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Annie Wilkins is not only a proud Mainer; she’s descended from a solid line of very stubborn (and proud) Mainers. Her family didn’t value education; rather, they focused on their land, hard work, and living an ethical life. These values make up most of who Annie is deep down inside, but for whatever reason, she has retained a tiny spark of adventure, flamed by a gentle wind of curiosity. She’s never studied a map of the United States, but instinctively she knows California is on the West Coast, the weather’s better, and dreams simply come true for people in that part of the world. She also knows if she just stays on her homestead in Maine, she will soon find herself destitute.
Thus, at 63, Annie knows she’s completely alone in the world. She has no family and no close friends, and the land her forebears had struggled and labored over for generations is practically worthless. After a summer and fall of fundraising, she makes the hard decision of packing up her little dog and meager possessions, loading them onto an aging Morgan horse, and setting out westward for sunny California. It is November 1954.
Over the ensuing months, as Annie makes her single-horsepower way across the North American continent, she ends up learning all manner of lessons about weather, geography, politics, entertainment, and, much to her delight, herself. She has no ready source of income, so she solves the problems of food, shelter, and animal care in a variety of very creative ways. She makes dozens of friends along her journey, participates in a handful of community events, and enjoys a certain level of popularity, more than she had imagined she would.
This nonfiction book is based on Annie’s memoirs, letters home to friends, her personal journal, and a fair number of newspaper articles written along the trail she creates as she rides. Does she make it to the beaches of the Pacific Ocean? Sorry, I can’t spoil it; The Ride of Her Life is a delightful and relaxing reading experience that I wholeheartedly recommend, especially for those who delight in learning about mankind’s relationship to the animal kingdom.
Rated: None. A completely clean read.
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