Traveling in Charley’s Footsteps

In the fall of 1960, the writer John Steinbeck climbed into a camper truck and started driving. He and his standard poodle Charley roamed for ten thousand miles, completing a circuit around the U.S. The result of their exploration was the book Travels with Charley In Search of America. A half-century later, producer John Biewen revisits some key stops on Steinbeck’s route to look at how America has changed. Today he looks at Sag Harbor, New York — a vacation spot where poverty and hard work lurk in the background.

John Biewen explains Steinbeck’s journey…and his own: