The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

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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. 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 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. Author of: Last of the Saddle Tramps: One Woman's Seven Thousand Mile Equestrian Odyssey (Equestrian Travel Classics)

Her mother had always wanted to visit California, so as a memorial to her mother, Annie decided to travel there. Annie arrived safely in Redding California in December of 1955.

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At about 10 miles per day, it takes her quite a while and as you might expect, it is more about the journey. The author delivers mini-history lessons about landmarks along the way, and I enjoyed those. It was also very interesting to see how many people welcomed Annie in along with stabling her horse along the way. The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts When Mesannie returned to Minot, she was wearing a dress, a hat, and gloves — Ma didn’t even recognize her!” — Local Minot Resident ( source ) In one interview, she told the journalist her second husband left because she wouldn’t deed him the farm. Said she should have given him the damn thing and rode away years ago. Best thing she ever did. Journalists and newspaper people met her riding into town, asking to buy her lunch and write her story. She started selling self portraits and postcards to fund her own journey — and people bought them! Asked her to sign them.

What kind of courage does it take to strike out on a journey alone? For two women, whose solo trips were more than 50 years apart, having a mission gave them the strength and patience to push through obstacles. 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 She arrived in Redding CA in December 1955. After her trip to CA, she returned to her home state of Maine but instead of Minot, she moved in with her good friend in Whitefield Maine where she lived 24 years past her two-year prognosis. 12 years after returning home she was willing to turn her diary and photos into a book, “The Last of the Saddle Tramps.” A triumphant accomplishment from start to finish. When Annie set out, she saw herself as a dying woman. Slumped in her saddle, she trudged along, hoping strangers would be kind to a poor old woman with no money and not much life left to live, either.They had to sell everything to pay for medical care. The cattle, the pigs, the hens. If that wasn’t bad enough, Uncle Waldo didn’t make it. He quietly slipped away while Annie was battling pneumonia. I felt like Lindbergh from Paris, but I must have looked more like Buffalo Bill’s wife,” Wilkins quipped at one point.

Annie met some famous people and became famous herself, once her story was published as a human interest in local newspapers. She got numerous job offers and even an offer of marriage. 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.This poignant, inspiring story is not just about a woman choosing to live instead of die, but also about an America that no longer exists.” —Melanie Benjamin, author of The Children’s Blizzard Well, she never did. Never had the chance or the money. Worked herself to death on that farm until they buried her in the family plot. If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

I was concerned about her pets, because she decided to make this cross country trek, seemingly without much forethought, and they had no choice but to follow her to follow her. However, I was impressed with the care she took of her animals. 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 Wilkins was an American original, and The Ride of Her Life gives her the tribute she deserves. Elizabeth Letts has created an indelible account of hope, loyalty, generosity, and sheer grit—and the power of a woman doing something just because she wants to do it.” —Matthew Goodman, author of Eighty Days 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. Day after day she rode, through good weather and bad. Sometimes her doggie rode on her horse and other times he trotted beside on a leash that used to be her clothesline. Over mountains and through valleys. A man in Arkansas fell in love with her and proposed marriage. She kept going.The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908. 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.