April 16, 2009
By Kelsey Dayton
Stuffed animal goes with all sorts of people to all sorts of places.

Keith DeVey, of Santa Clara, Calif., hasn’t been to Jackson. But his stuffed monkey, Wilbert, has.

Wilbert came in the luggage of DeVey’s friend and got his picture taken at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. The picture is on DeVey’s Web site and is one of more than 50 places DeVey has sent his stuffed animal in the last 10 months.

DeVey, 25, wanted to see the world but worried he wouldn’t have time. Instead he decided to send a toy out to return to him with pictures. “I could kind of see what’s out there through the eyes of a stuffed animal,” DeVey said.

DeVey, who found Wilbert in a drugstore after scouring toy stores for Kermit the Frog, sent the blue stuffed monkey with friends and family headed on vacation.

He posted a picture of Wilbert at each location on the Web site. Soon strangers were writing in asking if they could take Wilbert with them on an adventure.

Wilbert has now been to Miami, Venice, Italy, Las Vegas, Chicago, Dusseldorf, Germany, Peru and even Antarctica.

So many people started requesting to take Wilbert, DeVey had to get two additional Wilberts so they could travel simultaneously. Each time a Wilbert returns, DeVey gets to see pictures and hear stories from the people who have taken one of the monkeys. “It seems I almost have been there myself,” he said.

Jackson Dovey of San Jose, Calif., brought Wilbert with him on his Jackson ski vacation March 14-18. Wilbert spent most of his time in Dovey’s room in a rented condominium at Teton Village.

“He wasn’t sitting on my shoulder all the time,” he said. But Dovey said he reported back the happenings to the stuffed monkey each night. And Wilbert did get a chance to ride in Dovey’s backpack as he and friends headed out-of-bounds from the resort.

Dovey thought DeVey’s project was a little crazy when he started, but he likes looking at the Web site now to see all the places Wilbert has been. He plans to take him with him on a work trip to North Carolina this week for work.

DeVey hopes Wilbert will see all the continents, but he hasn’t yet made it to Africa or Australia. Once Wilbert has been traveling a year, DeVey plans to make a coffee-table book from his adventures. He also hopes to use some of the money he’s made off the site to take a trip of his own. Of all the places Wilbert’s been, DeVey most wants to visit Rio de Janeiro.

To see Wilbert’s adventures, visit www.cruisingwilbert.com.

SF Weekly

This is Wilbert, everyone. He's a a three-haired, yellow-bellied, stuffed monkey who started his world travels in San Francisco on May 4, 2008. Since then, he's hit up Paris, Jamaica, New York City, Toronto, Vegas, Tokyo, the Amazon, Rio De Janeiro, China, Greece, Oklahoma, Montreal, Aruba, Idaho, Santa Cruz, Vancouver, Dallas, Florida, the Virgin Islands, Utah, Boston, Phoenix, South Korea, Hawaii, Peru, Maine, Amsterdam, Santa Rosa, Chicago...and I think that'll do. There are photographs to prove all this.

The project, called Cruising Wilbert, is the not particularly original brainchild of Keith DeVey (cheesily pictured above), a 24-year-old who works at a phone company in San Jose. But somehow, even though we've all seen what Amelie did to her father's garden gnome, and the subsequent $80 million dollar Travelosity "Roaming Gnome" ad campaign, and some of us even remember the picaresque adventures of the garden gnome in the phenomenal 1994 flick, Threesome, this traveling ape still manages to appeal to some basic human desire to behold the journies of inanimate objects.

Wilbert has been in the possession of DeVey's trusted friends and family members for the past nine months, traveling for a maximum of seven days with any invididual. He took a short vacation from vacations at Christmas, and soon he'll be tested out in the hands of reliable-seeming strangers. Good luck, Wilbert. If you get raped or kidnapped, we will always remember you sitting high above Rio, your three hairs not quite blowing in the wind.

Kayak.com Corporate Blog
August 13, 2008
Stuffed Animal Travels the World
Tired of the same scene? Wish you could just abandon your possessions and freely travel the globe with no set itinerary? Well, a stuffed animal named Wilbert has been doing just that. A little less than three months ago, Keith DeVey started a website chronicling the journey of a stuffed animal hitchhiking around the world. At www.cruisingwilbert.com, viewers can track Wilbert’s (a little blue monkey) expedition as he explores a new destination every seven days. Wilbert has already experienced New York City, Maui, San Francisco, Vancouver, the British Virgin Islands, and more!

The Maui News
July 27th, 2008
Steven Tonthat

Where in the World is Wilbert?
Former Maui resident monkeys around with a Web site for travel fun

Whoever said monkeys don't make great traveling companions never met Wilbert. He's small. He's quiet. And he doesn't bother you when you're lost. Of course, he happens to be a stuffed animal, which explains why he's not a chatterbox.

While it might seem strange that a stuffed monkey has traveled to more places than most of us can dream of, former Maui resident Keith DeVey doesn't think so. In fact, he was the one who sent Wilbert on his global journey in a game he calls "Cruising Wilbert."

DeVey, a 2002 graduate of St. Anthony Junior Senior High School, now works at FusionOne, a global phone company based in San Jose, Calif. He got the idea to send his stuffed little friend on a journey around the world during a break on the job.

"I was was on my lunch break from work," DeVey said, "and I was sitting in a park with one of my college buddies, and we were just coming up with ideas and stuff and I said, 'It'd be cool to send something around the world.' ''

DeVey pitched the idea to his principal engineer, who "loved it and said, 'Yeah, I could help you make that a reality,' and a week or two later the Web site was up, and the wheels were in motion."

At www.cruisingwilbert.com, people can track wherever Wilbert has been, through pictures posted by DeVey. The pictures are sent to him via e-mail by whoever is carrying Wilbert that week.

The concept, according to DeVey's Web site, is simple: One monkey, endless destinations. The basic idea is to have Wilbert travel to as many places around the world with as many different people for as long as he can.

According to DeVey's Web site, there are only three rules: A traveler may only keep Wilbert a maximum of seven days before turning him over, a traveler must take a picture of Wilbert near a scenic place, and when picking the next traveler, be very picky. Choose someone trustworthy, someone who won't lose Wilbert.

The game has been in full swing for more than three months now and in that time, Wilbert has traveled to many different places, according to DeVey. So far, Wilbert has traveled to such places as New York, Hawaii, Arizona, California, The U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada.

DeVey said that right now, Wilbert is traveling with people he can trust to take care of him, but DeVey hopes to expand and let Wilbert travel with other people.

"Right now it's (Wilbert) just getting passed around with friends and friends of friends and family and co-workers, just people that are interested in the site that I can trust," he said.

Since launching the Web site, DeVey has noticed an increase in popularity in Wilbert's travels.

"This last week we've had 1,500 hits," DeVey said. "It's really taken off, and I'm looking to spread word even more."

DeVey hopes that once he has 15 to 20 pictures up, people will realize that it's a legitimate site and will want to help Wilbert on his travels.

"I'm hoping that the Web site grows in popularity and establishes credibility," he said. "Then it'll (Wilbert) be headed off to someone I trust will take a picture and everything."

But what happens after Wilbert has traveled the world? Where does he go after he's gone everywhere? DeVey said that though no real big plans are in the works yet, he's got a few ideas, one of which includes creating a book with pictures of all of Wilbert's travels.

"I think that'd be a fun thing to have on the coffee table or something, especially if you were one of the guardians or something," he said.

In the end, DeVey hopes the Web site and Wilbert's travels around the world will bring joy to people.

"It's just a simple idea. I think people will enjoy it, and I've been getting responses from people who have enjoyed it. I hope it brings a smile to people's faces. That's the ultimate goal."

Mana'o Radio KEAO 91.5 FM Maui, HI
June 11th, 2008
DJ Dr. B

"Keith DeVey from Maui has started the website cruisingwilbert.com, where he has a little guy sent from one place to another, and people take pictures to send back to Keith. So, for our listeners, it's a fun place to go and see all the places Cruising Wilbert has travelled."
~ For live streaming of Mana'o radio click here

San Jose Mercury News
June 10th, 2008
Sal Pizarro

THE WORLD WITH WILBERT: Keith DeVey's just 24 years old, but he's already making his way around the world. Sort of.

The Santa Clara University graduate had an idea to send a stuffed doll, which he named Wilbert, out into the world to see where he winds up. In the past month, he's made it to Utah, Phoenix and Maui - thanks to some help from DeVey's friends and family. DeVey hopes the exotic locales start rolling in as Wilbert is passed on to new people.

You can check out Wilbert's travels for yourself at www.cruisingwilbert.com.