Wherever the Road Leads: A Memoir of Love, Travel, and a Van

by K. Lang-Slattery, K. Lang-Slattery (Illustrator), Thomas Slattery (Photographer)

Overview

A wedding, a VW microbus, and two years on the road. Newlyweds (an artist and an engineer) meet the rigors of travel and the ups and downs of married life in a Volkswagen microbus that continually needs repair. Surrounded by exotic backdrops from Panama to India and beset by mechanical problems, Tom and Katie drive 39,000 miles across four continents in a world before the internet or cell phones. Everything from engine trouble to personal sanitation, from running out of funds to primitive roads, affects their journey. Will their beloved green van make it to the end of the trip? Will their relationship thrive or will it crumble under the pressure of living together 24/7 in a van?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781663544834
Publisher:	Barnes & Noble Press
Publication date:	11/26/2020
Edition description:	Travel Memoir ed.
Pages:	346
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

As a child, Kathryn (Katie) Slattery enjoyed reading, drawing, and spending long days at the beach. Then, at the age of seventeen, a trip to Europe with her family ignited her love for travel. She studied Art and English at U.C.L.A in the early 1960s. After graduation she continued her education in art and education at the University of the Americas in Mexico City. The years afterwards were filled with teaching art, English and cooking, traveling around the world, raising a family, and volunteering for the Girl Scouts of the USA. Finally, she returned to her early love of writing, first creating stories and articles for young people. Her work has been published in several highly rated magazines for the youth market. Immigrant Soldier, based on her uncle’s World War II experiences, was her first novel. Her children’s chapter book series starts with Tagalong Caitlin about a little girl with big ideas, determination, and a plan to reach her goal. The second book in the series, Caitlin’s Buddy, is about camp experiences and friendship.

Katie has been a lifelong traveller with a valid passport since the age of 16. Her memoir, Wherever the Road Leads, recounts living and traveling in a Volkswagen van in the early 1970s with her new husband, a two-year, 39,000-mile adventure that took them across four continents.

Katie lives in Laguna Beach, California, only steps from her childhood home. Besides writing, her main interests are travel, cooking and painting.

Editorial Reviews

Down to earth accounts of what the day to day life was, doing the laundry, bathing, buying food and
cooking it in the very limited facilities of a Volkswagen van ground this account in the realities of travel-on-a-tiny budget so characteristic of the young of many countries in the early 1970s. It was a time of bravery, of a spirit of romance and adventure hardly seen since. I loved this book and felt uplifted reading it

IndieBRAG, LLC

. . . a fond and evocative recollection of a world that has changed beyond all recognition. It's not all roses and gilded sunsets but a heartfelt and sinewy account, full of fragrant moments as they roam free, laying down a bed of memories to treasure and share half a century on.

traveller.com.au - Michael Gibicki

In clear, rich, personal prose and accompanied by detailed sketches, maps, and blueprints, the author opens to readers one of the most intimate periods of her life. . . this book is guaranteed enjoyment for readers of travel essays and travel-focused literature.

US Review of Books, RECOMMENDED - Nicole Yurcaba

Vivid recollections power a tale replete with adventure. One of the compelling features of these accounts is the couples' flexibility, adaptation, and sense of joy in encountering various peoples even under adverse conditions.

Midwest Book Review - D. Donovan