When this 74-year-old Maryland woman retired, she converted a van into a bookstore on wheels. Now she's visited 40 states with 'minimal investment'

Collins has traversed more than 100,000 miles across nearly every corner of the country, bringing books to communities in all but 10 states thus far. She picks a new place to travel each year, parking up at local farmers' markets, festivals, brew pubs and parties, sometimes also speaking at church congregations and community book clubs.

Book lovers can find her around Maryland between May and October, parked at the Prigel Family Creamery, Overlea Farmers' Market and Peabody Heights Brewery. She shares her schedule on Instagram (2) and the bookstore's blog (3).

"I am enjoying learning about various places in Maryland," she tells Moneywise, adding that she has "no doubt other opportunities will become available" to park up and bring people together.

While on the road, Collins doesn't sleep in the van, but in local's homes, crashing on the couches and staying in the spare rooms of friends, friends of friends and sometimes even strangers. It's the stuff of a roving rambler's retirement dreams — and the kind of stuff she could certainly write her own book about, riddled with stories of her stays with strangers in smalltown America.

A look inside Saint Rita's mobile bookstore

Collins' converted van became a bookstore in 2013 while she was living in northwest Montana, and a traditional brick-and-mortar bookstore "did not seem financially feasible," she tells Moneywise.

"When I began the traveling bookstore, my goal was to have a bookstore that did not require a lot of overhead — monthly rent, utilities, staff (unless I was willing to work six days a week)," she says. "A traveling bookstore was less expensive to start up. With a used van, donated books and help having the logo designed, it was a minimal investment."

The van is fitted with 15-degree-angled wooden shelves that house her 700-book inventory in such a way that the books won't bounce off while she's driving the van.

It's spacious enough for two adults to peruse her carefully curated selection of entirely donated books, but cozy enough to keep the experience one of a kind. Her customers can browse for books on everything from travel and spirituality to art, wellness, music and more. Or they can shop her "Favs" section, where she stores her ever-changing top picks.

Hardcovers go for $9, while she sells paperbacks for $7 and children's books for just a dollar. But, one time in Colorado, a woman with no money traded her two dozen eggs for some books. More recently, in Raleigh, North Carolina, a woman gifted her a gold-framed, 100-year-old lithograph of St. Rita, she told the New York Times (4).

Collins can manage to keep up inventory because, as she sells books, people continue to give her more along the journey.

The rise of roaming retirement

Collins currently lives in a senior community in Baltimore, where she says about 250 adults live independently, and "their lives are all somewhat different." While "some do art, others are very active in the political arena, others volunteer for local nonprofits [and] others help care for grandchildren," she explains. For her, she "chose to start a traveling bookstore."

"The bookstore does not support my retirement but it does pay for itself (van maintenance and travel), and I get a lot from it," she tells Moneywise. "Not only setting up in all kinds of communities around the country, but also staying with people and learning about their lives and neighborhoods — plus, knowing that I am making books available in all sorts of places."

Collins' cross-country road trip also reflects the immense reimagination of retirement across her generation. Ever more retirees are swapping staying in one place for life on the road, embracing both mobility and minimalism.

Kevin Long, CEO of The Dyrt, a camping app dedicated to helping people find campgrounds, says "It's a fairly common sentiment among campers when they reach the campsite on Friday evening after a long week, 'I can't wait until I can do this without having to rush back for work on Monday.' The era of remote work and Wi-Fi and satellite technology has given those campers still in the workforce a sneak peek into what spending extra time at a campground can be like. And there are millions of people out there right now, living the dream and exploring campgrounds all over the country in an RV."

Research from AARP (5) shows that, for the first time ever, adults 50 and older are taking even more trips than they, themselves, anticipated — and they're traveling more than ever, with 3.6 trips per year, on average.

Many of them, like Collins, are hitting the highway in converted campervans, RVs and mobile trailers.

According to 2026 research from The Dyrt (6), four out of five four-wheel travelers over 65 say they either venture out more in retirement, if they're already retired, or they plan to hit the road more once they do retire. In fact, 64% of those 65 and older took at least one RV or trailer trip last year.