We’re preparing to serve with OM Ships again this year and it reminded me of sometime back in 2008 when we were volunteering to go overseas with this ministry the first time. We were newly married, graduating university, wrapping things up in Florence, SC and packing what we thought we needed for a couple years of full-time travel.
We didn’t have much, living on love and rarely had money for anything extra other than food, gas and bills. So, I was shocked when Nick came home one day with a little brown paper bag from Naturally Outdoors. I excitedly opened it and found my very first reusable water bottle…a Klean Kanteen. Up until that day, I only remember drinking out of plastic bottles that were supposed to be used once and thrown away. Sounds crazy in today’s world where everyone is carrying water bottles everywhere they go. But back then, my friends and I would buy a Gatorade at the grocery store and use the bottle until it disintegrated or a boy in our class broke it.
Nick was immediately jealous of the gift he bought me and got himself a matching stainless steel water bottle the very next day. Since the day I got my Klean Kanteen, I’ve gone through many water bottles that have been gifted to me. But, none have lasted. I use them until they break or get lost. But guess what water bottle I still have? My Kleen Kanteen and it’s going with me, yet again, to serve overseas as I volunteer on the Logos Hope. It’s survived, not just sitting safely in the back of the cabinet, but extensively traveling the world with me for over 18 years.
And because I’m actually so impressed myself, I wanted to put down in writing all the places my Klean Kanteen has been by my side: Trinidad, Tobago, St Lucia, Curaçao, Aruba, Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, several road trips to Texas, the Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Denmark, New York City, Scotland, a one-month USA road trip visiting 21 states, camping in the Grand Canyon and the Redwoods, Yellowstone, the Color Run and the Color Vibe races, an Atlanta Braves game, climbed Table Rock in SC and Pinnacle Mountain in AR, been to Shoot the Hooch in Atlanta, camped in the Lavender Farms in Mona Utah, spent three months in Bolivia (South America), kayaked in Murrell’s Inlet, cruised the Caribbean many times over, hiked all over Hawaii, attempted a Triathlon, roadtripped all the way from the Everglades to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to the Chicago Bean and Niagara Falls to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter and Mount Rushmore, hiked to the Lake Louise Tea House in Banff, visited the Rose Test Garden in Portland, cruised through Alaska twice, white water rafting in Spokane, camping in Okracoke, touring Colonial Williamsburg, hiking Gettysburg, Animal Kingdom and Epcot, Biltmore again and again, Cabbage Patch Kids Hospital, Dominican Republic several times and all-inclusives in Cancun over and over and over, Dollywood, London, Clearwater, Miami, Nashville, Savannah, West Palm Beach, Key West, Naples, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Columbia, Buckhead, Boston, Orlando, Charleston, Panama City, Chapel Hill, New Jersey, Asheville, Atlanta, playgrounds everywhere, horseback riding, paddle-boarding, boating, a million play dates and 9,482 other places I can’t even recall and recently got “decorated” by my daughter with stickers that apparently don’t come off.
If I’ve been there, where ever there is, so has my Klean Kanteen. And it’s not a fluke because it’s not just mine that’s lasted, but also Nick’s. Both have seen the world with us and both have no signs of it being close to the end of their life. So, as we pack up yet again, for another long-term adventure, our two Klean Kanteens are on the packing list, just like always.
It just so happens that Ivy, our 5-year-old, is obsessed with water bottles, is often gifted them because she always loves a new one and is always is hoping to shop for just one more. It’s such a thing with her that we tease that maybe she’ll grow up to one day start her own water bottle company because she’s such a connoisseur. Although she’s owned more water bottles than I can even count, she’s never had her own Klean Kanteen. I know it’s silly, but I wonder which water bottle she’ll finally land on that’ll follow her adventures into her 20s and beyond. Her forever water bottle.
