Travels with Vamper: A Graybeard's Journey

Honestly, I did not know what I was getting myself into when I requested this book. I miss read the title and thought I was requesting Travels with the Vampire! So, when I downloaded the book and started reading it I was very surprised to find that this book was NOTHING like what I thought I was supposed to be reading. Since I had requested it and the publisher and author was nice enough to grant me access to this book, I went ahead and read it! I was pleasantly surprised to find how much I enjoyed this book! Especially since it’s nowhere near a subject that I would choose from my own personal wheelhouse and like nothing I had expected it to be!
The Breakdown!
This book is about the adventures of the author in his RV as he traverses across the country searching for a new way to raise a families, reflect on his working life, revisit the places that touched his soul as a child, and of course to see new and exciting things that he hadn’t seen before. There were some political aspects to this book as well as George talked about his view on Trump as our president and what it’s like being a recent retiree under this administration. There was also his view on religion and other flawed belief systems that he would like to see changed.
I liked getting a little look at his point of view and seeing his outlook on life as he recalled his memories and the things that got him to where he is today. Also appreciated that he could openly admit to some of the wrongs that he has done in his life; for example, he talked about how he had been hired as a retail store Santa for Christmas one year while he was battling his drug addiction. It takes courage to admit one’s wrongs and then change them by living a respectful life. Kudos to this brave author!
I am also a fellow music lover, so I enjoyed the soundtrack that George put to his life! After all, you can’t have a decent adventure on a road trip without a fantastic soundtrack! Likewise, I really enjoyed all the interactions that George had with various locals on his stops across the country. He seemed to treat them with the utmost respect even if they didn’t always reciprocate the gesture. It is obvious that we are a country divided and this book does a tasteful job of accenting this without being too over-the-top.
Even though I am a young person and most of the struggles that George faces along with other current retirees of our country do not yet pertain specifically to me, I can respect his outlook on life and his thought processes. Being a young person in today’s society is tough; however, I found that there’s still hope for life after retirement. I just hope that in 35 years when I get to a retirement age that there still a great country to live in! Since I went in this with a very open objective because I thought I was going to be reading something completely different, I was able to see points from both sides and not take a strong objective on either one.
Thank you, George, First Edition Design Publishing, and Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this book that I probably never would have read otherwise! I do not like reading about politics, religion, or any other controversial topics on an everyday level. I prefer to escape to fantasy when reading my books, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed reading this book and felt a connection with George even if we might never meet in person or have the exact same interests in life!
***Obviously these views/opinions expressed were my own and not influenced in any way. I submit this honest review in exchange for the ARC via NetGalley***

Travels With Vamper is a wonderful travelogue of a man, newly retired, who sets off on a cross-country tour of discovery in his RV (Vamper). The author is a retired professor of law at Gonzaga University. Upon reaching retirement, Critchlow was faced with the question "what now to do?" Or as he puts it "I did not want to wake up the day after retirement lamenting the loss of my old life. I needed to put distance between that life and whatever lay in the future. And then it hit me-a road trip!" So he purchased a used RV and set off on a tour, starting in Washington and traveling cross country thru the west, southwest, south, and midwest, ticking off 15 states.
And not just a simple tour whereby one just follows the guidebooks, ticking off the mandatory sights in each state. No, this was more a "tour of discovery", or perhaps a "listening tour". The author made a point of interacting with the locals he met along the way, in an attempt to understand their lives better. And what a great time to undertake the journey, he chose the run-up to our most recent presidential election! He has a way of conversing with people to get them to open up and share their opinions. And share they did!
While Critchlow leaves absolutely no doubt about where he stands, and what he believes, he treated everyone fairly and with respect. Given some of the people's statements, I have to wonder how he did it, as I would have openly scoffed or mocked some of them. Some of the statements are hilarious, and some are down-right head scratchers. But I found them all interesting.
The book is not just about the political opinions of the people he met. No, there is some very good self-discovery along the way. For example, one paragraph that I really liked was "I have now lived long enough to return full circle to what I knew in kindergarten. It's not about your friend's clothes, or his parent's car or house, or the food they serve for lunch; it's about having fun playing marbles on the playground, and making friends with people who make you feel good. And it's about cleaning up your messes and being nice to people-habits that had to be hammered into me with coercive force, but which made a difference in how things went".
Isn't that the truth? And wouldn't we all be better off if we just lived our lives a little more based on that? I think so!
It's not often that I find a book that I want to share as much as I do this one. I wish I had read it a bit earlier, it would have made a great Christmas gift for all my friends and relatives who are currently at each other's throats over the political situation we are currently experiencing.

The title of this book attracted me, as well as the writer being a retiree roughly the same age as I. The author decides to take off traveling in a RV as a way to reexamine his working life, raising a family, not to mention revisiting places he had been in his youth and places yet unseen. His objective for hitting the road felt parallel to my own targeted future. Early on George states he is astounded that Donald J. Trump could become our forty-fifth president and the text segues into the impetus behind his sporadic interviews of fellow citizens encountered along the way. The soundtrack behind this literary excursion centers on the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell to name just three. George’s taste in music is broader than my own but nonetheless adds to his engaging story as he rolls into the present while digressively looking back honestly at what got him there.

George courageously attacks our current politics head-on. He candidly examines religion and other ingrained and flawed belief systems. What might have been considered foolhardy in the past while he was engaged in getting a living as a professional in a suit, George Critchlow as a recent retiree now openly takes on these topics eagerly. It is refreshing to witness his indifference to what others might think. George does have something to say. Whether it be an anecdote describing his playing Santa in a Penny’s department store while still coming down on acid, or any number of forays into his past depicting conscious revolts against perceived wrongs being promoted and conducted in this country, Critchlow never flinches. His journey becomes a profile in courage and is refreshingly consistent with reminders of what is still good in our land but what still must be changed. A much better book than first imagined, and one needed for these troubled times. Too bad the Trump Voters won’t read it. But perhaps there is just enough camping and drinking in it to entice just a few. And as far as our perception of lawyers go, Critchlow does much to restore their good name.

This is a travelogue complete with philosophical musings by a newly retired lawyer who goes on a three month journey in an old vamper (camper van). The author is an interesting man and writes well. I enjoyed the book but felt that it bogged down on occasion.
My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.