An Epic of Rails, Roads, and the Urge to Go West
by
David Haward Bain
History lesson--travel essay--family journey. All here--everything I enjoy most in a whopping big volume.
And I did enjoy the heck out of it, even though I found it slightly hard to keep reading. I don't know why, but that probably has something to do with me rather than the writing. It's the kind of book you want to pick up on a lazy Sunday afternoon when you're got your whole life in front of you to savor it. But before you do, get a really good book of maps and keep it handy. Not a phone, either. You need great big maps with rivers that have names. Google maps on a computer might be okay.
It's mostly about the author and his family's trip to follow the path of the first cross-country railroad, but it includes some fascinating stories of the California and Oregon pioneers, too. Lot of detail and plenty of anecdote. Bravo,
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