Ken C. Wise

This books tells the story of two young men, Ken Wise and Ercel Hart, who are unable to find work during the Depression and instead decide, since they've got nothing better to do, that they will take an amazing trip and work along the way. They leave their homes in Santa Monica by bicycle and bike all the way to Great Falls, Montana. There, they get passes on a cattle train to Chicago. Ercel gets a job at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and earns money to buy a canoe. With their canoe, they travel down Illinois rivers to the Mississippi and then all the way to New Orleans. In New Orleans they get jobs on separate ships, and Ken tells of his trip to Philadelphia, back to New Orleans and finally home to Santa Monica.

This is a quaint, folksy book about a trip by two young men during an interesting time in the US's history. It's not written by a professional writer. Instead it's like listening to an old man reminisce about the stories of his youth, and Mr. Wise certainly had an interesting story to tell.… (mer)