A Lizard in the Sun:Three Years of Zero Budget Travels

What would you do if you were desperate to travel around the world, but you had little or no money to finance your trip? You could stay home feeling sorry for yourself, keep putting it off until you could afford it, or just pack a bag and go, hoping to be able to live on your wits and find work along the way. That's what Pat Bensky did in her early twenties, and it led to a three-year adventure as she worked her way around Europe, North Africa, the West Indies, Bahamas, and the USA. At times she was hungry, homeless, sick, miserable, ecstatic; was almost lost at sea, and cured of a serious illness by a West Indian witch doctor. But her resourcefulness, courage, and positive attitude steered her through the hard bits, and when she got to California, she decided that she'd found a place worth staying in.

When people asked the little girl what she wanted to be when she grew up, Pat Bensky replied, "A writer!" But it wasn't until reaching the age of 40-something, after going to college, traveling the world, doing various jobs from nanny to computer programmer, that she wrote her first book.