A renegade’s journey of discovery. Included: maps & routes! appendix of Advice, places to see & stay, with websites!

“Aren’t you afraid?” “Won’t you be lonely?” As a sixty-six-year-old woman, traveling America solo in a recreational vehicle, I was repeatedly asked these questions by envious people, who frequently said, “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

This book takes readers, whether armchair or actual travelers, along to experience the problems and pleasures of traveling alone. As in Blue Highways, the author stays off the beaten path and seeks personal discovery while traveling the country. Follow the route, see the scenery, meet the people, in RVing Solo Across America: Without a Cat, Dog, Man, or Gun. It offers a picturesque journey, a unique perspective, and many practical tips for travelers.

Fear and loneliness are universal issues. Readers will be interested to see what situations the writer actually encountered and how she dealt with them on the road. That strange noise, smell, feeling, or fear in the middle of the night that sometimes grazes the mind, I’m alone out here! Or am I?

Maintaining the heating and cooling systems, stocking the refrigerator and making sure it’s running—powered by the vehicle motor when driving, by electricity when stopped if you’re plugged in, propane, if not—at the same time as keeping the sewer hose empty and the water tank full, while also being aware of where you are and where you are going, and, do you have enough gas to get there? That’s a small part of what is necessary on the road. A one-armed paperhanger comes to mind.

Seeing the country from the ground is the big value—eating Cajun shrimp in the bayous of Louisiana, watching hundreds of thousands of birds in their seasonal migration to a tiny island off the coast of the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, or being awed by the underground world of Carlsbad Caverns. Taking state highways, avoiding big cities, shopping malls, and fast food joints, rather finding local diners or eating from an onboard stash. Not the glitz, but the ground, the core strength of America—the everyday people and the drop-dead gorgeous sites—occupies this book.