Gibbons and Stadanko: Randomness, Luck and Uncertainty -- A Hitchhiking Trip Across America

By Joe Grady

This is a book about randomness, luck, and uncertainty and a hitchhiking trip across America. The story is based on an actual event and follows the journey of two friends, Gibbons and Stadanko, as they travel from Wisconsin to California and back in 1974. Their road west is the iconic Route 66. Along the way, they meet an interesting array of characters that influence their trip and their lives. The era of hitchhiking across the country is ending, and in a few years this trip wouldn't have been possible. It starts with no expectations or preplanned schedule, except to go west. There's no place they have to visit and no place they have to avoid. It's the unscripted nature of this adventure that appeals to them, and it's what allows them to make spontaneous stops at the Grand Canyon, Big Sur, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The excursions into these wilderness areas provide some of the most and meaningful moments of the trip, a trip they'll talk about every time they get together over the next forty years. This is a work of creative nonfiction and is a first-person account written in a third-person format. Some characters and situations have been modified to protect identities, move the story along, and help support the book's theme. It's a story of a summer trip, but it's also a story of life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1722925272
• ISBN13: 9781722925277
• Release Date: July 2018
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"