Rating: 
Summary: America¿s First Road Trip
Review: The sprint of American adventure and our love affair with the automobile are captured by Dayton Duncan's in his new book, "Horatio's Drive." Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson sets off in 1903 from San Francisco in a 20-horsepower Winton touring car hoping to become the first person to cross the United States in the new-fangled "horseless carriage." Duncan retraces Horatio Nelson Jackson's journey from San Francisco to New York, which personifies the individualistic spirit that Americans admire most. Duncan, himself spent 10 years, while on family vacations, retracing Jackson's momentous journey. The details are presented very well and so vivid that it allows you to ride along. You will meet "Bud" and discover a new meaning for the term "optimistic." If you enjoy history and love a good story, this book has everything. Good Read!
Rating:
Summary: A Tough and Edifying Adventure
Review: This exciting and nostalgic narration magically brings the reader back to 1903, a shifting back in time to the America of 100 years ago.
Horatio Jackson, A doctor from Vermont residing in San Francisco bet 50 dollars that he could drive his 1903 Winton all the way to New York City in less than 90 days. Thats why and how the adventures, and misadventures of Horatios cross-country trip begins.
In 1903 there were only 150 miles of paved roads in the country and only very few cars, a striking contrast between our highways and cars, and existing roads and cars of the beginning of 20 century.
Henry Ford and Ransom Olds of the USA, and Karl Benz of Germany invented cars simultaneously around the last decade of the 19-century. So as you can imagine by the year 1903 cars were still primitive, rudimentary and undependable compare to what we have now.
It is with that kind of primitive machine that Horatio struggled for long days through more than 3000 miles of rugged terrain of dirt roads, trails and paths. They say he won the bet but never collected the 50 dollars.
This is a page-turner an uplifting educational adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: Intersting book
Review: This was a good nonfiction book that read like a journal or a novel. It was about the first transcontinental automobile drive in America: all the obstacles that the drivers had to overcome, what the conditions were like, and how people reacted to seeing this car. Horatio Jackson, accompanied by Sewall Crocker, left San Francisco in 1903 in an attempt to be the first man to ever traverse the U.S. from coast to coast in an automobile (and to win a bet). Jackson funded the trip by himself. They went over the Rocky Mountains, across the plains of the Midwest and all the way to New York City in 63 days. This book was an easy read, but I found it interesting and even learned something. I liked all the excerpts from Horatio Jackson's letters and the excerpts from the newspapers of the towns that he drove through. It also had great pictures and lots of them.
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