Farmer Annie Wilkins, age 63, of Maine set off on an improbable quest in 1954. She had recently lost her farm, had no relatives, had no money, and was only given two years to live by her doctor. But before she passed away, Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean. She disregarded her doctor's recommendation to relocate to the local charity home. Instead, in an effort to beat the snow, she spent her money on a neglected brown gelding named Tarzan, put on a pair of men's dungarees, and left mid-November. Beyond her rural crossroads, Annie didn't know much and didn't even have a map. She did, however, have her beloved puppy, an ex-racehorse, and her unwavering conviction that Americans would be kind to a foreigner. 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.