Imagine you are a highway patrolman in 1953, somewhere back east. You see a slow moving Chrysler ahead, older people at the helm, blocking traffic in the left lane of the highway. You pull the car over and inside—why, there’s former President Harry Truman and his wife, Bess. No security. No motorcade. No Press. Just a couple of sightseeing tourists out on the open road. It actually happened.
Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure, The True Story of a Great American Road Trip is a charming little book, filled with the Americana discovered in a not so far away time. Six months out of office, the Trumans, from Independence, Missouri, decided to take a summertime driving vacation to the east coast, all by themselves, with no fuss and no big events planned. The author, Matthew Algeo, deftly puts us in the car with them on what was probably the last time such a trip could happen for a former President. Along the way, Algeo checks in with some people who remember, some of the places visited, and in the process contrasts that America with our current version.
The Trumans believed they could travel as normal folks and visit old friends, see a play in New York City, and just do what people do 
on a vacation. We see the reactions of gas station attendants, coffee shop diners, bellhops, and other everyday people to meeting a very homey President, one who would chat, shake hands and enjoy mixing with the people of Main Street. Of course, press and politics did come into the story, all part of the lively retelling.
Algeo recreated the trip on his own, half a century later, and produced a book filled with presidential trivia, insightful observations and great photographs. Fun and light, it’s a read that’s our own quick road trip back to that different America.
~ Carl K, Central Library
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