The Ride of her Life by Elizabeth Letts

 WOW! This is an incredible story about the cross-country journey of Annie Wilkins by horseback from Maine to California, beginning in Fall 1954 and ending in 1956. Poor, unwell, alone, she makes a decision to travel to see the Pacific Ocean in California. She sells off her assets, acquires a sturdy horse and sets off south with her young dog. Relying on the kindness of strangers, she most often is able to find a place to stable or pasture her horse and shelter overnight sometimes in a home or even a jail cell. This is a story about her courage and fortitude, and positive attitude, and a different time period where there were often caring, welcoming people along her route to help her along, and even rescue her on occasion. This is the mid-fifties when automobiles were beginning to dominate on newly built highways, and horses were no longer used for transportation. There are harrowing descriptions of trucks barreling down on her as she clings to the sides of roads. She even travels on route 66. Her story captures the interest of first local communities, gradually reaching further out into the country at large, and she is waylaid for interviews, and asked to help promote local towns. She earns pocket change along the way to pay for things she needs but is also gifted services like shoeing her horse or vet care. Fascinating account of an ordinary person who becomes extraordinary for about a year and a half as she travels over five thousand miles on horseback.