(The last six weeks have conspired to throw me so far off my normal reading and blogging schedule that I now find myself way late reviewing the last half-dozen books I've read despite how long it took me to read that lot. I've been trying to review them in the order I read them, but the longer this strange new schedule continues, the more hazy the plot details are becoming. Consequently, I'm going to go with some shorter, "pocket-sized" reviews for the immediate future - while trying to get back into the old rhythm, hopefully sooner than later.)
You would be hard-pressed to come up with a more concise summary of Leslie White's Three Years a Traveler than the words the author chose for her memoir's subtitle: "One woman, one dog, seven RVs, and the path less traveled to heal the heart." That's just about perfect.
White's decision to hit the road as a contract employee, someone willing to work for just about any hospital in the U.S. that needs someone on a temporary basis having her specific diagnostic skills, resulted from three horrific years she and her family endured together. As she puts it, "Of my immediate family of five (my parents and two brothers), four of them have had cancer and three of them died from it in as many years."
"I thought I could simply drive away from the heartache of my parent's passing, the boredom of my depressing life, and perhaps somehow repair my crumbling relationship with BF. Well, yes...and no."
White is in for a rather rude awakening because it's about to get a whole lot worse before it starts to get better.
Along the way, as she uses the trial-and-error method to finally pinpoint the RV that will best suit her limited driving skills, White will make a lot of rookie road-traveler mistakes - not the least of which is bringing her freeloading boyfriend (the infamous BF referenced in the above quote) along on the first leg of her journey. But she adapts, she learns a few new tricks, she makes friends, meets some nice people, meets a few jerks, and finally settles into a lifestyle that seems to do for her exactly what she was hoping for when she first decided to chuck it all and hit the road.
The best part of all of this is that White saved a seat in the RV for the rest of us. And we get to go on one hell of a ride with her.
Three Years a Traveler is fun for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to live out of an RV for a few months - or years. If you're curious about the lifestyle, this is a great place to start.
I have a college friend who is a contract primary care physician. Her husband is a researcher who travels often so by taking these short assignments (I guess PCPs are in shortage everywhere) she can afford to go with him to Vienna and fun places like that now that her children are grown up. Usually, the hospitals or clinics pay for her housing too. She takes one or two assignments in Boston each year although she is based in New Mexico so shows up at our book group in person every so often. It must be a weird life and odd for the patients as well (but better than no doctor). I will recommend this to her.
ReplyDeleteI imagine that your friend will relate to the tales told in this one. I do think the author sometimes roughed it a little more than I would have wanted to, but she was often working in small or remote places that didn't have a lot to offer in housing options and the like.
DeleteI love the sound of this one. Probably because part of me has always wanted to live that kind of wandering life for awhile. Though I doubt very much I'd every be able to drive an RV. ;D
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh when she describes how stressful just refilling her gasoline tanks was at the beginning. I have watched a few people struggle with that skill myself, and that's always the first thing I think about when I get overly tempted to buy or rent one of the larger rigs.
DeleteI love these van life memoirs. The author did have a horrific 3 years in terms of what happened to her famiky and I guess when something like that happens some people just decide to change their life drastically and I can understand that. And Leslie White was smart in that she got in a van but prepared by having work as a contract employee. This is a book I want to read.
ReplyDeleteThat family tragedy caused the author to reassess her life for sure, Kathy. I imagine most of us would be forced to contemplate our own mortality at that point. (I'd worry more about myself if I didn't, I think. lol) In addition, she came to the realization that she would shake the impact of her grief much quicker is she could somehow get away from everything that reminded her about her lost family members. The memoir is very personal. I think you'd like it.
DeleteYou think you're having a tough time of it and then you read about someone who has gone through this kind of thing and you start counting your blessings. I'll look this up as it sounds like my sort of book. How're you doing, Sam?
ReplyDeleteTrue, Cath. I can't imagine what losing three close family members so close together would be like. It might even be worse and harder to deal with than losing the three of them in a single tragic accident. Stringing them out the way she suffered them didn't allow her to get over the deepest impact of losing one of them before losing another.
DeleteI'm doing pretty well, Cath, and hoping you are doing the same. We're dealing with the heat this time of year, and another of my air conditioners is out for the moment, so there's that...but it will always be one thing or another. Take care of yourself.