Life Goal Checkoff: "Adventurer"

On Thursday, January 1st, 2009, I officially checked "Be Referred To As An "Adventurer" By An Official News Source" off of my Life Goals List, when the article "By The Seat Of His Pants" was published on the website of the Alexandria Echo Press and came out in print on Friday, January 2nd, 2009.

By The Seat Of His Pants
Jo Colvin, Alexandria Echo Press, Published Thursday, January 01, 2009
Steve Devereaux has had the adventure of a lifetime. Twice. Probably because for Devereaux, life is an adventure.
Now a substitute teacher and cross country ski coach for Alexandria School District 206, Devereaux isn’t afraid to take off on a whim, with no plans and no itinerary.
Not one to shy away from a new experience, two years ago he jumped at the chance to join a friend in Europe for two weeks. With no reservations or concrete plans, the buddies knew they wanted to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris, go canyoning in Switzerland, and run with the bulls in Pamplona.
“We decided we would get a train ticket and just go,” Devereaux explained. “We started calling it Adventure of a Lifetime.”
The adventure didn’t get off to a great start. When Devereaux’s flight arrived in Amsterdam, his luggage wasn’t with it. For two days the friends waited for it to arrive. But with their wanderlust beckoning, and time slipping away, they decided to take off without it. With just a backpack full of toiletries and the clothes on his back, Steve and his friend took off for Switzerland, where their dreams of canyoning became a reality.
“It was the most in-your-face adventure,” Devereaux said of the sport that involves getting from the top of a canyon to the bottom by jumping off cliffs and rappelling off rocks. “I’m the kind of person who will try anything.”
Another stop on the adventure was Paris, where in their quest to walk to the Eiffel Tower from the train station, they got lost and wandered around for hours in the middle of the night. After catching a few z’s on the streets of Paris, they made it to the tower after sunrise. They were able to spend a few hours sightseeing, including a visit to the Louvre.
Unfortunately, lack of reservations kept the adventurers from making it to Pamplona for the running of the bulls.
“Part of the trip was to go by the seat of our pants,” Devereaux said. “So we looked at a map and said, ‘Let’s go to Luxembourg.’ ”
After other jaunts to a vineyard in Germany and on to the Frankfurt airport, Devereaux made it back to the U.S.
“That was the end of Adventure of a Lifetime,” he said.
But another adventure was soon on the horizon.
The following summer, 2007, it was off to Costa Rica, where he and his friend had landed research positions tagging sea turtles.
“We decided to do Adventure of a Lifetime II,” Devereaux said.
During his six weeks in “the most remote part of Costa Rica,” Devereaux lived in a “shack” – surrounded by the ocean on one side and the rain forest on the other.
“We landed in this tropical paradise, essentially,” he said. “It was the most remote part of Costa Rica you can be in – one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet.”
His job tagging sea turtles required him to walk up and down three miles of beach in the middle of the night – nesting time for the turtles. If he saw a turtle, he measured it, tagged it and marked where the nest was. During the day, he collected and recorded the data, which left ample free time to wander around the rain forest, swim, body surf and witness the amazing wildlife.
“There are infinite stories,” Devereux said of his adventures there. “It was a tropical paradise.”
Although he loved his time in paradise, when the six weeks were up, Devereaux was excited to get back to Alexandria to start his next adventure – teaching and working with kids. And he’s already thinking about the next adventure.
“We’ve talked about winter camping perhaps,” he contemplated, “or going to Isle Royale hiking. Maybe hop on the Greyhound and getting on the Baja Peninsula. Who knows?
“We’ve been talking about Adventure of a Lifetime III.”