With Hope Across America

Lewis took Clark, Steinbeck took his dog Charley, and Kerouac took drugs. Bill Bryson and William Least Heat-Moon went alone. Bob Braithwaite took Hope, his ten-year-old daughter, on an 18,000-mile road trip through the continental United States.

The plan was simple: to see the country together-its monuments and natural wonders, its museums and quirky tourist traps. And they did all that-lunched at the White House, kayaked the Salmon River, visited the baseball and basketball halls of fame, and booked a night in an Oregon tree house. Together, a father and his daughter experienced the claustrophobic terror triggered by a ride to the top of the St. Louis Arch, the reverence inspired by a Civil War battlefield, and the delight in the witty (and passive-aggressive) personalities displayed by Hope's traveling menagerie of stuffed animals.

Yet everything they learned about history, geography, sports, and their fellow Americans was nothing compared to what they learned about being with one another and enjoying the simple pleasures life offers. With Hope Across America: A Father-Daughter Journey chronicles the Braithwaites' experiences from the redwood forests to the gulf-stream waters, as well as the unexpected adventures of their hearts and minds.