Hurtling Toward Happiness: A Mother and Teenage Son’s Road Trip from Blues to Bonding In a Really Small Car

Packed with affectingly rich description, a poignant generation-spanning family story, and laugh-out-loud humor in every chapter, this entertaining and energetic book is much too sensorially stimulating for the emotionally stunted like myself. Johnson takes the reader on an entertaining adventure down Interstate 10 with her willful and witty son, which leads not just from Florida to her childhood home in Texas, but from disconnection to reconnection."Alex Korb, PhD author of The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time"Every mother of a teenage son or daughter should read this wise, witty, heart-warming memoir. “

Then a small miracle happens—they discover they have the same escape fantasy, to head west on I-10 to where she grew up, in Corpus Christi, Houston, and Kingsville, Texas. But the distance they cover transcends the miles that they drive. So, on a tight budget and with the expense clock ticking, they travel from Tallahassee to Texas and back, 2,400 miles in one week. Along the way Claudia recounts the sometimes hilarious, often harrowing, but ultimately courageous Texas family story that defined her childhood and is Ross's heritage—a story that centers on her own mother's path-breaking journey from a family history of dysfunction, alcoholism, and abuse to create a life for herself and a loving home for her children. With prose that is nimble, vivid, and rich in humor, here is a spirited testament to the crucial bond between mothers and children.. The Funny, Wise, Bighearted Story of a Bonding Road Trip—and the Healing Power of Human Connection When Claudia's sixteen-year-old son, Ross, announces he's quitting high school and leavi