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

Jan and I were initially fascinated with this story sending us to the internet searching for some details but our fascination became downtrodden by the inclusion of so many details that seemed to overwhelm Annie’s story. Color us both a tad disappointed.

Jan’s review

The last of the “saddle tramps”, sixty–three-year-old Mainer, Annie Wilkins, was in ill health, having been given only 2 years to live. She’s known only hard work and hardship her entire life, and is now completely broke after losing her family and farm. Her only option was to go into a care home.

Instead, Annie buys a horse, Tarzan, who was destined for the feedlot, and sets out for California, with her dog, Depeche Toi. Seeing the Pacific was a lifelong dream. As she makes her way across the U.S. we learn the hardships she endured, with weather and illness an ever-present challenge. One of my favorite things about the novel was the bits of trivia and Americana of the places she visited on her trek.

The times were different and Annie became a celebrity with newspapers taking on her story and so she was a well-known figure as she approached a new town. She depended on the kindness of strangers, who welcomed her with open arms and gave her food, medical care, and a place to spend the night. They celebrated her birthdays and holidays and gave her a sense of belonging she had never known before.

This is a story of a woman who had a very limited life, never knowing of the world beyond her tiny town in Maine. But she took a chance and lived a life much larger than any she could have imagined. She could be stubborn and took dangerous chances, but she lived her life on her own terms, and what a life she lived! Along the way, another horse was to join their entourage. Annie, her horses, and her sweet dog stole my heart.

The first half of the book was riveting but by the second half the story began to drag and I started to skim. This was a buddy read with Marialyce, and we both thought the first half of the book was riveting but by the second half the story began to drag and we both started to skim. By its very nature a story like this will begin to sound repetitive: arrive in a city, a calamity strikes, she’s helped and housed by strangers, and we learn historical trivia of the area. Rinse and repeat. I would have liked it better if the book was organized by topic and not as a linear journey.

Ultimately, this is an inspiring story. Both she and Tarzan were living on borrowed time, but they both ended up living a life more exciting than either could have imagined. This was a heartwarming story of all the human spirit can accomplish with determination and guts.

Marialyce’s review

Annie Wilkins was not a woman of the world. She lived her life quietly, working from dawn to dusk at her farm, but at age sixty-three, she made a decision that would impact her life and the lives of countless others. Annie decided to travel from her home in Maine cross country to California.

This was a perilous journey for a woman her age, and traveling only with the layers of clothes on her back, her trusted horse, Tarzan, her dog, Depeche Toi, she embarked upon this journey, broke, without family and with the fact that her doctor had given her only two more years of life. Leaving in mid-November, she set out not knowing what she was facing. She didn’t even possess a map.
Trusting to her own toughness and will, she was convinced she would be fine as she was sure there was still a spirit of friendliness and empathy from the American people. Indeed, in so many cases her belief turned out to be true, as Annie was met with so many accolades and stayed and was cared for in so many homes across the roads she traveled, becoming a celebrity.

Traveling through weather conditions that chilled her to the bone, she wound up sick a number of times, but with that can do attitude she continued forward. What I loved most about this story was not only Annie’s attitude but her love of her animal companions, (she did acquire an additional horse). They had a very special relationship as she and her four-legged travel companions made their trek through a country that was quickly becoming one propelled by the automobile and the advent of television. Annie’s four-thousand-mile journey is surely an inspiration to the intrepid spirit of an American woman. 

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 overdone and turned an amazing first half of the story into boredom.

The bottom line is that Annie was an amazing woman and her story deserved to be told, but the actual telling at the end left me anxious for the story to end.

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 dullness.

The bottom line is that Annie was an amazing woman and her story deserved to be told, but the actual telling at the end left me anxious for the story to end.