HERAT, Afghanistan -- Car bombs, chaotic airports, and the prospect of evening tea with a warlord might make most tourists a little queasy. Not Gertrude Lysinger.

''It's been interesting," said the 84-year-old grandmother from Philadelphia as her tour bus whizzed through western Afghanistan, passing murals of Mujahedeen martyrs and an abandoned fighter jet. ''Very interesting."

While thousands of US soldiers are scouring Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden and Taliban insurgents, a tiny group of Americans is crisscrossing the country on a more peaceful adventure.

For the past fortnight, a dozen tourists -- average age 74 -- have been touring Afghanistan by bus and plane. Moseying along the Silk Route, marveling at mosques, and poking around ancient ruins, the plucky pensioners have spurned warnings from friends, family, and the US State Department, whose sternly worded travel advisory speaks of possible kidnappings, assassination, and a general ''critical" threat to American lives.

''My kids think we are nuts," acknowledged Richard Glenn, 79, a retired community college president from Ojai, Calif., over breakfast one morning, sitting beside a table of Turkish construction workers.

''My daughter said, 'You're flying into a war zone. I'm never going to see you again'," said Mary Lloyd, 66, a housewife from Phoenix. ''She asked for my last words."

Never mind the perception that Americans prefer to stay within their borders, these unflappable tourists are seasoned travelers. Some have more than 90 countries under their belts from ''soft adventure" tours. They are not, in Glenn's words, ''cruise people."

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