Local author writes about road trip

WESTPORT, Conn. (WTNH) -- In 1960 American author John Steinbeck took a road trip around the country and wrote about his experiences.

In 2004, CT resident Vicki Cain sought out to do what Steinbeck did in 1960: take a road trip around the country with man's best friend.

"I wanted to find out was left, how had America changed since 1960 when he took it," Cain said.

Her discoveries are revealed in a newly published book. 'Travels with Judy: In Search of Steinbeck's America' documents her 10,000-mile drive around America with her dog Judy. In 26 days, she traveled to 36 states and crossed four time zones. She went searching for many of the spots she knew Steinbeck had visited.

"Once I started telling people I was on this trip and I was recreating John Steinbeck's trip they would say 'oh really, I love Steinbeck.' And they would say wow that's really cool, I wish I could go," Cain said, "and that was something exactly that he had said that when he told people he was taking this trip around America they were all saying oh I wish I could go. So I was hearing echos of the book in my travels as well, which was cool."

While her journey mainly involved highways, she says when she traveled the side roads she could feel the world Steinbeck had written about more than 50 years ago.

"The technology, the road systems are different, I never had to go to a bank I had an ATM card so I never had to carry cash," Cain said. "He, at one point, got stranded in the rain and had to wait for someone to come by and use a payphone to call. That world is gone."

While Cain had access to certain technologies that Steinbeck did not, such as a GPS device, she says at the end of the day their journeys were more similar than they were different in that they were all about meeting and talking with the American people. She's now hoping to inspire other people to take their own journey with her self-published book, Travels with Judy.