Travel is my passion, and I try to spend at least a few months a year on the road, visiting new places and seeing things I’ve never seen before. I hope to one day visit every single country in the world. I’m currently at 40 out of 196, so I’m on my way, but I have a long way to go!
Here are a few of the trips I’ve taken over the years:
2016
Six Months in Australia
In 2016, I was turning 30, so I pursued a dream that I’ve had my entire life: to live in a foreign country. My girlfriend and I were granted Working Holiday Visas, and on New Year’s Eve 2016, we flew one way to Sydney, Australia. I got a job working as a Field Producer on an Animal Planet special called “Deadliest Place on Earth,” and we got a flat in Sydney for three months. After that, we purchased and converted a mini van that we named “Maggie” and traveled around the entire country, exploring the Outback and living the #vanlife.
2016
New Zealand, Bali and China
While I was living in Australia in 2016, I did several other trips abroad from our home base Down Under. This included a week in Indonesia, a two week trip to New Zealand, and a couple short trips to Shanghai. This video above is a montage to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” that my friends and I made when we were driving around New Zealand’s south island (and running through fields of sheep).
2015 – Present
Marty & Me (#vanlife)
In January of 2015, I purchased an old school 1991 Volkswagen Vanagon poptop camper van that I named “Marty.” I’ve driven all over the U.S.A. in Marty, living and working out of my van from coast-to-coast (hence Marty’s license plate, “VANLIFE.” We visited national parks, went on an epic ski adventure, drove up the Pacific Coast Highway, and went camping all over the place. We also had our share of breakdowns along the way… these old VW buses are fickle creatures!
Many more travels to come with Marty!
Home is where you park it.
2014
The Mototaxi Junket
In 2014, I signed up for The Mototaxi Junket, a crazy rally where teams drive the entirety of Peru in a Mototaxi, aka a “sofa bike”, aka the worst vehicle ever invented. I was the only solo team on junket, and I drove through 3,000km of unforgiving deserts, jungles and over the Andes mountains, all for charity. Along the way, I gave away a lot of rubber duckies and raised $3500 for charity.
After I (just barely) completed the junket, I went on a trek along the Inka Trail to Machu Picchu.
2013-2014
The Nifty Fifty – All 50 states in one year
In 2013, I decided that I was going to try to visit all 50 states in just one year. And I did it! And I also managed to take a photo of my self in front of every single state welcome sign. This trip made me to revisit the 48 U.S. states that I had previously visited, and make my first trips to both Alaska and Hawaii. Giving myself this challenge was a great way to see America, and visit places I would not have otherwise visited.
2012
Iceland, Faroes & London Olympics
In 2012, a group of friends and I spent a week traveling around Iceland, exploring glaciers and geysers and finding little elves hidden in cracks. After my buddies headed back to the U.S.A., I spent the remainder of the month backpacking solo around Iceland, took a ferry boat to the Faroe Islands, and onward to the UK where I attended the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
2011
The Mongol Rally
Three friends. Eighteen countries. Ten thousand miles.
In 2011, a couple buddies and I got a crappy little Fiat and drove 1/3 of the way around the world – through Europe, Central Asia, huge sections of the former USSR, and the entirety of Mongolia – in The Mongol Rally. We did it for an adventure, and to raise money for S.O.S. Children’s Villages. We raised over $8,000 and gave away rubber duckies to kids along the way.
Read more about our journey here
2008
Bootstrappin’ Asia
In 2008, a year after I graduated from College, I decided to backpack around the world. I went in with no real plan, just a bag and a one-way ticket to Japan. I spent the next 6 months making my way west, from Tokyo to India. Along the way, I went to the drove a moped around the entirety of Taiwan, attended the 2008 Beijing Olympics, explored the monasteries of Tibet, paid a visit to Mount Everest Base Camp, and trekked Nepal’s “Annapurna Circuit” through the Himalayas. It was the adventure of a lifetime, and gave me a permanent travel bug.
Google Map of my journey
Read about my trip on my travel blog: Bootstrappin’
2006
Ethiopia
In 2006, I traveled to Ethiopia with ten of Ithaca College’s Park Scholars, and did volunteer work in the media sector. I worked at the Educational Media Agency in Addis Ababa, where we helped the staff produce educational videos for Ethiopia’s national educational initiative. (The video above is a profile that we shot / edited about EMA.) Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world, so it was an eye-opening experience.
Photos
Around the U.S.A.
Cross Country Roadtrips
I’ve driven all over the USA, exploring everything that the United States has to offer. I’m planning to map all of these trips on Google and embed it on this site eventually. š
-1998 Yellowstone
-2000 Colorado
-2006 to LA southern route, back on northern route / SD
-2007 Ram & Bob cross country – moving to LA after college
-2007 Pete & Jason cross country I-40 to LA
-2007 Cucci & Justin cross country back to NY
-2008 Drove solo back to LA January
-2010 Filming Decoded all over America
-2013 Cross country Bonnaroo, Arkansas, Kentucky, to Michigan
-2013 & 2014 – Nifty Fifty roadtrips
-2015 Marty & Me #vanlife across the USA
Music, Film and Art
Festivals
I regularly attend music, film and art festivals, including: Burning Man, SXSW, Coachella, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Bottle Rock, Hot Docs, AFI Docs, Sundance, Art Prize Grand Rapids, and Full Frame Documentary festival. It’s always a pleasure to see the latest and greatest art, no matter the medium.
The video above is a montage of experiences from my first year at Burning Man in 2014.
Annually…
Rental Car Rally
Rental Car Rally is a competitive roadtrip, where teams dress up in crazy costumes, and drive through the night, trying to hit a bunch of checkpoints (like missile silos and abandoned mental facilities) with the lowest total odometer score. It’s a ton of fun, and I try to sign up as often as I can.
I’ve done these three, and hope to do many more!
-L.A. to Tombstone, AZ (2010)
-L.A. to Lake Tahoe (2011)
-L.A. to Death Valley (2015)
-L.A. to Tombstone Redux (2016)
RentalCarRally.com
