Seeing the world with "Zenie"

    The vehicle above is called 'Zenie" by her owner.  Eventually its travels will be the subject of a travel blog with many exciting adventures.  
      It was a pleasure this past week-end to play host to my cousin’s daughter.  She is in her late 50’s and although we know each other we have lived so far apart we haven’t made contact easily over the years.  She is an easy person to have around.  We enjoyed some lovely weather.  I took her out to Intake, into Makoshika; we ate pizza and watched the debate and talked about the merits of “tiny houses”.  She filled the day with many stories of her travels throughout the world. For a time she ran a travel agency and took groups of women on some wonderful trips.  Traveling has been her goal in life, her bucket list, her direction -- to see as much of the world as possible and to experience other cultures and people.
    Most recently she sold all her possessions and taking only what she needed, she bought an rv.  It is old and small, but she has all her creature comforts and this is now her home.  It reminds me of the tiny houses you see on television, but this is even more Spartan.  She loves to camp out and hike and back pack.  This rv gets her right to where she wants to go.  I am afraid I would want something a little more luxurious.  A toilet is paramount and a decent shower.
    For now she traveled from Tucson north into South Dakota to visit relatives and then to Glendive to see me.  From there she headed west where she will drive to San Francisco where she used to live than south through California and then home.  After Thanksgiving she will head south into Mexico and Central America and then continue down the Pan American highway.  With all the stops she wants to make she figures it may take her 2 years before she heads home.  I told her I was glad to hear the Colombian government and the rebels had finally signed a peace agreement after 50 years of fighting. She is already using the Internet to find free campgrounds and ways to see national parks and take scenic drives.
    I admire her and her planning and her courage.  I guess it is rather like the early American pioneers who always had to see what was over the next mountain.  She and other people like her are citizens of the world. There are many people to meet, foods to taste and places to see which would fill more than a lifetime.
    I admit to a certain envy but on the other hand I will take something I know and understand to deal with and learn about.  But God bless the adventurers and those who journey to far away places.  I told her I would learn about South America vicariously through her pilgrimage.  She opened the door in my home to a renewed sense of freedom and sense of the greater world.  Regardless of how old we are, the horizon should always be beckoning us.