Hitch hiking Across America, a novel by Daniel Robinson (Venezuela)

Hitch hiking Across America, a novel
by Daniel Robinson (Venezuela 1966-68)
Atmosphere Press
274 pages
October 2021
$7.99 (Kindle); $18.99 (Paperback)

Nick is a nineteen-year-old college student at UC Berkeley who quits his Lake Tahoe summer job to see America and meet Americans, face-to-face, hitching rides from Tahoe to Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, New York City, and points in-between.

He witnesses Jim Crow segregation in the South. He meets Yvonne, the daughter of a Palm Beach socialite. He learns something unexpected about his mother from his Aunt Rose’s family photo album. World War II vets pick him up and tell him about their war experience and how it affects their current lives. He meets Oliver, a civil rights activist in Mississippi, and Gina, an aspiring Olympic swimmer, and Lorena, an aging silent film star in Palm Springs. He consoles Rosa, a young Mexican woman who has committed a mortal sin.

Daniel Robinson

Daniel Robinson is a retired lawyer from California. He has a BA from UC Riverside, an MA from Stanford, and a JD from McGeorge Law School. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Venezuela from 1966 to 1968. He’s married with two children and two grandchildren. In August of 1963, he hitchhiked from Lake Tahoe to Los Angeles, Miami, Washington DC, New York City, and back to LA. This book is a fictionalized version of that trip.