In the summer of 1987 automotive journalist Peter Egan gave in to his lifelong fascination with classic airplanes and pursued the third branch of his addiction to romantic modes of travel — namely, flying. Carrying only the barest essentials—a pup tent, a wad of cash, and a change of clothing — Peter and his wife Barb took off on a six-week, seven-thousand-mile trip around the US in their yellow 1945 J-3 Piper Cub. The places they stumbled upon and the people they encountered would change their lives forever. Between musings on being outpaced by the toy-sized eighteen-wheelers beneath their wings and flashbacks to nearly setting a Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s house on fire, Egan captures the essence of a modern pilgrimage.
Landings in America is Peter Egan’s homage to the enduring spirit of exploration that has defined his work. Punctuated with the witty repartee that his longtime readers have grown to revere, the story is equal parts travel adventure, memoir of post-Vietnam era America, and trek into personal reflections triggered by the places and names one couple encountered along their flight path.
Always in the background of their trip is the unspoken search for a new place to live, far away from the urban sprawl and crowded freeways of California, a possible rehearsal for someday flying home.
The reviews are in, and Landings in America is the must-read book of the summer!
"In the best style of Peter Egan, the sound, smell, and experience of flying the Cub comes through ... And just as with Peter’s motorcycle writing, we are greeted with a look into the simple pleasures of small-town America and the people who live there." —Mark Hoyer, Cycle World
"Landings in America is a companion for anyone who’s ever turned down a dirt road, chosen the long way home, or camped beside their bike just to hear the world go quiet. Egan may have traded handlebars for a control stick, but the ride is as familiar and fulfilling as ever." —Motorcycle.com
"It's no surprise then that, after decades of time spent riding and driving some of the sharpest cars and motorcycles of the 20th Century, Egan took to flying in the purest way possible: in a Piper Cub." —Emmet White, Road & Track
"Peter Egan finds the most interesting ways to get from Point A to Point B. Best known for his writing about vintage motorcycles and cars, Landings in America — a memoir of a six-week cross-country journey with his wife in a two-seat Piper Cub airplane — is vintage Egan. You’ll learn more about America than you did in US History class and come away feeling like you were a passenger on the trip of a lifetime." —John Oreovicz, award-winning author of Indy Split and Class of '99book
