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  The phenomenon saw a particular spike during the pandemic,  a time of renewed interest in self-reliance. At least that’s one theory. A guy I meet the first night at a happy hour presented by Maxxis, the bike-tire makers, says the boom was simply because people couldn’t go out and blow their excess money on booze for an entire year. And so, fueled by YouTube algorithms, they funneled that spending into impulsive, aspirational online shopping. Regardless, the lockdown was around when the term came onto my radar. I was on a bit of an overlanding quest myself, having driven from my home in New York City to the expo, largely on back roads, with plans to continue to L.A., where I would meet my sister’s newborn daughter. I’d done this trek countless times over the years;  I was retracing past routes with updated intentions, an  tabswire   updated rig. Setting out from New York, I packed all kinds of provisions: a fold-out table, a fold-out chair, a sleeping bag, a ta...