Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip

There's something that's just so amiable and adventurous about this documentary about a doctor from the state of Vermont who wanted to be the first to drive an automobile from the West to the East Coast. He's an amateur who buys his own vehicle and personally funds most of his other expenses as well. He's challenged by a team sponsored by an auto maker.

Somehow, Ken Burns finds just the right mix of archival and location footage to make it all a grand and very real adventure, an accomplishment given the limited resources with which he had to work.

And then there's Bud, the dog who accompanied them, and for whom they fitted his own pair of driving goggles.

LOVE tom hanks and tom bodett. I was never a fan of adam arkin...(but oddly, I LOVE the timing and wit of alan arkin !) the story of horatio jackson, who bet that he could drive across the nation in an automobile, what we now call the car. Against all odds, like deep mud, broken engines, flat tires, miscellaneous parts. Jackson, his friend, and his dog find a route across murrica before there were paved roadways. Interesting to note that the winston car brand is no more. At one point, they had offered to sponsor jackson, but only if they were in control, so he refused. Good thing he had his own finances! Interesting story. It had taken lewis and clark over two years to cross murrica! Voices supplied by george plimpton and eli wallach. Directed by the amazing ken burns. Story by dayton duncan, who had worked with burns many, many times!

Who knew? I had never heard of this man's feat, but wouldn't have missed Burns' film for the world. It is a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours and learn some American history to boot.

Now I find I want to know more about this fantastic Horatio "Nelly' Jackson...what a man!

Burns has knocked another one out of the ballpark....way, way out!

I was especially interested in this film when I heard Burns was doing it, first from the standpoint of a Vermonter, second from the standpoint of having heard from my grandfather how his father had taken him out to watch as Nelson passed through Poughkeepsie on the last leg of the trip, following what is now Route 9 from Albany to New York. An excellent film, providing an outstanding depiction of what things were like before the automobile became the center of our lives.

Saw this when it first aired on PBS and have borrowed it from my library at least three times since. My fascination with this adventure never ends.