The Ride of Her Life

The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

By: Elizabeth Letts

Narrated by: Elizabeth Letts, Tavia Gilbert

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion presents a “heartwarming [and] engaging folk-hero biography” (Kirkus Reviews) of a woman who fulfilled her lifelong wish to see the Pacific Ocean by riding her horse across America.

“[Letts] vividly portrays an audacious woman whose optimism, courage, and good humor are to be marveled at and admired.”—Booklist, starred review

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.

Genuine heart warming story!

Annie is an inspiring true story of a tough lady, a dream and her beloved animals. I laughed and cried. Elizabeth Letts is a wonderful writer. I listened to 80 Dollar Champion and loved that book too!

Couldn't put it down

I loved the book. I didn't want it to end.
Narration was excellent
I laughed and I cried and I felt like I knew the characters personally when I finished the book!

A Truly Remarkable Story

This is a true life adventure story of a stubborn and persistent Maine woman riding her horses across America in the 1950s. Combine this with a mini history of America in the first half of the 20th century and you have a perfect story. The relationship Annie has with her animals is remarkable. What she accomplishes after receiving a "death sentence" is remarkable. The help and friendships developed along the way are remarkable. If you love horses, this story is for you. If you're not a horse person this story is for you.

This is a must listen to story for horse lovers!

My grown daughter recommended this and it did not disappoint!!
My only issue (forgivable) was the Bostonian accent only occasionally being heard.
I can’t understand it anyway, so probably a good thing.

Beautifully written!!! Elizabeth captured Annie’s adventurous spirit and loving, faithful heart!!

I loved every minute of it. By the end I felt as if I’d traversed America and shared in the true spirit of American brotherhood, familiar, as I have experienced it myself.