Vagabonding Through Retirement: Unusual Wanders Far From Our Paris Houseboat

Bill Mahoney has been a vagabond since he began hitchhiking across the United States at thirteen, so finding a Dutch houseboat called Zwerver-Dutch for wanderer-is a perfect fit for him. And it's aboard the Wanderer that Ina discovers what she's in for after retiring from her job with DODDS at SHAPE, Belgium in 1987.

Narrated by both Bill and Ina, Vagabonding through Retirement takes you on many entertaining travel adventures of a couple who love interacting with people and having unusual experiences.

They spend five days on a leaky salt barge up the Mekong in Laos and travel for three days on a bamboo raft in Thailand. In Bolivia, they go down the world's most dangerous roads and take the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing to Moscow. And they set out in their camping van for Prague and Bucharest before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and travel to the Ukraine just after the Soviet Union breaks apart.

Bill regularly offers English lessons as a way of meeting new and interesting people. For her part, Ina sometimes rolls her eyes during these exchanges, but must admit that it attracts people who add spice to their travels.

Bill Mahoney hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At thirteen, he began hitchhiking across the country, working odd jobs. He sailed the Atlantic as a merchant marine and then the Pacific while serving in the navy. After graduating from an adult high school in Seattle and attended the University of Washington for one year before he gained a BA at UCLA and an MA in international relations from Boston University. He taught in the Los Angeles school system for three years, then in Paris, and at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, in Belgium. He speaks five languages and can tell a story in a dozen others.

Ina Garrison Mahoney is from Blooming Grove, Texas. She holds a BA in speech and drama from Southwestern University along with a master’s from the University of Houston. After joining the Department of Defense Dependent Schools, she taught in France and the Netherlands, then became a librarian and media specialist in Belgium.

They currently reside in Sarasota, Florida.