Ribbons of Highway: A Mother-Child Journey Across America
By Lori Hein

    "The quest to explore America, to really see it, to feel the nation's strength and share her people's pride, to see where the country stood, to gauge it for ourselves..." Lori Hein, Ribbons of Highway: A Mother-Child Journey Across America

    Around the country in fifty days. No trains, no ships, just a reliable minivan captained by loving mother determined to ensure that her children discover America's heart and each other.

    After the 9/11 tragedy, newspaper columnist cum author Lori Hein
consults her two children, plots her course and raids Wal-Mart in preparation for their 12,000-mile journey. They leave Boston, Massachusetts in June. Their route leads them south to Tennessee, then west to the Pacific Ocean, where they make a right turn at Oregon. They travel through the northern states, and then past the Great Lakes on their return to Boston in August.

   Though this diary contains vivid descriptions of America's landscape, it is much more than a travelogue of tourist sights and accommodations. Ribbons of Highway is a captivating story of a family's bonding in a stressful time. Along their backroad journey, the Hein family shares their observations of American resilience and pride.

     Though this well written, informative and inspiring journal may feed the reader’s wanderlust, it will also remind us that our nation will continue to be strong and thriving, no matter what. Despite the lack of maps for the geographically challenged, I highly recommend sharing Ribbons of Highway with those you love.