SEATTLE, Wash. -- "I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by."

For Ken and Sho Kirita, that line from John Masefield's "Sea Fever" expresses an alternative lifestyle they chose more than 20 years ago.

In 1976 Ken sold his small interior decorating business in Shizuoka. With the money they flew to New York, bought an old Volkswagen camper and roamed across North America, camping from New York to Los Angeles and back.