that’s my favorite," Samson said.
However, he's also taken the time to explore other portions of the South such as Alabama, his second favorite state to take to the trails.
“They call it the Alabama Rubicon. It’s awesome because you get the mountainous views, with the opportunity to overland and camp along one of the cliffs so that’s a close second.”
Samson and his crew will head to Kentucky and Georgia. There they will hit the Kentucky Adventure Trail and Georgia Traverse.
While he's been to Moab to ATV, heading out west is on Samson's list as he calls it, "The Mecca" for overlanding.
"I need to hit up Colorado, Black Bear Pass. I just have to make sure my vehicle is ready to make that long drive and do all that stuff out there. I’ve been to Moab, but not with my Jeep. We’ve gone hiking in Zion. I know those are beautiful places. I haven’t gotten a chance to overland over there.”
For Samson, he loves every single aspect of trail rides, but one portion of adventures sticks out, no matter where he finds himself.
“I like hitting the trails. I like the gear. I like the vehicles, but my favorite, favorite part is at the end of the night when we finish eating and cleaning everything and we’re all just sitting at the fire. I have a drink in my hand, sometimes my friends bring cigars, and we’re sitting there talking about the day. There’s something about all the adventures throughout the day and it culminating at the end of the day.”
Samson said building lasting memories is what it's all about.
“My friends always ask me why I do the overlanding portion if the camping is my favorite part, but with camping you’re in one spot and you might get bored throughout the day. With overlanding, you’re doing all this rigorous stuff- we’re winching people, we’re exhausting ourselves, but at the end of the night you get to sit and reflect on the whole day, what we’ve accomplished.”
Samson first began using Midland two-way radios when purchasing a pair of walkies for an adventure so he grabbed a set of X-Talkers from the store.
“When I was first buying walkie talkies, I saw Midland in Walmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Academy Sports so we picked up a couple."
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Samson's area was hit by Hurricane Sally. Because him and his wife live on the beach, they evacuated inland and stayed at a friend's house. He found his X-Talkers coming in handy throughout the storm.
“After the hurricane passed, we’re at my friend’s house with no electricity, no cellphones, no communications. We had a pair of Midland X-Talkers. My friend and I had to go out and scour for any fuel or any stores that might have food. We were driving around the neighborhood, looking at the damage. We were trying to communicate with those back at the house and we could only get so far before communication was lost. I knew we needed to amp up our communication," Samson added.
As he was getting into overlanding, Samson saw a video from Blue Ridge Overlanding talking about Midland. He realized he already had Midland walkie talkies and knew the brand was reputable so he turned to the brand when upgrading his comms in his rigs. He started with the MXT275 MicroMobile® Two-Way Radio.
"I loved it. I would go out on the trails and everybody that was in my convoy didn’t have a radio that was built into their vehicle, they were using handhelds. During the trails, they’d have to switch out radios because they were dying or asking for chargers at camp. They were looking at me because I didn’t have any issues," he said.
He ended up upgrading to the MXT575 MicroMobile® Two-Way Radio to bring even more power to his communication.
“I think it’s super important to have communication. I don’t want to be stuck somewhere.”
Samson has been using Midland's new T77VP5J Jeep X-Talker® Extreme Dual Pack walkie talkies.
"The X-Talkers have always been my go-to. The Jeep® walkie talkies work great. They’re clear.”
He pairs the new Jeep® walkie talkies with his MXT575 while hitting the trails with friends.
“When we are on the trail, I’m usually on the MXT575 driving, but anytime someone gets out and is spotting, these are the walkie talkies that we pull out. You need a handheld like this when someone is spotting and pulling you through an obstacle.”
While hitting the trails, Samson has already seen firsthand just how much the Jeep® community will appreciate the new walkie talkies.
“The Jeep guys keep telling me they need a pair and are so excited for them to be out. There’s no doubt that someone who loves Jeep® and loves comms, is going to want these walkie talkies.”
Samson also plans to use them aside from his time off-roading.
“I’m going to take them with us on our next hiking trip. We have a trip planned for Zion National Park.”
