We Wander — Mark & Meghan's World Travels

Only 24 hours to go. We’ve gathered everything we are bringing into an organized pile in the middle of the floor, and done a test pack with our backpacks. The result: both bags had room to spare! Final weigh-ins have Meghan’s bag at 29 lbs and mine at 44 lbs. Admittedly they are a little heavier than we hoped, but this is the sacrifice we are making to support our blogging and photographic habits. Our camera bag and laptop combine to add nearly 12 lbs to our bags. We were debating whether or not to bring our thermarests (mainly for the African trip), but decided against it. We’ll pick up some foam sleeping pads closer to October.

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In the months leading up to our trip (only two months left!), I have had a keen interest in determining the best and most useful gear for us to bring on our journey. We are both iPhone owners, and while we would love to be able to use the iPhone in all of its glory around the world, the thought of paying $3000 a month to stay connected internationally is a bit of a deterrent. On top of that, I have to say that I have no desire to have constant access to my phone or email while I travel. I do love my iPhone—but the addiction has to stop somewhere!

Because we have made the decision to track our journey through this website, we will not be able to travel completely unhooked from our technology. With that in mind, I hope to turn the gadgets we bring with us into useful tools rather than deadweight anchors. My mission: to turn the iPhone into a pocket-sized digital swiss army knife, without personally keeping Fido in business in the process.

I should warn everyone that my inner geek is about to come out. Read on at your own risk!

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