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(More customer reviews)Back in the 1980s, there was an Albert Brooks movie about a couple of Yuppies who ditched the high-paced rat race, cashed in their nest egg, bought an RV and decided to discover America and themselves through a year-long road trip. They got as far as Las Vegas where the wife gambled away all their money. Later on, they ended up in some boring town with low-grade jobs. Nobody liked the ending.
A much happier ending has befallen Priscilla Rhodes and her husband Ken. Having quit their jobs in 1998 they bought a red truck and an attached trailer and set out for a few years of nomadic existence to discover the country. The result was a website devoted to postcards from the road called www.postcardsfrom.com which later led to this book. The couple actually sent e-mail postcards to people on their subscription list. The postcards became popular, as did the thumbnail sketches of the places they visited. After USA Today and The Christian Science Monitor lauded the website, their subscription base skyrocketed. Eventually this book evolved from their first trip: one that covered the northern route.
The diaries switch back and forth between personal accounts of their life on the road (and before), musings about society and deft descriptions of the monuments, towns, events and byways they encounter. Luckily for the reader, most of the personal accounts are very funny, and the descriptions are right on the money. Priscilla writes the diaries and the postcards while Ken takes the photographs and designs and emails the cards.
It seems Priscilla has the perfect husband. Not only can he handle a truck with a trailer weaving behind it (I personally avoid those things like the plague when I see them on the highway) he can also photograph,create a website, do professional book layout and fashion a very handsome book without benefit of high-price book designers.
So whether they are shivering in the cold, waiting for the sun to rise on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, baking in the heat when caught in Chicago traffic in their truck (which apparently is not air-conditioned) or climbing over buffalo dung in the Badlands, you will enjoy their journey and learn a lot about America, trailer parks, state capitols and various monuments. A very enjoyable read.
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Discover America Diaries. 50 States, 50 States of Mind. Volume 1: East Coast to West Coast. New England, New York, and the Great Northern StatesIf you ever dreamed quitting your job and driving off to explore America's highways and back roads then read this diary first. On Columbus Day 1997, Priscilla and Ken Rhodes quit their jobs, bought a 30-foot RV (even though neither one knew the first thing about RVing), and drove off to discover America. Their plan was to see 50 states in 50 weeks, spending a week in each state, and returning to their jobs in a year. Three years later they returned home, broke but not broken. This is Priscilla's diary of that road trip, a madcap adventure that is both exciting and heartbreaking as she experiences the exhilarating heights and devastating depths of life on the road. Follow Priscilla and Ken on their three-year journey across the United States and see what they discover about America and about themselves. In Volume 1: NEW ENGLAND, NEW YORK AND THE GREAT NORTHERN STATES Priscilla and Ken visit Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, the "State of Anxiety," New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Washington, and Oregon.
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