Southbound

While the journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step, our six-month roughly 20,000-mile road trip to Buenos Aires began with five days in Alta California.

After starting the new "workweek" by loading up the rusty, trusty Crow (our ’93 Nissan, hereafter refered by the Spanish equivalent: El Cuervo), we made one last stop at a San Francisco Peets and began the southbound trip along Ocean Beach’s Great Highway. Google Maps directions to Buenos Aires, Argentina: South to Santiago, Chile. Turn left.

I’d be lying if I said the beginning of our trip was pure bold carpe diem, totally without pangs of apprehension, which, I guess, mark the beginning of all journeys. We dealt with this by taking five days to get from San Francisco to Thousand Oaks to LA to Oceanside to Baja California, stops along the way to reconnect with family and friends. We also had one last opportunity to top off the $1,000-plus we spent at the San Francisco REI store. We were gear-headedly excited and budget-mindedly dismayed to find the once-Toys R Us in Santa Monica a block from my brother’s place is now an REI, and managed to find a few additional must-haves.

Nothing cures buyer’s remorse better than putting a new purchase to good use. We camped the first three nights in Baja. Some of our favorite items: our light, side-accessible packs, Jetboil stoves, Thermarest self-inflating sleeping pads, headlamps, and ditty bags – those great, little multi-colored compartmentalizing sacks that simplify finding clean underwear deep in your pack.

One final purchase from my long-time friend Jim Phelps, was a 6-2 rocket fish surfboard – which found a few good waves at a remote point break two days deep into Baja. Emese side-glanced her wonder about the need for an additional surfboard – I had a 6-10 already tucked into El Cuervo – but Jim gave me a test drive and a great deal. Besides, any serious traveling surfer needs a quiver of at least two arrows.