How can a family with wanderlust afford to travel out West through 13 states in 13 days with $1,500 during tough economic times? True adventurers, they sleep in a camper, shower at truck stops, and find creative entertainment and budgeting options along the way. Add in being chased by a bear, exploring their Native American ancestry, deciding how they can uproot and move to Montana, and engaging a precocious 12-month old—and the stakes and fun keep adding up.

Angie J. Mayfield is a professor at Vincennes University in southern Indiana, an award-winning author and journalist, a columnist for Boomer and Mules and More magazines, and a lifelong equestrian. Her articles and photos have been published in numerous newspapers, magazines, and calendars. Angie received the Hoosier Press award in 2006, and her memoir Love, Loss, & Lunacy in a Smalltown was a finalist in Writers’ Digest Life Stories in 2012. She lives on a farm in southern Indiana with her husband, children, and a menagerie of pets and spends her summers in the mountains of Montana riding her mule and photographing Nature’s canvas.