True Travel

A semi-biographical collection of stories told from my point of view. These are funny, exciting, and sometimes horrifying true tales of my experiences working above and below the surface of the water. The jobs were on dams, bridges, and oilrigs in rivers, lakes and the oceans.

It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense. —Mark Twain After selling their Minnesota home, Travis and Wendy plan an elaborate departure from the United States before repatriating themselves to the UK. Buying a second-hand RV, visiting states unknown, and selling the campervan after reaching Florida seems like the perfect exit. So they pack their lives and blind Shih Tzu into a once-luxurious thirty-one-foot RV and hit the open road. As they roll through the Midwest, heading for the Deep South, they soon discover “RV” doesn't mean “Reliable Vehicle...

Farseek Mercenary Series Commander’s Mate – Farseek Brigade returns to find their world bombed to ruin by the Sargan Empire. Over a million people are missing, taken to become slaves by the Sargans. With their ten dreadnaught warships, they vow to find their missing people. Because their mission is unsanctioned by the Consortium, they dub themselves the Farseek Mercenaries. Among the slaves they rescue are four women abducted from Earth. Commander General Zared Maktu recognized Harper Avery as his soul mate or solmatu. He laments that it’s not the best time to start a romance amid ...

Everywhere hailed as a masterpiece of historical adventure, this enthralling narrative recounts the experiences of 12 American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the bone-dry heart of the Sahara. The ordeal of these men - who found themselves tested by barbarism, murder, starvation, death, dehydration, and hostile tribes that roamed the desert on camelback - is made indelibly vivid in this gripping account of courage, brotherhood, and survival.

Whenever someone asks me what the most memorable tour was during my 15 years as a tour operator and tour guide, I never hesitate to say – this one – THE FLINDERS AND BIRDSVILLE TOUR. When I look back on it, I often wonder how we got away with it. This is a true story of a group of Kiwi Seniors on a bus trip through Outback Australia in 2008. The travelers survived, sadly the bus did not.

On May 3, 2010, an Irish national named Jeffrey Lendrum was apprehended at Britain’s Birmingham International Airport with a suspicious parcel strapped to his stomach. Inside were 14 rare peregrine falcon eggs snatched from a remote cliffside in Wales. So begins a tale almost too bizarre to believe, following the parallel lives of a globe-trotting smuggler who spent two decades capturing endangered raptors worth millions of dollars as race champions - and Detective Andy McWilliam, who’s hell bent on protecting the world’s birds of prey.

In the tradition of Into the Wild comes an instant classic of outdoor literature, a riveting work of uncommon depth. I’m planning on doing four days in the jungle.... It should be difficult to get lost forever: These were the haunting last words legendary adventurer Roman Dial received from his son, before the 27-year old disappeared into the jungles of Costa Rica. This is Dial's intensely gripping and deeply moving account of his two-year quest to unravel the mystery of his son's fate.

In What Really Happens in Vegas, full of surprises for both newcomers and Las Vegas regulars, James Patterson and Vanity Fair contributing editor Mark Seal transport listeners from the thrill of adrenaline-fueled vice to the glitter of A-list celebrity and entertainment.

Leslie White knew she wanted more out of life - She found it in an unlikely place. Devastated from the loss of both parents to cancer nine months apart, Leslie vowed to change her life. She bought the neighbor’s old motorhome, found a job as a traveling histologist, and hit the road. But she found she could not trust the one person she was still holding onto.

In the summer of 1978, 21-year-old Paul Wilson jumps at the chance to join two local icons on a dream surf trip to mainland Mexico, unaware their ultimate destination lies in the heart of the drug cartel country. Having no earthly idea of where he’ll get the money to pay his share and determined to prove his mettle, he does the only thing he can think of: He robs a supermarket.

There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world's oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, until it doesn’t. It was one hot night and I wanted so much more. But the next morning, she was gone. The only thing she took with her was my heart. I never figured love at first sight was real, but it was. Skip forward eight years later and guess who shows up needing a job? Just so happens that I need an assistant. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. She’s a smart cookie, though, and feels the tension between us. I’m not sure if it’s lust, love, or my need for revenge, but I’m not giving up without a fight. My lover turned enemy,...

Steve O'Dell loves to write, and does it well. But as an eighth-grade student at Needham Middle School, his talent sometimes seems more an embarrassment than a blessing. Then, on Veterans Day 2001, Steve’s award-winning essay propels him into an adventure twisting through Revolutionary battles and bloodshed. Thanks to the bizarre bequest of a manuscript and a musket ball from a long-lost family war hero, Steve’s journey with the Revolutionary War hero Dr. Joseph Warren begins.

Kael left Zuvrak for planet Earth with a few of his friends to search for their soulmates. When they were about to reach the planet, they were thrown into a black hole that destroyed their vessel and forced to leave it in escape pods. Kael soon realized this planet wasn't the Earth his mother had described to him. People barely had any technology, and demons were hunting them, killing the men and stealing the women.Though at first Kael had no intention of intervening, he soon changed his mind, because the woman he was falling in love with was in danger.

In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. In that euphoric year Rory MacLean travelled from Berlin to Moscow, exploring lands that were - for most Brits and Americans - part of the forgotten half of Europe. Thirty years on, MacLean traces his original journey backwards, across countries confronting old ghosts and new fears: from revanchist Russia, through Ukraine’s bloodlands, into illiberal Hungary and then Poland, Germany and the UK.

Dr. Philip Eyster has been in Christian ministry since 1976. He made his first international trip in 1981, and since then, has ministered in over 40 countries around the world. In addition to bringing humanitarian aid and disaster relief to many places around the globe, he has brought the gospel to jungle villages, desert tribes, schools, factories, hospitals, AIDS clinics, leper colonies, open-air markets, and countless transportation hubs.

Investigating a mysterious, nineteenth-century secret society called the Order of Meonia, researchers Graham Phillips and Jodi Russell are drawn into a remarkable true story of the unexplained. On visiting an ancient burial site on remote moorlands in central England, an inexplicable storm rages directly around them while the surrounding countryside remains peaceful and calm. Before long, their lives are dramatically changed. Astonishingly, they find themselves in a reality that seems impossibly transformed. Dates have moved, history has altered, and things are no longer the same. Are they ...

Young and in love, their lives ahead of them, Tami Oldham and her fiancé, Richard Sharp, set sail from Tahiti under brilliant blue skies, with Tami’s hometown of San Diego as their ultimate destination. But the two free spirits and avid sailors couldn’t anticipate that less than two weeks into their voyage, they would sail directly into one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history.

Scarlet Alien slavers took me off the street as I was walking my dog. I cried like a baby when I realized I would never see him again. Other aliens rescued us before we were sold at auction. Our hopes of going home were dashed when we learned no one knew how to find Earth. On a ship tour, I met Lieutenant Commander Pyrron Advantu, who told me he was mine as he shook my hand. It happened so fast, but he was gorgeous, and our attraction was strong. My simple life had turned to chaos. It wasn’t love at first sight, but I wanted him. Pyrr Scarlet is my soulmate, and I wouldn’t deny her even...

Embark on an exhilarating journey through time with "The Water Maiden," a spellbinding tale that blends the allure of Diana Gabaldon's epic adventures with the mystique of Barbara Erskine's historical intrigue. When Abigail unexpectedly hurtles through time, she finds herself stranded in the tumultuous sixteen hundreds. Amidst suspicion and uncertainty, she forges an unlikely alliance with four sisters accused of witchcraft. Together, they navigate the perilous waters of a bygone era, Abigail relying on her newfound resilience and feminine guile to survive. As Abigail encounters fleeting ...