LTA’S 2024 TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY ROAD TRIP
Beginning this spring, Clay is following John Steinbeck’s 10,000-mile trek around the USA (and making a few fascinating detours of his own). Traveling in a 23-foot Airstream, Clay’s expedition is a central part of LTA’s big initiative to take the pulse of America as it approaches its 250th birthday. You can follow Clay’s Steinbeck-related adventures in the stories and videos linked below and on the LTA Facebook site. Also, subscribe to our newsletter.
Map of Steinbeck’s 1960 journey around the USA on display at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Calif.
Solitude & Loneliness: Pondering Steinbeck While Reading Thoreau
Monday, February 02 2026
One of the great things about reading a lot is that it gives you the insights of triangulation. One book illuminates, interprets, and perhaps even disagrees with another, though the authors never met.
- Published in Books
You Don’t End up Here By Accident: Rediscovering Steinbeck’s California Beneath a Lone Valley Oak.
Monday, October 13 2025
Inspired by an image of the famous author in an old poster, and after years of searching, Listening to America’s Russ Eagle, with the help of intrepid friends, discovers the remote spot in the hills near Salinas, California, that John Steinbeck, his dog Charley, and the truck camper, Rocinante, visited on their 1960 journey.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Steinbeck: A Life of Moral Courage
Monday, October 13 2025
While he avoided the public spotlight, John Steinbeck spent a life "in the arena" exhibiting great moral courage both in his writing and deeds.
- Published in Features
Where Steinbeck Said Goodbye to His California Home — Video Dispatch
Thursday, October 09 2025
Clay and Russ Eagle recently visited Fremont Peak, which overlooks California’s Salinas Valley and Monterey Bay. It was an especially important spot for John Steinbeck and deeply tied to his youth. Russ reads a passage from Travels with Charley, where the famous author writes about his last visit to there.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Were They Dreaming? A Rare Visit Inside John Steinbeck’s Iconic Rocinante
Tuesday, October 07 2025
Clay and sidekick, Russ Eagle, spend time hanging out in John Steinbeck's historic truck camper, Rocinante.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Assessing Two Years on the Road in My Airstream
Monday, September 01 2025
Clay assesses the good and bad as he wraps up his second season traveling America's byways in his 23' Airstream.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
My Montana Summer
Monday, August 11 2025
Clay Jenkinson reports on his month-long adventure crisscrossing Montana in the long-since-passed footsteps of Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Racing the Southern Interstates Across America
Tuesday, May 06 2025
About three days and 2,870 miles: Clay makes a rapid dash across the continent.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Clay Announces Cultural Tour of John Steinbeck’s California
Tuesday, March 25 2025
An exciting new addition to Clay’s slate of LTA Cultural Tours for 2025! We’re headed to Steinbeck Country — California's Central Coast. On this tour we’ll visit Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel, and just across the Santa Lucia mountains, the author’s hometown of Salinas. These California landscapes stayed close to Steinbeck’s heart throughout his life and shaped the Nobel Prize-winning author’s indelible literary legacy.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Cuban Missile Crisis, John Steinbeck, and the Nobel Prize — October 1962
Tuesday, February 04 2025
In preparation for a cultural tour of Cuba Clay will lead later this month, he came across a surprising connection between John Steinbeck, Adlai Stevenson, and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
- Published in Features