Travels with Charley Characters

Well, we have to say, our Mr. Steinbeck doesn't seem to be super-into talking about himself—which makes sense, of course, since his mission with this book is to chronicle other Americans and Amer...

Okay, yeah, we know—Charley is a dog, so what's he doing in the "Characters" section? We get your point. However, as you may have noticed from reading the book, Steinbeck sees all kinds of human...

While Steinbeck is on one of his ferries over to Connecticut, he strikes up a conversation with a guy who works on submarines. Steinbeck finds those particular vessels kind of creepy, but the guy r...

This is a farmer whom Steinbeck meets while traveling in New England. He asks to camp on the farmer's land by the stream, and the farmer agrees. Steinbeck invites the farmer into Rocinante for a dr...

This is the man who comes upon Steinbeck when he's parked on a lonely night. Apparently frightened, Steinbeck gets all prickly, asking the dude what he wants, and the dude just says he wants to get...

She's the friend whom Steinbeck stays with in Deer Isle. We don't get a ton of details about her, but she owns a very indignant grey cat who does not appreciate the presence of visitors.

While he's traveling in Maine, Steinbeck comes across a family of Canadians who (like many other "Canucks") have come across the Canada/U.S. border at harvest time to get some work. He lures them i...

He's the minister whose service Steinbeck attends in Vermont. Apparently, Steinbeck admires him for really going all in on the kind of fire-and-brimstone religious message that he feels has gotten...

According to Steinbeck, "These were such nice men, friendly and helpful" (2.4.14). They advise Steinbeck not to travel in Canada because he has a dog—and they think the U.S. will give him grief a...

Even though Steinbeck heeded the Canadian officials' advice to turn around to avoid a lot of grief when reentering the U.S. with a dog—so, yeah, he never left the U.S.—this one U.S. customs off...

This is a guy in upstate New York who (without being asked) gets into Steinbeck's parked vehicle to give him unsolicited directions. Apparently, the directions were terrible, and Steinbeck notes: "...

This man hosts Steinbeck for dinner in his mobile home, and he gives voice to the argument for mobile homes and how they fit into American life. When Steinbeck asks if the transient lifestyle bugs...

Steinbeck meets an actor while he and Charley are parked by the Maple River. He and the actor end up having a pretty extended conversation in which Steinbeck quizzes the dude about his background a...

We don't really get details about her. We only hear that Steinbeck is fond of her—which is… nice.

This is a guy who guards a property somewhere in the Midwest where Steinbeck decides to park. They get off to a rocky start when the guardian tells Steinbeck that he's trespassing, but after Steinb...

These folks make a lot of fun of Steinbeck for getting lost in their area, claiming that they themselves couldn't manage to get turned around even if they tried: "You must be a stranger around here...

Steinbeck remembers a conversation he had with this storekeeper about politics. Apparently, he'd gotten the storekeeper philosophizing on the topic. Typically, though, the storekeeper had been as r...

Steinbeck describes the very terse state trooper he encounters in Maine as "majestic" and "granite as any quarried about Portland, a perfect model for some future equestrian statue" (2.2.30). He is...

Robbie is a young guy (twentyish) whom Steinbeck meets out west while staying at a hotel that Robbie's father runs. Apparently, Robbie is a bit of a dandy and pays a lot of attention to his persona...

He's the proprietor of a hotel where Steinbeck stays in the Pacific Northwest. He seems like kind of a tough customer. Steinbeck describes him as an "ogre" (3.7.25) after their first encounter, whi...

This is the dude who ends up going above and beyond to help Steinbeck when he has a massive tire blowout (and another tire threatening to do the same) in Oregon. Things don't look too promising at...

Steinbeck encounters a nightmare of a vet in Spokane. Just to give you an idea, he opens his "examination" of Charley by asking Steinbeck what is wrong with the dog. Steinbeck, of course, responds...

Johnny is a friend of Steinbeck's from when they were kids, and Steinbeck visits him when he goes home. Apparently, their reunion is emotional: "There was a touching reunion in Johnny Garcia's bar...

When he hits Texas, Steinbeck finally gets Charley to a proper vet when the dog's health problems return. This time, the vet is able to cure the problem completely.

While he's in Texas, Steinbeck and his wife, Elaine, stay with an unnamed rich (or at least, Steinbeck assumes they're rich) Texas family on their ranch. According to Steinbeck, the accommodations...

When Steinbeck arrives in Louisiana and wants to park his car, he deals with a racist parking attendant who's only too happy to offer his (positive) opinion of the Cheerleaders, a group of women pr...

Steinbeck's taxi driver in New Orleans is, like many of the other people he meets there, racist—but more against "the goddamn New York Jews" than African Americans. He claims he likes African Ame...

Nellie isn't her real name, but Steinbeck couldn't remember her actual one—so this is what he comes up with. We don't get the sense that Steinbeck was impressed by her or her antics, since his de...

When he flees New Orleans after enduring the Cheerleaders, Steinbeck finally ends up having a civil and non-racial-epithet-laced conversation with a native N'awlins dude. They seem to share the sam...

Steinbeck picks up an older African American man as he's driving away from New Orleans. He tries to strike up a conversation with the guy about race relations, but that goes over like a lead balloo...

Steinbeck picks up another hitchhiker, this time a white guy he meets at a lunch counter. However, when the guy starts praising the Cheerleaders, Steinbeck stops the truck and forces the guy out. T...

Steinbeck picks up a young African American student and finally has the civil discussion of race relations that he's been searching for with his previous passengers. Steinbeck describes him as a "p...

Steinbeck has a run-in with an officer right outside of the Holland Tunnel, right when he's this close to being home. You see, Steinbeck isn't allowed in the tunnel with his giant rig, but the cop...

When Steinbeck manages to get himself lost in New York City toward the end of his journey, "[a]n old-fashioned cop with a fine red face and a frosty blue eye" helps him out with some directions (4....

He's the kid next door to Steinbeck who wants to join him on the journey. Steinbeck has to say no (truancy rules and all that—to say nothing of laws against kidnapping).