Harry Truman is to be admired for many things; for example, when he left the White House, he moved back into the same house he had lived in when he and Bess were first married: "But when Harry Truman left the White House in 1953, he returned to the same rambling, slightly ramshackle, two-and-a-half-story Victorian that he and Bess had lived in since their marriage thirty-four years earlier" (pg 19). Mr. Truman wanted to take a road trip to Philadelphia for a convention but he did not own a car because, as president, there was never a need for one. When word got out that Mr. Truman was looking for one, an offer for a new Chrysler, Harry settled for the 1953 New Yorker, and although it was offered for free, the off the record price was believed to be $1.00. .
An interesting fact in all of this was Truman did not have the luxury of a Presidential Pension that they have today, all he had was his Army pension of $111.96 per month which meant everything would have to be well budgeted. Truman was a meticulous planner, so he planned every stop with mileage calculated which apparently would fuel Truman's belief that he and Bess could travel like any other American on vacation. The idea of a road trip had to be alluring to a man like Truman; after all he loved roads and came from a background in road construction. "In 1922, Truman made road improvements the central theme of his first campaign for Jackson County judge. He won, and oversaw the most ambitious road-building program ever undertaken in the county" (Pg 49). " .
One thing you had to know about Truman was that he was very good at small talk and according to journalist Charles Robbins, "it was part of his humanness. He went out of his way to treat others not as "bodies" or digits bust as fellow human beings" (pg51). " Today's technology has worked very hard to hamper this disappearing art. Algeo is quite detail oriented when describing the various stops, which really helps to bring the reader into the story.