Mariana Piro, Italian world traveler (van & dog)

[billie_morini]

Many of us envy this young lady from Italy. She is Marina Piro, originally from Italy. She quit her day job, kitted out her small van, packed her trustry companion, and hit the road. See what you can do with a Renault Kangoo! I'm sure 90% or more of us would like to: 1) do this, too, and/or 2) join Marina & Odie!

Photo below and full story with more photos here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... e-dog.html

[BaNZ]

That's my dream life....

[dtc]

I sort of did this when younger - travelled around parts of Australia in a kombi van for many months. But I did it with 3 friends

Also, our van did not contain a number of her 'top 20 items' - no yoga mat, no coffee maker and no USB charger (computers barely existed let alone mobile devices).

We weren't surfers at the time; but we did a fair bit of bodysurfing and a lot of coastal hikes and camping. It's great having time to just go to anywhere that looks interesting and staying until it's not.

In Australia- and I'm sure other countries- a lot of retirees buy a van and head out (grey nomads). So there is still hope. BaNZ, my only tip is do this before you have school age kids - once they are at school, you are stuck for 12 years

[billie_morini]

dtc,
many retirees in the US are similar. They work, plan, retire, buy recreational vehicle (RV), and hit the highways. As you know, the US is vast and has many hundreds of national and state parks and monuments. Many years ago, when Mrs. Morini and I were quite young, I quit my job. We sat on our porch steps (stoop) in Berkeley, California, deciding what to do. We decided to drive our little Porsche targa top clockwise around the perimeter of the USA. We packed two backpacks with clothes, a backpacker's tent, two backpacker's sleeping bags, backpacker's stove (runs on any fuel), a tool box, common failing Porsche parts, small box of food, and many (paper) maps. About two and a half months out, we were at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore). There we met a retired couple. They were quite proud because they were on the road in their sparkling behemoth recreation vehicle (RV) after many years of hard work. They told us, "Young folks, wait to you get to our stage in life. You'll have worked and saved. You'll retire and travel like us. We've been out for a little more than two weeks! How long is your vacation?" Without thinking, I boldly said, "Oh, we've been traveling the US for nearly 3 months!" You should have seen how steamed they were!!
billie

[dtc]

The huge RV thing isn't so much a thing in Australia- mostly medium sized ones! They sort of remind me of the Mexican fisherman story
http://bemorewithless.com/the-story-of- ... fisherman/

How was it driving through those northern states in a Porsche?

[billie_morini]

dtc, are you thinking about the turnpikes and county roads that wind their way along rivers on over mountains? That was fun. My teen years were spent in New England and involved motorcycles. That was even better. billie