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

“Although Annie had plenty of grit, the prospect of finding her way from where she stood now—still seriously weakened from her lung troubles, nearly broke, and with an empty barn—would have daunted anyone. In 1954, a single older woman without family or employment faced few and stark choices. Annie had no bank account, no savings, and no relatives to rely on.”

This passage reminds readers that some people have no social safety net to rely on during hard times. The historical context of Annie’s plight helps explain why she made such an extreme decision and encourages readers to consider why she preferred to take a long horseback journey rather than sit in a county home.

“Instead of resting, she’d never worked harder in her life. Yet, miraculously, she was still standing, and most of all, she had amassed over a hundred dollars—enough to make it through the winter. Not enough, however, to sustain herself through the winter and set the farm right.”

The text characterizes Annie as a hardworking, fiercely independent person accustomed to relying on herself. This passage shows how Annie faced an impossible economic situation: No matter how productive her farm was, she could not earn enough money to provide for herself. This quote garners sympathy for Annie and offers valuable context for how she made her dramatic decision to give up her farm for good.

“The idle dream of riding to California had just gotten a lot more concrete with the addition of four new hooves to the barn. She’d set this journey in motion now, even if she hadn’t set foot on the trail yet. It was one thing to idly think about getting on a horse and riding out of town, and a whole different thing to figure out exactly how on earth she was going to make that work.”

When Annie purchased Tarzan, she set her plan in motion before truly understanding how it was going to work. By referring to the uncertainty and adventurous nature of her trip, the book shows how courageous and determined Annie had to be to turn her dream into a reality. This passage helps deepen Annie’s characterization, showing that she could be a dreamer as well as a pragmatist.

“Annie had a strong sense of what it meant to be a Libby. She believed that her family stood for a tradition of pride, hard work, and self-reliance. Annie’s forebears had arrived in Maine in the seventeenth century, 150 years before the American revolution.”

Annie’s ancestors, the Libby family, had deep roots in New England, and they passed their hardworking nature onto Annie, who took pride in her family’s multigenerational story of survival in rural Maine. This passage helps readers understand Annie’s perspective on life. While many people would have accepted the place in the county home, Annie wanted to emulate her ancestors’ self-reliance rather than becoming a “charity case.”

“The roads Annie was familiar with were meandering two-lane affairs, shaped around the contours of the land. She was old enough to remember when traffic was all horse and buggy or on foot. She vividly recalled the coming of the automobile—it had seemed like a fad at first, until it stuck.”

Born in the 19th century, Annie lived to see US transportation rapidly shift away from horses and toward cars. This passage conveys the huge shift that was underway in US culture at this time and how Annie experienced it as a person from a past era. This passage adds to the sense that Annie was a “fish out of water” in her own country and that her identity as a family farmer and horsewoman “tramp” represented two declining American traditions. The discussion of these important transitions supports the idea theme of navigating the changing United States.

“If Annie had embarked on this journey just twenty years earlier, she would have had a lot of company on her travels. As a self-described ‘tramp of fate,’ she was part of a grand American tradition of itinerants who hit the road looking for work.”

Like many other traditions in US life, living as a nomad in search of work and a place to sleep was nearly obsolete by the 1950s. However, this did not hamper Annie’s goal: The text argues that a certain nostalgia for pioneer and tramp journeys contributed to Americans’ embracing Annie and her ambition to cross the country on horseback.

“Annie felt a great deal of pride and satisfaction at reaching this milestone—their first state line. What she didn’t know was that a newspaper wire service travels much faster than a horse does. While they’d been strolling along at four miles an hour, her image and story had been dispatched to hundreds of newspapers. People all over America were learning about the woman, the horse, and the dog who were trying to cross America.”

Annie’s traditional lifestyle meant that she was ignorant of how rapid and widespread US news media had become. This added to her surprise at becoming a well-known figure in newspaper articles and TV news shows. The above passage hints that Annie’s growing fame would change her travels (and her life) and supports the idea of navigating the changing United States.

“That night after dinner, instead of working hard at farm chores, as Annie and Ruth would have done, the whole family sat on the sofa in their wood paneled living room and watched the Magnavox black-and-white television set, a scene right out of Father Knows Best, the popular show about an idealized suburban family that debuted in May 1954. Annie was fascinated by this way of treating children—allowing them relaxation and recreation, instead of putting them to work. She firmly believed it was better than the way she’d been raised.”

This passage demonstrates how strangers warmly Annie into their homes and adds nuance to the author’s characterization of Annie: While she valued hard work, she was not a disciplinarian but rather saw the value of leisure, learning, and recreation. This description softens Annie’s characterization and helps convey how much life in the US had changed since Annie’s childhood in the 1890s.

“‘Just a little vacation.’ Unexpectedly, tears sprang to Annie’s eyes. She fingered the St. Christopher medal hanging around her neck. ‘Why, what’s the matter?’ Muriel asked. Annie wasn’t sure how to explain it. She was so touched by Muriel's graciousness. ‘It's just that I've never had a vacation in all my life,’ she said.”

Muriel, one of Annie’s hosts, gifted her a necklace for protection and invited her to stay overnight at her house. Annie’s exchange with Muriel shows how meaningful her generosity was to Annie, who never had leisure time before. This moving conversation helps develop The Kindness of Strangers as a theme, showing that even though Annie expected Americans to be hospitable, she was still amazed by strangers’ generosity toward her.

“As the sun was rising she rose, got dressed, and packed up her things, but the Hamletts wouldn't hear of it. They had called a doctor around to see her and she could not leave before he did. After his visit, the message was clear: Annie wasn’t going anywhere until she was on the mend. She could hardly believe that these kind people, strangers just a few days earlier, were taking care of her as if she were kin.”

Annie’s ailing health would have posed a bigger problem, but her new friends and hosts helped her recover before continuing her travels. This passage thematically supports The Kindness of Strangers, showing how Americans’ generosity made Annie’s dream possible and reinforced her positive beliefs about her “neighbors” across the country.

“Annie could hardly get a word out. She was acutely embarrassed and self-conscious. She remembered the hotel in Boston being a palace, but that paled in comparison to the stately chamber where she now found herself.”

This passage again portrays Annie as out of her element as she arrives at the luxurious Highland Hotel in her farm clothes. By describing her reaction, the text reinforces the depiction of Annie as an insular farmer who had experienced little of city life, while also showing how communities such as Springfield, Massachusetts, wanted to celebrate her.

“Annie’s motivating factor was faith. She believed she’d make it. And if she didn’t? Well, you don’t always get what you want in this life. When she’d been alone on the farm, setting off to grow her pickling cucumbers, she’d had hope—hope that the future held something for her; but she couldn’t have said what.”

This passage bolsters the theme of Hope and Resilience by reiterating Annie’s hopeful belief that despite her financial and physical state, she could make it to California. This passage shows that Annie’s hope fueled her resilience to challenge and made her travels a success even though she had some misadventures along the way.

“Annie had met so many kind people along her way, but with the Roses, she felt a deep connection. When Christmas came, the day was a delightful hodgepodge celebration of animals and people, and most of the morning was spent out at the barn, mixing up hot bran mashes for the horses and serving up meaty bones for the dogs.”

Millie and Carney Rose befriended Annie because of their mutual affinity for animals, and Annie enjoyed celebrating Christmas with them and their menagerie of pets. This passage supports the theme of The Human-Animal Bond, showing how Annie’s love of animals helped her relate to the farmers on her journey and how their companionship helped boost her spirits.

“The D’Ignazios insisted that Annie stay with them long enough for Ida to do all of her laundry. As Annie packed up, she had fresh-smelling clothing, a week’s worth of sandwiches, and, for Tarzan, a sack of carrots and a sack of apples.”

The D’Ignazios’s kindness helped Annie cope with the hardships during one of the more isolating parts of her travels. By describing the family’s thoughtfulness in detail, the book adds to The Kindness of Strangers as a theme.

“Whether Annie was persevering or being obstinate was a matter of perception; either way, she left. Favoring her arm, coughing, and still with only one horse, Annie headed down the road again, with an awful lot of winter stretching out in front of her.”

The book acknowledges that Annie’s stubborn streak sometimes led her to ignore her limitations, getting her into trouble. This aspect of Annie’s character adds nuance to the portrayal of Annie, opting for realism over romance. In addition, the passage engages readers by building suspense around these decisions, foreshadowing how Annie later encountered adversity while she was at her most vulnerable.

“At last, Annie admitted to herself that she’d gotten herself a new horse—and they’d thrown in bridles and saddle for good measure. To make it official, they handed her a legitimate bill of sale, and her mouth gaped open before exploding into a smile. They had valued Rex at eight hundred dollars.”

In this significant scene, Annie’s hosts gifted her a second horse, Rex, greatly reducing the burden on Tarzan and providing Annie with another animal companion. By describing Rex’s value, nearly $10,000 in today’s money, the author emphasizes how generous the Richards family was to her. This supports The Kindness of Strangers as a theme, showing how Annie benefited from strangers’ generosity.

“Up until that moment, Annie had been nervous, yet with an underlying certainty that surely no harm would come to her companions. That evening, as the sun set a second time without her seeing them, it hit her hard. Life came with no guarantees. She might never see her horses again.”

This passage develops the theme of The Human-Animal Bond by describing Annie’s devastation when she lost her horses in a storm. This event underscores that not only were her horses logistically necessary, but they were also Annie’s close friends and constant companions, and she was deeply invested emotionally in their well-being.

“Oh, she’d been afraid—of the cottonmouths down in Arkansas, of the twisting, turning roads in Tennessee, where a single wrong step could plunge you off a cliff, and of course, of traffic, the single biggest killer, as everyone knew. But people? Strangers? Nope. They were all Americans; they all shared a sense of responsibility and an expectation that you should treat people, even those you don’t know, with neighborly kindness.”

Annie’s faith in American hospitality added to her brazen ambition, as she did not waste energy worrying about how she would be treated. This passage reveals how Annie’s perspective was quite different from the “stranger danger” mindset of the average modern person: She was afraid of natural disasters and car accidents but not of unfamiliar people.

“She was terrified that Tarzan was not going to survive the night. She had already made up her mind: if something happened to Tarzan, she would not continue her journey. There’d be no point in going on without him.”

Annie felt guilty and afraid when Tarzan was poisoned after drinking contaminated creek water. This passage supports the theme of The Human-Animal Bond, as the text reveals that Annie’s ambitions became meaningless without the companionship of her animal friends. While she originally wanted to see the Pacific Ocean, and buying Tarzan was a means to that end, this passage shows that the friendship she developed with him had become more significant to her than the journey itself.

“So much of southern Wyoming, with its arid, brittle climate, was not useful for much except cattle and sheep ranching, and the only practical way to manage the animals was on horseback. Dodge City, Kansas, might like to advertise itself as the Cowboy Capital of America, but Wyoming, the Cowboy State, still had a working ranch culture and few paved roads relative to its area. Much of its territory was still best accessed on horseback. So in other words, in Wyoming, riding into the mountains didn’t seem like such an unusual thing to do.”

The author describes the 1950s US by explaining that Annie’s approach to travel was not as novel in this area, where ranching still dominated the economy and the landscape. This passage supports the idea of navigating the changing US but also shows how Annie fit into Wyoming’s landscape, unlike so many other regions of the country.

“Annie sat on a rock for the rest of the night, with only Depeche Toi to provide a little warmth and comfort. As the hours ticked past, the silence was rent by the high-pitched yips of a band of coyotes, who, she figured, were keeping watch on the two of them with their yellow eyes, although she couldn’t actually see them. Depeche Toi, seeming to understand that he was needed, never moved from her lap all night.”

In this passage, the author further develops the theme of The Human-Animal Bond as she describes Annie’s emotional dependence on her dog, Depeche Toi. This passage shows how Annie’s trip would have been a more isolating and frightening experience without the companionship of her animal friends.

“Between the years 1846 and 1869, almost four hundred thousand settlers passed along this two-thousand-mile route, which originated in Independence, Missouri, and ended in Portland, Oregon. Massacre Creek, with its flowing water and abundant grass, marked a popular spot for travelers to rest their horses and themselves. One of its most striking features was the large boulder covered with names and dates, etched there by pioneers as they passed.”

The author further examines the American tradition of traveling pioneers and tramps by explaining how Annie followed in their footsteps both figuratively and literally. This description encourages readers to consider how dramatically the US changed from the days when pioneers etched their names in the rock as they traveled to settle land out West.

“Linkletter immediately understood Annie’s essential Americanness: her authority came precisely from the fact that her journey was neither choreographed nor staged. Here was a woman doing something just because she wanted to do it. She’d been capturing people’s hearts all along her journey—but when she captured Linkletter’s attention, she would win a bigger audience than she ever could have imagined.”

The text argues that Americans reacted positively to Annie’s authenticity and gumption. This passage suggests that Annie’s determined nature was a particularly American quality that the public appreciated, and it piques readers’ interest by suggesting that she would soon become even more famous for her travels.