What a great movie. If you enjoy road trips, wilderness adventures, or just tinkering around the garage to see what you can fix, you will find similarities with Horatio Nelson Jackson. He drove cross-country on a $50 bet when most people thought it was impossible. He had to find his way through the American wilderness, fix the auto when it broke, find gasoline where there were no stations, and keep his spirits up when things were going bad. Jackson grasped the opportunity to become part of history at the perfect time. Cars we becoming more reliable, Indians were no longer a threat, and America was populated enough that he didn't go too long without seeing other people. And in just a few short years roads and cars would be commonplace, which would make the feat less exciting and adventurous.Ken Burns does a fantastic job of documenting this journey of a lifetime. He has a way to make the viewer feel like they are sitting right along side with Jackson, his mechanic, and the dog.

Watch this movie and realize... we take the car for granted, but it wasn't always this way. Some cars had the steering wheel on the left some on the right, more cars were propelled by steam or electricity than by gas. Most had no tops nor windshields.There were no gas stations, no road signs and, well, actually not much in the way of roads. This film includes rare footage as well as original letters and photos from the period and is a fascinating look at an amazing period of time.I caught it on late night television one night and just had to see it again.

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.

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!