October 8 – 18, 2025
Photo credit: Walt Middleton Photography
If you have met me, sitting in one place is not high on my “things to do” list. Earlier this year (2024), while at Overland Expo PNW in Redmond, OR, Connie Rodman and I announced to a group of people at a fire-side chat that we would participate in the 2025 Rebelle Rally. Team #114 – TNT – Tried N True
The Rebelle Rally is the longest competitive off-road rally in the United States, approximately 2500 kilometers across the deserts of California and Nevada, over 8 days of competition. No GPS, no cell phones, NO Problem! The Rebelle is not a race; it is a marathon. It is not only mechanically demanding on the vehicles but also physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding on the all-women teams. Yes, sixty-five, all-women teams will push themselves and their vehicles to the edge of endurance.
Using only traditional, old-school navigation tools, we will use maps and compasses to plot headings and find hidden checkpoints in the vast deserts of California and Nevada. In the Enduro Challenges, we will have roadbooks and must stay “on time” or “on route.”
It will not be easy; it may not even be fun, but the Rebelle Rally will test us, and we will overcome.
Being familiar with only the peak of the Titanic-sized ice burg we were facing, Connie and I embraced the planning and prepping and began to chip away at the surface. In doing so, we’ve gained a much deeper understanding and appreciation of the scope of the immense expense of this undertaking and the vast opportunity the Rebelle Rally will provide us and our sponsors.
Our sponsors are:
Overland Portal
AEV Conversions
Goose Gear
The generous sponsorship of AEV Conversions and Overland Passage humbles Connie and me. American Expedition Vehicles is loaning us a 2023 Jeep Wrangler-Rubicon for the Rebelle Rally. Being able to say I’ve circumnavigated the world, all on land, except for the South Atlantic Ocean in a Jeep, the Sand Ship Discovery is one of my life’s high points. Now, adding that I will participate in a world-class off-road competition in a Jeep is the icing on the cake. Overland Passage has donated the money for our Rebelle Rally registration fee. The words thank you seem insignificant, but they come from our hearts.
Asking for financial help is something new to both Connie and me. However, it is something we have to do to offset the myriad costs of the Rebelle U training for driving and navigation classes, cost of fuel, required safety equipment, navigational tools, personal camping equipment, and the rental of tracking equipment so the rest of the world will know where we are, even if we don’t.
You can donate to us by visiting our TNT – Tried N True website or go directly to our GoFundMe page. In addition, you can donate to us by purchasing Rebelle Rally Gift Certificates. The gift certificates purchased through Rebelle Rally will offset our training class fees and tracking equipment rental.
As Connie and I are, we seek to partner with Tried N True companies.
Connie Rodman – driver
Connie Rodman’s passion for Overlanding and off-road driving began when she met her husband, Graham Jackson, in 1989. Though she had traveled the U.S. extensively before, most of it was on paved roads.
In 1998, when Connie and Graham got married, Connie had her first real Overland trip. They rented an outfitted Land Rover Defender 110 and spent five weeks touring some of the most remote places that Southern Africa offers without the benefit of GPS.
In 2004, Connie and Graham equipped their Defender 110 and embarked on a 9-month 30,000-mile journey from London to Cape Town. The short version of that trip reads that they broke into a country and caused (but were not involved in) a bar fight in Angola. Connie incited a riot in Namibia, ending with the capture of two thieves and retrieving her traveling companions’ passports.
In 2009, Connie taught at the first Overland Expo and continued at every single Overland Expo, sharing her knowledge, experience, and passion for Overlanding and off-highway driving.
In 2017, Connie was the first woman in North America to earn an NPTC (City and Guilds National Proficiency Training Center) certification in off-road driving.
Connie has been cook and guide on multiple trips in Southern Africa and long Overland trips in Australia, including crossing the Victoria desert and traversing the historic Madigan Line.
Patty Upton – navigator
Patty Upton has always said she has been traveling since before she was born. In fact, in mid-1953, she traveled from California to New Jersey to enter this world with her maternal grandparents by her mother’s side. Patty’s dad was in the Marine Corps, and every three years, they had their bags packed, anxiously awaiting “orders.”
Reading the stories of Livingston, Stanley, Burton, Shackleton, and the adventures of Osa and Martin Johnson fueled her imagination and her desire to travel.
After spending only a few years in any one place, Patty and her family found themselves in the former Canal Zone in the Republic of Panama. She graduated from Balboa High School in 1971 and attended the Canal Zone College for two years.
Patty then began working as a secretary/receptionist at the Canal Zone Girl Scout Council and, after several years, was to become office manager at the Girl Scout office, but eventually, that position was phased out due to the U.S. / Panama Treaties.
When one door closes, another opens; in 1985, the opportunity to join Loren Upton full-time as the photographer on his Jeep expedition, A World Odyssey – The Epic Voyage of the Sand Ship Discovery, presented itself, and she jumped at the chance and stepped through the looking glass. Patty’s overlanding adventures began with the Guinness Book Record of the first all-land crossing of the Darien Gap by vehicle, 741 days, 125 miles of no roads.
Followed by 4000 miles of four-wheel drive in Africa, a life-threatening breakdown in the Sahara, an eye-opening journey through the former Soviet Union, and a thirty-year delay in completing the world circumnavigating journey due to political unrest in the Middle East. Outback of Beyond Adventures