Two Men. Two Trucks. Two Americas (1960 - 2009)
In his just released book - Down John's Road - follow journalist John Olson in 2009 as he recreated John Steinbeck’s iconic 1960 Travels With Charley journey in a GMC pick-up truck and camper:
* Ride shotgun with Olson for 80 days, 12,673 miles, and 34 states.
* Meet the zany characters of the midnight parking lots at Walmart.
* Feel the tension as Olson comes within a second of dying in Louisiana.
* Pick up a hitchhiker in Arizona thumbing his way to Egypt.
* Joke with convicts, eat with the homeless, and chase a moose in Maine.
* Get lost in the boroughs of New York City while stalking Yankee Stadium.
* Find what Alice Cooper, Carl Bernstein, Mae West and Willie Nelson share.
In September 1960, John Steinbeck, left Sag Harbor, Long Island, in a GMC truck camper, and later wrote Travels With Charley: In Search of America. He wanted to save his sanity and prove his manhood. In 2009, writer John Olson, stared into his mortality as well, and started driving down Steinbeck's long road - also in a GMC truck camper. Both men took 11 weeks on the trek obsessed with circling the United States.
Comparing and contrasting Steinbeck's 1960 Great American Road Trip with America five decades later, Olson ponders the question Steinbeck faced: What are Joe Average Americans like today?
Find out for yourself - Down John's Road.
* Ride shotgun with Olson for 80 days, 12,673 miles, and 34 states.
* Meet the zany characters of the midnight parking lots at Walmart.
* Feel the tension as Olson comes within a second of dying in Louisiana.
* Pick up a hitchhiker in Arizona thumbing his way to Egypt.
* Joke with convicts, eat with the homeless, and chase a moose in Maine.
* Get lost in the boroughs of New York City while stalking Yankee Stadium.
* Find what Alice Cooper, Carl Bernstein, Mae West and Willie Nelson share.
In September 1960, John Steinbeck, left Sag Harbor, Long Island, in a GMC truck camper, and later wrote Travels With Charley: In Search of America. He wanted to save his sanity and prove his manhood. In 2009, writer John Olson, stared into his mortality as well, and started driving down Steinbeck's long road - also in a GMC truck camper. Both men took 11 weeks on the trek obsessed with circling the United States.
Comparing and contrasting Steinbeck's 1960 Great American Road Trip with America five decades later, Olson ponders the question Steinbeck faced: What are Joe Average Americans like today?
Find out for yourself - Down John's Road.
About the Author
John Olson is a retired newspaper editor living on Puget Sound. He has worked for Voice of America in Europe and Mission Network News on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Down John’s Road is his first book.
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 Outside Arcata, Calif., John Olson ponders his 80-day journey through 34 states. |
