The Ride of Her Life

 

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

Nonfiction

2021

Finished on September 14, 2025

Rating: 3.5/5

Publisher's Blurb:

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 and The Eighty-Dollar Champion.

“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

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.

Until now, I hadn't read anything by Elizabeth Letts, but I recognized her name and the title of her popular book, The Eighty-Dollar Champion, from my days as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble. I love to travel, so when my book group chose The Ride of Her Life, my curiosity was piqued, wondering how in the world a sixty-three-year-old woman (with a serious health condition) could possibly ride a horse from Maine to California. It took me far too long to get engrossed (and I admit to counting the remaining pages, which is never a good sign), but I eventually found myself looking forward to returning to the story. I'm glad I persevered. I decided if Annie Wilkins could keep going, so could I.

If you've been following me here (or on Instagram) for even a short time, you know that I love to travel. However, I'm not sure what it is about reading travel stories, at least those about traveling around the United States, that fails to impress me. I've read Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, The Longest Road by Philip Caputo, Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon, and The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck. None of these resonated with me as I would have thought, and I find it interesting that I gave each of these the same low rating of 2 stars! Curiously, the travel stories that have entertained me are those set in France, specifically Paris. 

What I liked about this particular book wasn't necessarily the details or route Annie and her menagerie traveled, but the tidbits of historical trivia Letts weaves into her narrative, creating a richer reading experience. (Coincidentally, my husband utilizes the same parenthetical style in his nautical books.) I learned that Lincoln Logs were created by Frank Lloyd Wright's son. I also discovered that AAA (American Automotive Association) issued the first road map for drivers (a map of Vermont), and that Duncan Hines was a former traveling salesman who put together restaurant and lodging guides for travelers. There's also a bit of a "Forest Gump" tone to Annie's adventures, with her crossing paths with Andrew Wyeth, Casey Jones' widow, and Art Linkletter, as she makes her way across the country.

I was reminded of Cheryl Strayed's memoir, Wild, and how ill-prepared she was to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Like Strayed (who had no experience in backpacking), Annie never looked at a map of the entire United States, relying solely on gas station maps for the surrounding areas, piecing together her route bit by bit. She certainly didn't take the most logical route from one coast to other! It's a wonder Strayed and Wilkins survived their journeys.

At the time of her departure for California, Annie was sixty-three-years-old. Not only am I the same age as she was, but we share the same birthday. I was a little miffed that she was referred to as an old lady, but it was 1954, and 60 is now the new 50, right?

I mentioned that Letts' writing style reminded me that of my husband's. The following can also be compared to one of Rod's books, Sailing by Starlight, in which Marv Creamer sailed around the world without any instruments. No sextant, no compass, no chart-plotter, no GPS, no radar. Not even a stopwatch. But Annie's lack of tools was less to prove a point and due more to nonexistent technologies and simply being unaware of what might help her on her journey:

In November 1954, Annie took her dog and got on a horse and started riding. Destination: California. From a modern perspective, her journey seems almost bewildering--imagine trying to navigate without the benefit of GPS, to travel with no cellphone, no credit or debit card, not even a bank account to draw from. In fact, when she first set off, Annie didn't even have the kinds of tools that were available in 1954: road maps, a flashlight and batteries, a waterproof raincoat. Annie headed south, a Quixote in the company of her Rocinante, a run-down ex-racehorse, and her Sancho Panza, a little mutt. Society had called these people by different names: vagabonds and drifters, pilgrims, hoboes, and hippies. She called herself a tramp.

The Ride of Her Life took longer to grab me than I like, and it began to feel repetitious toward the end, but it's a heartwarming and uplifting story, which I appreciate during these distressing times in our country. I'm not a horse person, but Tarzan (and his little buddy, Depeche Toi) stole my heart. 

Annie had spent the past year on less-traveled roads and in small towns. From her own perspective on horseback, the country she had traveled across had seemed vast, yet still welcoming and friendly, a pace where neighbors greeted each other in local diners and a visiting stranger would attract friendly notice. Annie still traveled at the speed of hoofbeats, but the world she had encountered, one of roadside diners on quiet byways, would soon become more obsolete than she could have imagined.

By the way, the overall reaction at yesterday's book group meeting was resounding praise for the book. With my lackluster 3.5 rating,I was definitely in the minority.