Karen J. Bates is a retired commercial property manager. Over the course of a life-changing four-year adventure, she and her friend Susan M. Deppisch visited forty-two American sta...ver maisKaren J. Bates is a retired commercial property manager. Over the course of a life-changing four-year adventure, she and her friend Susan M. Deppisch visited forty-two American states and traveled thirty-five thousand miles. She relied on her trip journals as inspiration for this work of fiction. She currently lives in Ohio.ver menos