Good choice. I just finished reading it a couple weeks ago!
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 30, 2023, at 6:06 PM, Elizabeth Hughes <elizabeth.hughes32@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hi Friends,
I have the book selection for April, and unfortunately won't be there on
Saturday, so thought I'd send it out early. I won't be there in May either to
discuss it, so I hope you all enjoy it and have a good chat about it.
I haven't read this book, but thought I'd give it a try:
The Ride of Her LIfe: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their
Last-Change Journey Across America
By Elizabeth Letts
There are copies in the Fairfax County library system. Here is a summary:
In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an
impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm,
and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see
the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into
the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named
Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to
beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural
crossroads; she didn’t even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her
faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a
stranger with kindness.
Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed
by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, the three
travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung
to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode
more than four thousand miles, through America’s big cities and small towns.
Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities—from Andrew Wyeth (who
sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers—a
permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in
rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade
when car ownership nearly tripled, when television’s influence was expanding
fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed
companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
