Westward Whoa: In the Wake of Lewis and Clark

by W. Hodding Carter IV

Book Overview

Presents a lively account of the exploits, mishaps, and escapades of two modern-day adventurers, who set out via raft, foot, horseback, and rental car to recreate the Lewis and Clark expedition, from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067179891X
• ISBN13: 9780671798918
• Release Date: July 1994
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

I don't usually laugh out loud

I don't usually laugh out loud at books. Dave Barry seems a little boring to me, and I don't tend to enjoy simple humor in books. But in preparation for a cross-country trip following the path of the Lewis and Clark expedition, I read this book, and laughed out loud, long and hard, many times. The best part of the book is that these are two real guys, doing a real river trip. Highly recommended.

My all time favorite book!!!!

I have read this book at least once a year for the past 7 years. I have given this book as a gift to friends (Who loved it too!) Hodding and Preston have a true adventure that will make you laugh so hard you cry, and then on the next page deeply ponder how much the land of America has changed since Lewis and Clark first made the trip. It manages to be both hysterical and very deep at the same time. I love it, and everyone I've shared it with has loved it too. This book really needs to be reissued.

Reissue Please

This hilarious and moving book should definitely be reissued in paperback. I am currently enjoying William Least-Heat Moon's most recent travelogue "River Horse," chronicaling his cross-country river trip, and I often find myself wondering whether he is even aware of Carter's remarkably similar trip, six years earlier. While "River Horse" is very thorough and occasionally humorous, to my taste "Westward Whoa" is far better at creating memorable characters, particularly Carter and his companion Preston, and truly absurd, quintessentially American situations while, at the same time, eloquently describing the rivers and lands through which he is travelling. Thus, with a genuine interest in history, without a shred of pomposity, Carter has created, for me, a truer picture of this country in all its beauty, filth and human complexity than any other book of its kind. This is one of my all-time favorite books, its author is evidently talented and appealing, but some reason, he and his book never got the attention they deserved. For all the obvious reasons (all the Lewis and Clark books, the upcoming anniversary, etc.) this book should be reissued and distributed widely. But that's just my opinion.

Worthy of being reissued by the publisher

This is an entertaining and informative account of two intrepid and somewhat unprepared modern "explorers" retracing the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The book seems like a cross between Mark Twain's "Roughing It" and Robin Cody's "Voyage of a Summer Sun". Much of the narrative is quite humorous, including many of the excerpts from the Lewis and Clark journals that are included. But the book also presents a rather sobering view of the destruction of two great rivers, the Columbia and Missouri, as well as the degredation of the wilderness of the West in the last 200 years. Particularly in light of the recent success of Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage", and the upcoming bicentennial of the original expedition, this book deserves to be reissued in paperback. I'm sure it would find an enthusiastic readership.

Hillarious with self-depreciating humor

A must for humor readers. "Hod" (Hodding for short) has a great wit and ability to tell a tale. What fun