In 1954, 63-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. Following her memorable journey to California, Annie Wilkins returned to her beloved home state of Maine. While she did visit her hometown of Minot, her permanent residence found a new place in Lincoln County town of Whitefield, Maine, where she resided with her dear friend, Mina Titus Sawyer. Annie Wilkins is a strong female character. In the 20th century, she doesn’t fit the norm. She is divorced twice and doesn’t attend church. She is not devout or docile. She is funny and bold. At the age of sixty-three, she decides to leave Maine and travel across the country to California without any modern day conveniences. Well, great start to the story - and great idea, for Annie. She had no husband, children, or other living family members. All alone in the world she decided it was time to live her final dream despite all the nay-sayers and discouragers who try to keep people from living. She was a strong woman and she became stronger along the way. The gift Elizabeth Letts has is that she makes you feel you are the one taking this trip. This is a book we can enjoy always but especially need now.”—Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv

Along the way, she made friends who offered her a place to lay her head at night, a place to sit and share a meal with someone, as well as water for Depeche Toi and Tarzan. She carried their kindness, as well as their stories, with her as she continued her journey, adding more stories of more people, their wisdom, their insights into places along the way, and even friends she should stop and stay with in her travels. As her journey came to the attention of a journalist, her journey became one that fascinated everyone. People would run out to greet her, cities would offer her a place to stay, she became a celebrity of sorts, and met a few people of note along her journey. She met a man named Andy and his wife Betsy in a tavern on her journey who asked if she was the woman riding her horse from Maine, and invited her to join them for dinner. The next morning when she went to get her horse, she found this man sketching Tarzan, Depeche Toi happily beside him. Later, she would find out just who he was, but in her rush, just looking to get on the road, it never occurred to her that this sketch could hold value for anyone but her. Annie kissed his little head with tears in her eyes. Two years. She opened the door of her house and stood there, looking around. In Pennsylvania, Wilkins was put up by a kindly innkeeper in the town of Chadds Ford in the Brandywine River area. A famous resident of both Chadds Ford and of Maine, Andrew Wyeth, came by to meet the eccentric older woman and her horse and they got drunk together, according to the Chadds Ford Historical Society. This was a buddy read with Marialyce, and we both thought the first half of the book was riveting but by the second half the story began to drag and we both started to skim. By its very nature a story like this will begin to sound repetitive: arrive in a city, a calamity strikes, she’s helped and housed by strangers, and we learn historical trivia of the area. Rinse and repeat. I would have liked it better if the book was organized by topic and not as a linear journey. This is a story of a woman who had a very limited life, never knowing of the world beyond her tiny town in Maine. But she took a chance and lived a life much larger than any she could have imagined. She could be stubborn and took dangerous chances, but she lived her life on her own terms, and what a life she lived! Along the way, another horse was to join their entourage. Annie, her horses, and her sweet dog stole my heart.With a beautiful glimpse into an Americana that once was, the author breathes life into the towns and people of 1950’s America. The places Annie would rest for the evening, be it someone’s home, the local jail, a barn, or sometimes just out in a field restored her faith in people and her country. The bottom line is that Annie was an amazing woman and her story deserved to be told, but the actual telling at the end left me anxious for the story to end.

Her experience was extraordinary enough that veterinarians treated her animals free most of the time and it was heartwarming to see that they were all each other's life companions. Ultimately, this is an inspiring story. Both Annie and Tarzan were living on borrowed time, but they both ended up living a life more exciting than either could have imagined. This was a heartwarming story of all the human spirit can accomplish with determination and guts. The tale is also nostalgic. Most chapters touch on the cultural history of mid-20th-century America and the postwar prosperity that transformed the U.S. You will read about; the hurrying to build interstate highways for the seven-million-dollar cars that were being produced, the brand new supermarkets that took over the General Stores, the brand new McDonalds restaurants, which forever changed how families eat when they travel. In addition, all of America fell in love with, “I Love Lucy” because owning a TV became the norm. Most importantly there is an emphasis on Americans helping strangers. Not sure if we could say that today. Thanks to deeply sourced research and her own travels along Wilkins' route, Letts vividly portrays an audacious woman whose optimism, courage, and good humor are to be marveled at and admired. Upbeat and touching, Wilkins' story is the perfect pandemic escapist read.” — Booklist Every story I have read by Elizabeth Letts has been amazing and this is one of her best. I highly recommend to readers who love true stories about brave women.

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Now for the bad news! The second half of the book turned tedious and overdone. While I enjoyed the extensive tour through America, the details were often overemphasized and turned an amazing first half of the story into boredom. Along the way, Annie found the best in people most of the time. She realized well into her journey that she wasn’t traveling alone, there were many people closely following her travels with hopes of her success. Annie Wilkins kept a diary of all her experiences on this trip, and in the mid-1960s, she teamed up with journalist Mina Titus Sawyer to write a book about her adventures. It was published in 1967 as “ The Last of the Saddle Tramps“

She acquires a second horse to help carry the load and the quartet has quite a few adventures along the way – mountains to cross, flash flooding, road debris, and poison. I worried at several points if she and the horses would make it to California. She’s dressed in men’s clothing as it was unusual for a woman to travel alone in those days. She frequently was welcomed to spend the night at the local jail as was the custom at the time for the homeless and travelers. With her little dog, Depeche Toi and her horse Tarzan, they set off West with no map. Annie figured people along the journey would help them find their way west. The trio were able to spend the night in barns and homes of strangers, who often fed them and recommended other places to stay on their journey ahead. Funny how fast everything can change. Couple months ago, everything had been looking up. As winter blew in, she was already excited for the coming spring. 1952 had been a great year with a bountiful harvest that allowed her and Uncle Waldo to invest in some heifers, piglets and a bunch of hens. The triumphant true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE PERFECT HORSE andTHE EIGHTY-DOLLAR CHAMPION.This is an EXCELLENT book based on the true story of Annie Wilkins. She is a farmer in Maine. When she realizes that there is no future in farming in Maine, she buys a horse and sets off on a journey to CA. She, her horse, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, experience much. Starting in the fall of 1954, they finally arrive in Hollywood CA in the spring of 1956. Along the way, Annie sleeps outdoors, in jails and in the homes of strangers. One thing she definitely found: that the “American people still welcome travelers as much as they did in pioneer days." Before she started traveling she lived on family property in Minot, Maine only a few miles from where she was born. Sadly, her health failed and she was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer (2 to 4 years left, they said). They offered her a place in a rest home. She was in her early sixties. She decided that was not how she wanted to spend the last years of her life. Instead she bought a horse, probably part Morgan, just before he was to be sent to a glue factory. She named him Tarzan and was determined to ride him across the country to California. Her dog would accompany them. I loved this book! It’s a wonderful non-fiction account of Annie Wilkins and her late-in-life adventure across the United States in the mid 1950’s. A true story, it shows how much our world has changed since this journey was undertaken. I assumed Annie would spend many nights in the elements, struggling to survive and likely miserable. In contrast, she spent very few nights this way, as the world set out to meet, greet, and treat her. She was provided with stables and corrals for her horses, a bed for herself, along with meals and warmth and companionship from families, law enforcement, and officials in the towns she passed through. She was asked to participate in parades, and became somewhat famous through newspaper articles informing the public of her progress. Her animals were as well treated as she was.

The history I learned in her travels was, well, words just can't describe what I felt. I learned things I never knew I needed to know! I was thrilled to find out that she even traveled through my home state, and believe me, I will be doing some research about that. I am in my 70's. Reading about a 63 year old woman who had this much gumption was especially heart warming to me.There is sly wisdom in Annie Wilkins’s simple journey: Keep faith in yourself and animals, trust in strangers, dismiss all the downers, and always live as if you just received a mortal diagnosis. Letts honors her subjects…with an author’s hand and a historian’s eye.” —Ken Ilgunas, author of Trespassing Across America In the polarized time in which we live, this is exactly the story we need. I suspect that if Annie were to do the same thing today, there would still be people that would come along, and without inquiring who she voted for in the most recent election or whether she has received a vaccine, would feed her, or offer up their guest room for a night or two, or would drive her to the hospital. Those people were there then; their descendants are here still. We have not changed all that much. By December 1956, Annie completed her journey. In articles detailing her return home, she reflected on what the people of Minot would think of her. She wondered if she would ever see Minot again and expressed curiosity about how many people considered her truly crazy. The times were different and Annie became a celebrity with newspapers taking on her story and so she was a well-known figure as she approached a new town. She depended on the kindness of strangers, who welcomed her with open arms and gave her food, medical care, and a place to spend the night. They celebrated her birthdays and holidays and gave her a sense of belonging she had never known before.