RV: REDEFINING VACATION

My mom is not a regular mom—she’s a wanderlusting wonderwoman. A post-Beatnik flower child, her destiny was written in On the Road, soundtracked by Joni Mitchell, and designed at an REI outlet store. But as with most aspiring travelers, while Mom was busy consulting a United States atlas, life got in the way. By the time she turned 45 she’d become a divorcée tied down by three kids, a job, and a mortgage.

“Travel” was defined as the car time between work and picking up kids from soccer practice while blasted through the speakers on repeat. Still, she longed to look for America à la Simon and Garfunkel, and would wax poetic to me about her itinerant dream: “When I retire, I’m going to buy myself an RV, and wherever you end up in the world, I’ll meet you there.”