Travels With A Road Dog
A Hitchhiking Memoir
Woman’s Adventure Story
Travels With A Road Dog is a non-fiction, coming of age travel memoir that will take you on a hitchhiking adventure from the comfort of your reading chair.
Unique Travel Memoir
Travels With A Road Dog are the true stories of how I discovered myself and my place in the world through my 4 year love affair with the open road. Hitchhiking is an unconventional way to travel, and even more rare to find such a journey that can be told from the perspective of a woman.
Routes taken during the 4.5 years hitchhiking around the Americas.
Woman's Hitchhiking Adventure
It was early summer 1993, near the end of June. I packed all I needed into a small shoulder bag, left a note on my boyfriend's pillow, and headed out onto the open road.
I was twenty years old and my childhood dreams of traveling were about to be realized. For years, this feeling had been gnawing at my soul and I didn't realize it was wanderlust until that fateful day when I walked out the front door.
Love Affair with the Open Road
With little money but plenty of gumption, my thumb took me around North America- from the dangerous streets of East Hollywood Blvd to a little known beach on Canada's Vancouver Island and the warmer climes of Key West, Florida. Along the way, I picked up a three month old Lab/Shepherd mix puppy, named Jambalaya (spoiler alert: he lived to be twelve years old).
I was well suited for the road, hence the nickname "Road Dog" given to me by some of the old, grizzled hitchhikers I met along the way.
The freedom of living underneath an open sky and going wherever I wanted with only a cooking pot, blanket, tarp, rope, and some matches. It was a grand adventure!
Non-fiction Travel Stories
During the mid-1990's when U.S. tourists were warned to stay away from Mexico, I entered Mexico illegally with a companion and we hitchhiked down the Mexican East coast across Chiapas and up the West coast where we had a run in with a Mexican cartel.
My travel adventure continued when I caught a ride to the Bahamas on a sailboat with no engine, where I was deported from a couple months later. I then flew to Venezuela where I spent almost five months hitchhiking from Caracas to Cumana while experiencing student riots and barely escaped the anger of a madwoman.
Jambalaya, my traveling companion. Shown here around 7 years of age.