Three Inspiring Memoirs by Women Who Started Big Adventures Later in Life

Do you wonder what it would be like to have a grand adventure? Or to begin a formidable new project? And have you thought, “I’m too old”? Then take heart from the three women who tell their stories in these books.

Julia Hawkins began competitive cycling when she was in her 80s–and sprinting when she turned 100. After retiring from her career as an Army intelligence officer, Julia Bradley and her husband decided to sail around the world.

Anna Blake lost her job during Covid. Instead of hunkering down in her living room with Netflix and a bag of chips, she and her dog began a 14,000-mile road trip across the United States in a trailer.

These women show you can make your dreams come true. Sometimes it takes money, and courage, but most of all it takes just being alive.

It’s Been Wondrous: The Memoirs of Julia Welles Hawkins

“It’s been wondrous!” was how Julia Welles Hawkins responded when asked about her life.

For more than a century Ms. Hawkins led an extraordinary ordinary life. If you have reached your 60s and are wondering what to do next, this book can inspire you to get off the couch and do something (anything).

Her story begins when she was a child. Her family moved from Chicago to Louisiana by taking a boat downriver. It continues through the seven decades of her marriage, a stint teaching in Honduras, raising her own family, and taking up competitive cycling in her 80s.

At the age of 100, she began her sprinting career. In 2017, at 101 years old, she set a world record in the 100-meter dash for women over 100, with a time of 39.62 seconds.
In 2021, at 105, she set another world record in the over-105 category, running the 100-meter dash in 1.02 seconds.

It’s been Wondrous! is her story–wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, who has been cited in Sports Illustrated three times and spent over 30 years writing this memoir. She recently passed away on October 22, 2024, at the age of 108.

Buy Wondrous on Amazon

Escape from the Ordinary by Julie Bradley.

Many people dream of sailing off into the sunset when they retire, but few actually do. After retiring from a 20-year career in the Army as a Russian foreign area officer in the Military Intelligence Corps, Julie Bradley and her husband Glen set off on the trip of a lifetime.

Her book, Escape from the Ordinary, describes how they battled Force 10 storms in the Atlantic Ocean, maneuvered through the tiniest of Pacific islands, and sailed everywhere from the Galapagos islands to Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Peru, and more.

This exhilarating, true story will thrill those planning to sail off into the sunset and armchair adventurers alike. Escape from the Ordinary reminds you of the unlimited possibilities in life and offers inspiration to go “all in” on your own dreams.

Buy Escape from the Ordinary on Amazon.

Undomesticated Women: Anecdotal Evidence from the Road

When I left my job working crushing hours at a global consulting firm I considered becoming a long-distance truck driver as my next career. It was a desire to hit the open road, be free of meetings and reports, see the country, and… well, truck stops. I didn’t follow that dream. But Anna Blake did, in a different way.

Blake is a traveling horse trainer/clinician, who became a non-essential worker during the COVID-19 lockdown. Fiercely independent Blake and her dog, Mister, took to the road pulling an A-frame trailer, the Rollin’ Rancho.

They were nomads looking for horse training, adventure, and liver treats. Blake paid for their trip by working as a traveling horse trainer. In this cross-country trip she covered 14,000 miles in eight months. Undomesticated Women: Anecdotal Evidence from the Road is part travelogue and part squirrel hunt, but mostly “an unapologetic celebration of sunsets, horses, RV parks, roadkill, diverse landscapes, and undomesticated women.”