What are you doing joining the Peace Corps at your age?

OK, so that's not exactly how she said it when Mary C looked at me puzzled and said, "Isn't this the time of life when you are supposed to rest and relax?"

The flippant answer is that I have a low tolerance for boredom.

Actually it fits a pattern. At 20, I went from rural Oregon to nursing school in New York City. Too naive to be scared of more than flunking the entrance exam which I had to take on arrival.

I graduated in 1966 and went to work at University Hospital in Seattle, Washington. A great hospital. At the end of a year I was listening to "if you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair". So there I was in the Haight-Ashbury--shy, scared and curious. Yep, I became a genuine hippie.

And then at the end of my time in San Francisco, I married a fellow anti-war activist who also happened to be a wilderness fanatic. I followed him on his roller coaster for 13 years. After a disastrous back to the land year in West Virginia, we were on to Colorado for 5 years and Montana for 4. We hiked, backpacked, climbed and skied all over the Rockies up into Canada. Hiked to the base of the Bugaboo glacier with Jenni in a backpack, 14 months old.

Then on to Madison Wisconsin, divorce and graduate school with 2 little kids. So I raised Jenni and Sean essentially alone with my passion for wilderness travel unchanged. Summers I found ways to get to the Boundary Waters paddling and portaging.

At 52, I took a leap of faith leaving a secure hospital job to work for a struggling nonprofit clinic serving low income folks. Another wild ride through lean times and growth, ultimately helping open 2 new medical clinics and a dental clinic. It doesn't get any better than that in the work world.

So when you combine a love of adventure, wilderness travel, 42 years of nursing and a passion for social justice, what do you get? A 65 year old Peace Corps volunteer.

I've started this blog as a way for family and friends to follow along as I go to Peru in September.