Continental Drifter

Fleeing the increasing pressure to settle down, a restless young man heeds the call of the road and sets out on a meandering four-month bus trip from Dawson, Yukon, to Key West, Florida.Continental Drifter is the record of that journey.

Although a journalist by training, Dave Cameron is reluctant to play the role. He hopes merely to observe quietly, to collect experience. On the road he meets a variety of strangers, some more strange than others -- from the Dawson City gold miner in designer sunglasses, the evangelistic co-ed, and a number of alcoholics (some more recovering than others) to the owner of a shrine to Elvis, the Crocodile Lady, and the leathery pensioner intent on passing his days beneath the palm trees of Miami Beach. Collecting stories and mementos as he goes, by the end of his travels Cameron has also acquired a richer sense of the possibilities of his own life. Equal parts travel picaresque and coming-of-age memoir,Continental Drifter is at once an interpretation of many fleeting individuals and a gradual discovery of one in particular.

Dave Cameron is often able to sleep soundly on interstate buses and in airport departure lounges. This wasn't always the case. At the age of 18, he sat up for 70 hours on the train from Toronto to Vancouver. He arrived smelly and exhausted, but also having discovered that movement alone is a fix -- even if temporary -- for restlessness. Dave grew up in Maple, Ontario, and studied magazine journalism at Ryerson University. A freelance writer, his work has appeared in theGlobe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Ottawa Citizen, and Cottage Life magazine, among other publications. He also worked for a time as a weekly newspaper reporter in Kincardine, Ontario. But the stories he likes best are those found by accident. Dave has lived in Vancouver, Toronto, and Halifax, and has travelled in Europe, Asia, and Australia.