Writers such as Morris, Zepatos and Marybeth Bond have found an enthusiastic audience for women's voices from the road. Ditto for upstart magazines such as Toronto-based Journeywoman and San Francisco's Maiden Voyages (no connection to Morris' book) that target women travelers.
"There is a real hunger for these stories, this kind of information," said Bond, author of "Travelers Tales: A Woman's World" and the featured speaker for next year's first-ever Women's Travel Expo in San Francisco. "To travel is to take control of your life and your world."
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Peg Ciminera's motor home has been a vehicle for change.
The Newport Beach nurse and her husband had always talked of traveling the country when they retired. When the couple divorced, Ciminera refused to give up on the dream.
She put up a glossy photo of a 24-foot Born Free motor home for inspiration. In 1992, she finally purchased that rig, notwithstanding the fact she had never driven one before.
"My hands were shaking on the steering wheel pulling out of that dealer's lot," said Ciminera, 59, relating the tale at the RVing Women convention. "I had no idea what I was doing."
Now a seasoned traveler, she recently sold her condominium and moved to an RV park to see what it would be like to become a "full-timer" in retirement.
Her mother has branded her a gypsy, but Ciminera says she wouldn't trade all those desert sunsets, mountain sunrises and miles of open road for house-bound respectability.
Framed in the doorway of her motor home, the autumn sun on her face, she glanced thoughtfully at the vehicle's logo.
"Born Free," she murmured with satisfaction. "Just like me."
