Driving to the End of the World

Met Mark McMahon at the Tucson street fair, and he gave me his book Driving to the End of the World on audio, which he also narrates.  He's a former dentist, and one day about ten years ago took off from Tucson to drive all the way to the bottom of South America, encountering difficult terrain, insects, engine problems, relationship problems, and thieves.  In the end, the experience changed his life (as travel is wont to do).  So he became something of a Buddhist, at least in philosophy.  (Nothing wrong with that... when is the last time a Buddhist strapped on a bomb to force others to accept their views?)  It's an interesting book, well told, about finding purpose in life, which in this case isn't more money, fame, and "success" as defined by pop culture, but rather getting in touch with who you are, and slowing down to notice nature and other people around you.  Since he's self published, you'll need to contact Mark here to get the audiobook, although the paperback is on Amazon.  His story reminded me of another adventurer I once interviewed, a former social worker named John Caldwell, who took off one day with his family from Los Angeles to sail around the world, ending up at Prune Island in the Grenadines.  John spent 20 years developing Prune in a paradise he renamed Palm, after getting a 99 year lease to develop it (for a song, the place was a mosquito infested hell hole at the time.)  His story inspired my own embellished version, and since John's death I see the place is now a tourist hot spot visited by upscale yachting types.  I added some of the same philosophy to my novel, with the main character wondering just what really matters in this life.  We think we want wealth and fame, but all we really own is the present moment, and the friends we make in those moments.