Road Through Wonderland
A memoir of wanderlust, love, and hashish
by G. D. Zahn
A romantic journey through Europe turns treacherous when Gail discovers her travel companion is not who he said he was and she finds herself in the backseat of a well-planned drug smuggling scheme.
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About
Road Through Wonderland
Road Through Wonderland is the story of my travels in the middle east in 1971; a tale of wanderlust, love, and hashish.
At twenty-one my only goal was to see the world. So, when my boyfriend offered me the trip of a lifetime and a chance to be a citizen of the world, I couldn’t say no. What I wasn’t prepared for was the darker side of travel – cruelty, sexism, hashish smuggling.
It wasn’t hard for Bob, a handsome restaurant owner from Laguna Beach to lure me to Europe with the promise of life in the South of France. I jumped at the chance. What I got instead was a road trip to Pakistan in a van with him and two of his friends. But, I was eager to go. Nothing fueled my wanderlust like a good road trip to exotic places. I was young and naïve as to the ways of the world. So, when we reached the eastern border of Greece and the Greek authorities ripped our van apart finding a false floor that concealed an empty box, I didn’t know what to think. Later that same evening when we crossed into Turkey, I found the guys had shown the customs officials the false floor only to distract them from finding what had been hidden in the back doors. This was the moment I knew I had fallen down the rabbit hole. What I didn’t know was – when would I hit bottom.
About G. D. Zahn
I grew up in the beach community of Carlsbad in Southern California. My wanderlust was seeded when as a child, I would imagine that just past horizon, where the sun touched the ocean lie Wonderland. My craving to experience the marvels of lands beyond my own took root when at five-years-old my father, a career Marine, was transferred to Hawaii for a two-year tour of duty. Living in the island paradise I learned to hate shoes, discard socks, and dance the hula. Back home in California, my desire for travel and adventure flourished, itchy feet and all. The dark side of that desire is related in Road through Wonderland, a memoir detailing my 1971 journey through the Middle East. Now, many years later, I am a retired Professor of Special Education, a mother, and a grandmother. My professional life was spent entirely in the mid-west, but I have now returned to the Pacific Coast. I live in Vancouver, Washington and continue to feed my wanderlust, write, learn, and occasionally play my ukulele.
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“They call it The Overland Route to the East. . . Think of it, Gail – we’ll be citizens of the world."
Road Through Wonderland
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