In September 1960, at age fifty-eight, the author and his poodle, Charley, and riding in a three-quarter ton pickup truck named Rocinante, embarked on a journey across America. This chronicle of their trip through almost 40 states, meanders from small towns to growing cities to glorious wilderness oases. Providing an intimate look at one of America's most beloved writers in the later years of his life, this is a self-portrait of a man who never wrote an explicit autobiography. Written during a time of upheaval and racial tension in the South, which he witnessed firsthand, this is a stunning evocation of America on the eve of a tumultuous decade.