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

In December, Annie felt an urgency to continue south before the worst of the winter weather began. During her ride, an eager television producer approached her, buying her lunch and pitching an idea: She could ride into New York City just before Christmas, appear on the program “Toast of the Town,” and receive a sponsorship from the show to help fund her trip. Having never heard of the show, or its star, Ed Sullivan, Annie was unimpressed and felt she could not stay in New York for so long. She rejected his offer but took his card.

Annie gratefully stayed at a huge heritage farm near Windsor Locks before continuing south. She began navigating via a paper map so that she could identify the best backroads and avoid the increasingly congested highways. One day when she stopped for lunch, a man claiming to be a horse expert approached and advised her to get a second horse, a pack horse, to relieve the burden on Tarzan, who he felt would not endure the western mountains while carrying a load. The man said that people were placing bets on whether Tarzan would make it to California, with 10:1 odds that he wouldn’t. Annie was disgruntled at the man’s comment since she was committed to the belief that she could accomplish her goal.