Book of the Week:A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow By: Tim Brookes

For humor, photos and perspective, this is a good fun read. I recommend this to read if you are interested in people and parts of America you would never see. There are some illuminating pictures of very unusual places, which I found to help visualize some of the sites he sees.

In 1973, Brookes spent three months hitchhiking across America with a girl from Iowa he had met at Oxford. Twenty five years later, he decides to recreate his adventure, hitchhiking with a humorous cynical photographer. Brookes is not entirely recreating his past experience. He periodically takes trains or buses and carries a cell phone, a standard safety net. Not only does the phone provide him with security so does his wallet. In this experience he has the funding that he lacked years before.

<>His goal is to focus on the hitchhiking experience; interacting with people and seeing the sights America has to offer. By returning to the same places again he wants to find out why things may or may not have changed. Throughout the book he recounts conversations with the people who pick him up and he discovers kindness and gratitude along the way. The unexpected kindness has reaffirmed his belief in the good hearts of people.

The moments where he captures the reality of hitchhiking are eye opening. While resting at a truck stop, hoping for a ride, he remembers the sometimes-desperation and tiredness of hitchhiking; how glorious a ride offer can feel when on one's last leg. He doesn't spend himself enough to allow many saving graces, though. Instead, he reverts to his cell phone and bank card. One brings the roving photographer to him for rides, the other gets him bus tickets over long and tired stretches.

Many may see this book as a man attempting to recapture his youth. You may like to know that the author comes to the conclusion that he got caught up in the easy hype and romance of hitching rides in the sixties. He also realizes that he’s not as far from his past as he thought. Perhaps we all are.