A fifteen-hundred-mile horseback ride to win a bet, to prove a point, to honor tradition? It sounds like a tale straight out of the Wild West: a man, a horse, a grueling ride halfway across the country. The bet is between Jimmy Wakely, Hollywood singing cowboy, and Rolla Goodnight, Oklahoma cattle rancher and cousin of legendary cattleman Charles Goodnight. Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, Rolla's lifelong friend, provides the Osage Indian pony and a Colt .45. Rolla's twenty-year-old grandson, Jerry Van Meter, is the man they are ...
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A fifteen-hundred-mile horseback ride to win a bet, to prove a point, to honor tradition? It sounds like a tale straight out of the Wild West: a man, a horse, a grueling ride halfway across the country. The bet is between Jimmy Wakely, Hollywood singing cowboy, and Rolla Goodnight, Oklahoma cattle rancher and cousin of legendary cattleman Charles Goodnight. Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, Rolla's lifelong friend, provides the Osage Indian pony and a Colt .45. Rolla's twenty-year-old grandson, Jerry Van Meter, is the man they are betting on. Jerry must ride from Guthrie, Oklahoma, to Hollywood, California, in fifty days, taking only what he can carry on his horse. He sets out on May 4, 1946, bound for Hollywood--the hard way. Unfolding against the backdrop of a changing postwar America, this true tale of adventure takes you back to a different time on a journey you will not soon forget.
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Seller's Description:
Fine. Signed by author. The book is in an AS NEW condition, Signed by both the Author and the Cowboy. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 218 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. The true story of Jerry Van Meter's ride on his Quarterhorse, Fan, from Oklahoma to Hollywood. The journey was in response to a bet, made by his grandfather Rolla Goodnight, with movie cowboy Jimmy Wakely, that he could make the 1500 mile ride, in 50 days. Wakely had said that coyboyin was dead, and there was not a cowboy around any more worth his salt.
