The Freeway: Two Young Artists in Love, on the Road in Search of Home

Wow! What a book! What an adventure...I feel you lived several lifetimes in 3 years. You surely have a band of Guardian Angels over you and Joe! Having grown up with Dori, I felt like she was telling me this part of her life, faceto-face....she writes exactly as she speaks! I know every bit of this was true, as life is always exciting with Dori. Dori...I think I like you even more now that you've shared that period of your life! You are something else....never disappointed in anything you share. Thank you for opening up and being so candid. You guys are my hereos for living life all the way and taking chances to the limit! Hugs!

In the early 1990's, one young couple decide to chuck it all and set off across America in an Ultra Van. Along the way, they hoped to sell their paintings and, with luck, find a home for themselves. What they couldn't foresee were the hardships, strokes of luck and unknown adventures that awaited them - from near starvation when the money ran out to the strokes of luck that come their way. Luckily, Dori DeCamillis managed to chronicle it all in vivid, impossible-to-put-down language, making the whole trip come alive for the reader. This one has a permanent space on my bookshelf, along with My Side of the Mountain, Swiss Family Robinson, The Boxcar Children, Breaking Clean and other classic memoirs of life lived outside the realm of normal and conventional.

From cover to cover, a delightful, entertaining, funny and well written book! Every dreamer in the world will find a part of themselves in Dori DeCamillis' descriptions of the people they met, the places they went and the desperation and triumphs of their years on the road, living a dream. Not since Peter Jenkins' "A Walk Across America" has an author so clearly depicted heart and soul to the reader, both the joys of success and the sadness of defeat. I took the book with me to the Doctor's office and never noticed that I'd waited over 40 minutes . . . read until the wee hours of the morning . . . and got snowed in at my mother's house for two days where I finished the book. I teach business and marketing clinics specfically for artists and have a recommended reading list. "The Freeway" will go right alongside Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way". Its a delightful tour into the realities of being an artist.

Whether you're in the habit of reading a book from cover to cover over a weekend, or grabbing snatches now and then for two weeks, this book is well-suited to either style. It's daily journal layout offers up the events of three years in the lives of these wonderful artists, from the mundane to the bizarre, introducing readers to dozens of interesting characters they meet along the way. Within Dori's witty phrases, their Ultra Van becomes another of these fascinating characters. A wonderfully descriptive writer and excellent story-teller, her 'voice' is comfortably easy and engagingly fresh from the first to the last page.My husband and I fought over this book like kids over a favorite video game, clamoring for our next turn to pore over the pages of Dori and Joe's story. Filled with humor and the tale of an unusual, yet oh-so-familiar relationship, this book will be appreciated by anyone who's taken a road trip, dealt with automotive quirks, or ever been in love. A very satisfying read for us both, our only regret is that the story had to come to an end, leaving us wanting more.Highly recommended!

I want to keep reading of the adventures and misadventures of Joe and Dori. It's rewarding to see a couple who trusted their instincts and relied upon one another for so much get to their 'destination'. bren