Lost on the Way
Adventures in 40,000 Miles of Hitchhiking
by
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Not having any idea what he was supposed to do with his life, Ronald Dane decided to start hitch-hiking. After years of hitching in the States, mostly with very little or no money at all, he decided to try the same thing abroad. Over the next 7 years, he hitched 40,000 miles in 20-some countries, learning to speak French, German and Spanish in the process. "Lost on the Way" takes place in Africa during one of these trips.
"In order to save a few bucks, we opted not to buy a map of Africa when we crossed over from Gibraltar. We figured it was fairly basic: Africa 101--big desert in the north, jungle and zoo animals further south--what else did we need to know? After all, we were just going to stay a few days, check out Tangier, then hop back across the Strait. . . . Right? I had no way of knowing then that I would not be making the return trip."
Lost on the Way begins as Dane wakes up on a train in Marrakech. He has a fever and can't remember how he got there. Over the next few weeks, his fever increases and the possibility that he will never make it out of Africa alive becomes more and more a reality.
"I began to panic. My nervousness started to smile and my fever burst out laughing. Paulette had stopped and put her pack on the ground, waiting. I had the urge to rush across the border and dive into the get-away taxi. Paulette's pack was leaning against her bell bottoms, her hair blowing back in the shape of a question mark. . . . She yelled across the border. "What is the matter?" but by then she knew the answer."
Join Dane as he makes his way across Africa. Get to know Regen and his unconventional theory of communication. Meet the doctors who assure Dane that he is going to die, the border official who tries to prevent him from crossing, and the people who help him.
Dane’s writing transitions from insightful to moving to humorous without so much as a bump as he gets Lost on the Way. This book will be sure to leave you wanting more.
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About the Book
Financed by nothing but a whim while bouncing from one European country to another, author Ronald Dane eventually finds himself in Gibraltar, where he and a friend decide to visit the continent across the Strait. This trip, however, was almost his last. In this travel memoir, Dane narrates the story of his hitchhiking adventures in the early 1970s when, as a young man, he hitched 40,000 miles through twenty-some countries over a seven-year period. Lost on the Way tells of his arrival in Africa, where he grew sick and increasingly feverish. Alone, Dane decides to hitchhike from Tangiers to Tunis and eventually boards a train heading in the wrong direction. Over the next few weeks, his fever increases, and the possibility that he will never make it out of Africa alive becomes frighteningly probable. Insightful and humorous, Lost on the Way details Dane’s journey as he makes his way along a circuitous route crossing Morocco. Meet the people he meets along the way, including the doctors who assure him he is going to die, the border official who tries to prevent him from crossing, and the individuals who help him when he needs help the most.
About the Author
Ronald Dane taught foreign languages in public schools until his retirement in 2005. He currently lives near Chicago with his daughter and his son, a little doggie, a black cat, a grey rabbit, two Dexter cows, and a gaggle of horses.