Dreaming Southern

The Story

Broke, with their furniture piled into a trailer, Lila Mae Wooten and her four kids hit the road in a 1953 Packard, en route to a land of movie stars, swimming pools, and their share of the American Dream. For the Wootens, heading for the Golden State -- and Lila Mae's husband, Roy -- by way of Alabama, Louisiana, and Minnesota, there's no such thing as a direct route.Especially when they meet Juanita Featherhorse and her pyromaniacal son, Benny. Soon they're all driving toward the Grand Canyon by way of a secret route only Juanita knows. Before they know it, Lila Mae, her children, her trailer, and a car loaded full of magazines, banana peels, paraffin lips, and underwear are balanced on the edge of a steep cliff -- with everyone hanging on for dear life.An ode to the American highway as it once was, Dreaming Southern is a novel for anyone who has yearned for the exhilaration and uncertainty of the open road, been lulled by the rhythm of windshield wipers on a rainy western highway, seen the stars above the prairie, smelled roses on a summer night, and sung along with a radio's fading love song. It is for anyone who has felt the thrill of leaving everything behind -- and the promise of a new life waiting just around the next bend.