Travel

THE SLOW ROAD TO DEADHORSE

AN ENGLISHMAN'S DISCOVERIES AND REFLECTIONS ON THE BACKROADS OF NORTH AMERICA

By James Anthony

The community of Deadhorse, Alaska (population 25) lies 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, at the northern terminus of the Pan-American Highway, the longest road in the world.  Key West, Florida, sits at the southern tip of the Florida Keys, an archipelago of coral islands jutting into the Caribbean warmth of the Mexican Gulf. 

Between Key West and Deadhorse lies most of North America.

Londoner James Anthony decided to drive between the two, adjusting his GPS settings to 'avoid highways,' letting an inanimate piece of technology guide him left-right through the byways, back roads, country lanes and mountain passes of this vast continent.

Along the way, he was serenaded in an African-American Church in Miami; went peanut farming in Georgia; hitched a ferry ride across the Mississippi with moonshine-drinking locals; got drunk with a North Dakotan farmer who had three months to live; survived a haunting in Saskatchewan; was nearly squashed by an irate buffalo in the Northern Rockies; and arrived at the Arctic Ocean just before freeze-up.  

Part travelogue, history, social commentary, and good-time escapism, The Slow Road to Deadhorse chronicles an Englishman’s road-trip through the North America most people never get to see.