Paul Theroux never made reservations as he a rode old trains around the world. Tim Cahill didn't book an adventure travel specialist when he ended up in the worlds weirdest places. Not knowing what will happen is the adventure in adventure travel. Before adventure travel web sites and adventure travel magazines and blogs there was just travel. It was more of a "wherever you go, there you are" mindset put forward in the People's Guide to Mexico. When you travel alone, strange things happen.Close calls, questionable decisions, the road not taken becomes the road not on the map. Somewhere between dazed and confused and Hunter S. Thompson, Robert Lanz channels both Dr. Phil and Dr. Drew and sometimes Forest Gump, hitting the gringo trail when it wasn't always well marked.
And between his travels he always ends up back at his straight job as a psychiatric social worker in a busy Emergency Room where the list of "everything else" is long and challenging and where the adventures are every bit as intense as those on the road. A good social worker no matter where he is has good stories. Of course they don't all end well, but well, they end.
Some of his stories make you cry. Some make you laugh. Some are disgusting. Some piss you off. Hey, just like a night in the ER.
About the Author: Author Robert Lanz has lived in Southern California most of his life but has often taken the road less traveled in Third World countries. His book "The Only Gringo" is a memoir of his lifetime of off-the-beaten-path journeys interspersed with 30 years of experiences as a social worker in the Emergency Room on the busy night shift in a 500 bed hospital.
He earned a BA in Sociology and a masters degree in Social Work, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and an Emergency Medical Technician. He began his social work career at Womack Army Hospital in North Carolina during the Vietnam War.
Robert has been a guest speaker at California Institute of Technology on mental health and stress, was a deputy probation officer for almost 10 years in various correctional facilities doing family therapy and counseling, was a clinical professor of social work at USC for 3 years, has done frequent debriefings with local firemen and paramedics after traumatic events, and worked with the local Red Cross on issues germain to their workers having mental health issues following disasters. As a minister in the Universal Life Church he has performed many weddings and a few last rites on the down-low.
An avid surfer, he rode his first waves at Huntington Beach Pier in 1954, his first board at Rosarito Beach in 1960, and his first skis at Mammoth Mountain in 1965. He has owned a bar at a ski resort in Utah, a boutique hotel at a surf resort in Mexico, and a small video production company in Hollywood. He competed in the Baja 1000 and Baja off-road races several times. He's still a truck guy whose idea of a good time is to drive one of his trucks a few hundred miles to a place where he can get a great burrito and a good mule to ride. He is married to a Brazilian woman he met at a beach in Brazil 25 years ago.
In the early 1990s he co-produced and co-directed "Creative Minds," a pre-digital cable TV program.
