When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home

With her infallible mix of outspoken humor and compassion, the internationally bestselling author of I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise deflates the bloated claims of travel as pure pleasure. It's bad enough with the kids who order the costliest dish on the menu and eat only the pickle. With her husband, Bombeck finds risky adventures from primitive New Guinea to supposedly civilized countries. The couple endures carping companions on a tour bus in Rome: ``They felt the tour was tilted in favor of Catholic churches.'' Other trials involve the vagaries of renting cars, tipping and, always, finding a working toilet, as problematic in Houston's vaunted Space Center as in the backward places of the world. After scoring direct hits on the funny bone, Bombeck moves readers with stories about elderly and handicapped people who enjoy traveling in their different ways. A blind young boy describing what he ``saw'' with his other senses while descending the Grand Canyon is one of many persons the author makes unforgettable. 750,000 first printing; $400,000 ad/promo; first serial to Woman's Day; first serial to Woman's Day; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections. (Aug.)