Carmen Delzell decided a number of years ago that she'd had enough of the rat race, enough of the endless work for too little money - enough of the United States. She packed everything she owned into her little Isuzu and dropped out. She moved south to Mexico.
Carmen now gets by as an antiques dealer. About once a year she packs up all the collectibles she's finds in Mexico and she takes the bus from Saltillo up to Austin, Texas. She sells her wares to the fancy shops all along Congress Avenue there.
Unfortunately, the Mexicano bus doesn't drop you off at the Greyhound station. It simply lets you off on the side of the road on I-35. In Austin, you get to choose from a gas station, the International House of Pancakes, or the parking lot of a 24-hour grocery store.
The last time Carmen took the bus, she arrived late at night, with little money, and no friends in town. And suddenly she was on the other side of that old adage. You know the one - about how when you travel, you don't have to be yourself - you can be whoever you want?
Well, sometimes when you travel, you can't be yourself. You have to be the person people think you are.
