Loren and Patty Upton are owners of Sand Ship Discovery Jeep, a slightly modified 1966 CJ-5 in which they took a record-setting journey in the mid-1980s. Submitted photo

The 2,000 miles that Patty Upton will bring her Jeep from Salmon, Idaho, to Butler County for the 12th annual Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival is a jaunt compared to the five-year, 56,000-mile record-setting journey she and her late husband, Loren, took in the 1966 CJ-5 they named Sand Ship Discovery.

They traversed jungles, mountains and swamps in South America and the Sahara desert in North Africa without GPS or a cellphone while dealing with breakdowns in remote locations and sketchy border crossings.

Their epic road trip in the mid-1980s earned them a place in Guinness World Records.

“The hardest part in anything is taking that first step,” Upton said. “Once you’re committed, you're committed. There were challenges, but the life-threatening stuff is anti-climactic because we lived through it.”

She said she and Loren always wanted to take their Sand Ship Discovery to Jeep festivals and shows so they could tell people the story of their journey, but they couldn't because they were working when the events were held.

Unfortunately, Loren died in August at the age of 87.

“So I thought the time is now,” Upton said.