The earliest that I can trace the idea to is January 15, 2007. Stephanie and I visited Baker Beach and then hiked out to Land’s End. While there, I took a picture of a Hanjin container ship passing underneath Golden Gate Gridge, which I posted with the following caption:

Is it just me, or does the idea of traveling on a container ship across the ocean sound totally awesome?

My friend Christy picked up on my off-the-cuff remark and left the following comment:

Travel by freighter does sound exciting. A friend of mine just left for 25 days to Hawaii and back on a tug, taking a barge-load of supplies to the islands. It sounds very glamorous, except for the 26 foot seas off Cape Flattery. But the going to Hawaii part, I like that.

When I suggested the idea to Stephanie, half-seriously, she was like: “Yep, you go have fun!” So I amused myself by looking into the shortest possible voyage that I could take by myself (e.g. Oakland to Hong Kong is ~15 days). The funny thing is that without any coaxing on my part, she went from being adamantly opposed to being a strong proponent of the idea (over the course of a year or two). As she says, all it took was time for the idea to sink in.

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Last June, after my brother’s wedding, we took a week off to drive from Salt Lake City to Spokane, so that we could visit the National Parks along the way. The wedding was emotional, and we were a little burnt out from work at the time, so setting aside those days in advance was a stroke of genius. It became our recovery week.

I don’t know where it was, maybe driving into Grand Teton National Park, or somewhere on US-287 between Yellowstone and Glacier, but we started wondering aloud, what if we could do this for longer? Where “this” was some combination of moving through the landscape, travel, being away, having time, and stimulating the senses with new sights.

It wasn’t the first time we’d talked about the possibility of some longer-term travel, but it was the start of it becoming serious. After many conversations (and some back of the envelope calculations), we agreed to give ourselves a year. Time to save, time to plan, and time to roll the idea around in our heads.

Now here we are. One year later. And we’re ready.

On or around September 7th, Stephanie and I are going to board a container ship, the Cap Cleveland, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, bound for Auckland, New Zealand. There will be port stops in Savannah, Georgia and Cartagena, Colombia, before we transit the Panama Canal. All told we’ll be on the boat for 28 days—the longest stretch at sea being 18 days between Panama and New Zealand.

The voyage is certainly an adventure in and of itself, but it’s only the beginning of a larger trip around the world. We have no plans after we disembark in Auckland, besides backpacking and maybe visiting some cheesemakers. After New Zealand, there are several other countries that pique our curiosity, including Australia, Cambodia, Nepal, Kenya, and Turkey, but we don’t have anything even remotely resembling an itinerary. Just a strong desire to see where the global road takes us.

Who knows, we could end up somewhere, fall in love with the place, and never leave. Or we could grow tired of life on the road and fly back to the US after two months. That’s really the best part. We’re completely open to all possibilities. And we’re ready.

While going through my mushroom foraging photos, I discovered that I’d captured a decent picture of a cow crossing sign as Danny and I drove south on California 1. It joins bears & deer, bighorn, and elk in my menagerie.

Never ventured further south along the California coast than Morro Bay before (which is just north of San Luis Obispo). Given the three-day weekend, we decided to see how far we’d get. Los Angeles wasn’t out of the question, but Stephanie had her sights set on Channel Islands National Park. Besides three and a half days of Zipcar, we had no plans or reservations.

We left late on Friday night after an unusually eventful evening (after-work drinks with a departing coworker, dinner with an out-of-country friend staying at our apartment). So we only made it as far as Salinas before pulling into a Motel 6 for the night (the same one we stayed at on a previous whim). The next day we stopped in San Luis Obispo for a quick walkabout and lunch “creekside” at Novo. Though we had half a thought to check out Santa Barbara, we decided to continue on to Ventura, to better our chances of making it to the Channel Islands.

We arrived at Island Packers in Ventura Harbor on Saturday evening, 30 minutes before closing. There was an “all trips full” sign on the door. I went in anyway and asked if they had space left on any boats heading out the next day. They said they were full up, but after checking again, discovered that two spots to Santa Cruz Island on Sunday morning had become available. I signed us up.

We were on the boat at 9 the next morning, heading across the deep channel that gives the Channel Islands their name. Santa Cruz Island is over 20 miles from the mainland, which means I got to enjoy 6-9 foot swells for a solid hour. Suffice it to say I was a little queasy. Stephanie seemed fine.

We arrived at the Scorpion Anchorage, got a short orientation on the island, and then took off on the Scorpion Canyon Loop Trail. The weather was perfect. It was in the 80s with a gentle breeze, and the sky was completely clear. The trail was flat for a while, and then it started heading up. And up and up and up. We made it to the Montañnon Ridge trail, and followed it for a while before settling on a spot with a panoramic view for lunch. We had to be careful with time, as the boat would be leaving at 3:30pm, with or without us. This made us a little less adventurous than normal. We wound our way back down the loop trail, with time remaining to shock our sore feet in the cold water and sit on the beach.

On the boat ride back, we experienced two impressive displays of nature. The first was a flock (technically a “wreck”) of brown pelicans dive-bombing an unseen group of fish below the surface. It was incredible how they managed to avoid each other and the other seabirds waiting for their scraps. The second was a pod of dolphins that started to race alongside the boat as we approached. Since we had a seen a few dolphins doing the same on the way in, I was prepared with my camera. Most of my shots are just splashes, but I managed to capture a single frame of two dolphins jumping simultaneously. And then they were gone.

Every once and a while I stumble upon a forum or blog post comment where someone says they’ve heard about these mythical “MEI Voyageur bags”, but can’t figure out how to purchase one. As long as you have time and patience, it’s really not that complicated.

Step 1

Start 6-8 weeks before your intended departure date.

Step 2

Choose your color. The “official” MEI website is here. Some may find its lack of polish a little shocking. To get a better idea of the colors available, check out this site, an MEI reseller.

Step 3

Call Ahmed Hassan at 888-818-3505 and leave a message.

Step 4

When Ahmed calls back, describe your order and give him your credit card number. It won’t be charged until the bags ship. The credit card statement will list the charges as coming from GENUINE GEAR, INC. If you’re ordering multiple bags, the shipping charges will be slightly less, as they can be shipped together in one box.

Step 5

Ahmed will ask you to email your billing and shipping address to him at mei-legacy at netscape dot com.

Step 6

The bags should arrive in 4-6 weeks, usually right about the time you’re thinking about calling Ahmed to make sure your order hasn’t fallen through the cracks. In my case I ordered 2 bags on July 17 and they arrived on August 27, just in time for our trip to France on September 4.

Here’s how my bag looked packed, straps-out, waiting for our flight at the Aéroport Nice Côte d’Azur on the way home.