What would you do if could guiltlessly take a month off? Europeans do it all the time, but for North Americans, a month untethered from a Blackberry is a mean feat. I can't comprehend the terror of deciding how I would spend my time. What if I blew it on some thumb-sucking search for vortexes in Sedona or inadvertently booked a cruise to nowhere with a convention of top-performing insurance agents?  But then, what if I did something truly exotic, as Rick Antonson did:  hitch my fate to a lurching train, a riverboat, a camel, a sputtering four-wheeler, and a dodgy tour arranger for a journey to Timbuktu. Oh, and what about those ancient manuscripts?

Kathmandu, Kalamazoo, Timbuktu...all aboard!