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| | | Location: Home» Travel » Love, Sex & Marriage » Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own | |
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Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own | 
 enlarge | Author: Doreen Orion
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $4.25
You Save: $9.70 (70%)
New (29) Used (18) from $4.25
Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 24372
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0767928539
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.304931092
EAN: 9780767928533
ASIN: 0767928539
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: UNREAD PAPERBACK SHELF DUST COVER WEAR (JH)ISBN:0767928539
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Product Description
A pampered Long Island princess hits the road in a converted bus with her wilderness-loving husband, travels the country for one year, and brings it all hilariously to life in this offbeat and romantic memoir.
Doreen and Tim are married psychiatrists with a twist: She’s a self-proclaimed Long Island princess, grouchy couch potato, and shoe addict. He's an affable, though driven, outdoorsman. When Tim suggests “chucking it all” to travel cross-country in a converted bus, Doreen asks, “Why can’t you be like a normal husband in a midlife crisis and have an affair or buy a Corvette?” But she soon shocks them both, agreeing to set forth with their sixty-pound dog, two querulous cats—and no agenda—in a 340-square-foot bus.
Queen of the Road is Doreen’s offbeat and romantic tale about refusing to settle; about choosing the unconventional road with all the misadventures it brings (fire, flood, armed robbery, and finding themselves in a nudist RV park, to name just a few). The marvelous places they visit and delightful people they encounter have a life-changing effect on all the travelers, as Doreen grows to appreciate the simple life, Tim mellows, and even the pets pull together. Best of all, readers get to go along for the ride through forty-seven states in this often hilarious and always entertaining memoir, in which a boisterous marriage of polar opposites becomes stronger than ever.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
Vicarious Living at its Finest June 4, 2008
Lydia M. Netzer (USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I've never made it beyond the 'Hmm, interesting idea' stage regarding RV travel across the country with my husband. Fortunately for me, now I don't have to. Doreen Orion has lived through the ups and downs for me, and recorded them in all kinds of agonizing and hilarious detail. Queen of the Road is about more than just wacky hijinks: the dogs, the nudists, the cocktail recipes. Reading it is a window onto a marriage -- a very honest and illuminating portrayal of the way a marriage works in extreme circumstances. More than just 'we grew, we changed,' it's a road map to a certain kind of communication, a certain kind of togetherness, that was very interesting to witness. Chatty, honest, anecdotal, and real, this book asks nothing of you but your time, and in return delivers a read that feels like a funny friend with all the time in the world to share her exploits with you over martinis. Not your traditional travelogue, but something more accessible and less pretentious than the usual fare.
Fun Read! June 12, 2008
Reader Mom (Los Angeles CA United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Doreen Orion, in her book - Queen of the Road has captured the wild adventure of living on a bus and wrapped it up in page after page of laughs. She uses her flaws and foibles openly to draw in the reader, making it seem as though we are right there with her. Bus Butt and all. As the story unfolds, she shifts from self proclaimed Princess and shoe worshipper to someone who appreciates a night sky and no-TV dinners, reminding us that there is more to life than this crazy game we live in.
A Female David Sedaris June 12, 2008
D.A.R. (New York City)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
In this road trip that will have you laughing out loud, Orion spares no one from her razor-sharp wit - least of all herself. If I thought all psychiatrists were this entertaining, I'd actually try therapy. Absent that, and with the price of gas this summer, save yourself some bucks and get on this bus trip, heading from Maine to Key West to Alaska, instead. Like Sedaris, there's also some hysterical social commentary. My favorite lines: "In WASP families, if you don't get along with someone, you have as little to do with them as possible. In Jewish families, you move next door, to make them as miserable as possible." And, when she writes about yoga: "What was the point in putting that much effort into doing something, just to think about nothing, when I was already so adept at thinking about nothing without making any effort at all?"
Will Keep Your Cocktail Hours Amusing June 4, 2008
Elizabeth Serzane
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Psychiatrist Doreen Orion and husband Tim (also a psychiatrist) take off on an adventure most of us can only dream of as they travel the country for a year in a luxuriously converted bus. A self-proclaimed "Princess from the Isle of Long", Orion struggles with the radical change of lifestyle she's committed to out of love for her husband. Despite bus mishaps and an unfortunately timed and ironic phobia of the bus crashing, she manages to keep her sense of humor, her love for her husband and her sanity. As much of a surprise to her as it is to the reader, Ms. Orion comes away with some real insights into who she has been in the world and who she now wants to become. Hilarious anecdotes of the people she meets along the way avoid the overly folksy mannerisms of some "on the road" memoirs. With her sharp, incisive, and occasionally cynical wit, Orion always gives the reader something to laugh about while clearly enjoying everyone (well mostly everyone) she meets along the way. The changes in her worldview, while not earth shattering, feel genuine and inspiring. A great read for anyone who wants to get out and "do" something meaningful outside of cultural definitions, and with a lot of laughs along the way. And the cocktail recipes that start each chapter are not only whimsical and fun, but are also cool and delicious!
What a Brave Queen! June 4, 2008
Patti-O
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
A bus trip where you live on a converted bus through 47 states? Oh no! I am a hotel gal, a cookie on the pillow gal 'ain't messin' with no tiny mint', a have someone clean up after me gal. So, when I started to read Doreen Orion's Queen of the Road I thought that I would have a laugh at her expense. I indeed did, many times, but then what I discovered shocked me. I started to envy her and Tim's excellent adventures. As well as her Queentastic way of celebrating near death experiences with creatively concocted martinis. Her telling, in her uniquely humorous way, of her self-diagnosed bus phobia had me nervously watching the road with her. Would they make it across those bridges? Would the turns be too tight? Would they be able to turn the bus back if need be? Was Tim driving too fast?! Tim, slow down!! Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Tim kept driving while Doreen kept us informed of what they saw, who they met, and how she came to terms with the year she could have never imagined. If you love the idea of the open road and wonder what it would be like to live in a converted bus 'with pets no less', then this is the book for you. If you are like me and start feeling faint at the idea of no hotel service, then this is also the book for you. You'll laugh, you'll gasp, you'll be thankful Doreen was riding shotgun and survived her bus phobia to tell us all about it.
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