Ten Days on the Long Road

At seventy-two, Hank Miller knows the road better than most men know their own streets.

He has spent a lifetime behind the wheel, hauling freight across states, sleeping under truck stop lights, drinking bad coffee, and trusting the steady sound of an engine more than easy promises. When he accepts a ten-day refrigerated haul from Dallas to Spokane, he expects the usual hardships: weather, delays, dispatch pressure, and long hours alone.

But this trip becomes something more.

Along the way, Hank meets people stranded by more than flat tires and broken engines. A tired young driver trying to prove himself. A lonely father afraid to call his son. A young mother with a baby and nowhere to go. A stubborn old man blocking a bridge because grief taught him fear. Sisters fighting through pie recipes. A former weigh station officer guarding old memories. A daughter waiting in Boise, unsure whether her father will truly show up this time.

With each stop, Hank loses time on the schedule but gains something he did not know he still needed: connection, forgiveness, and the courage to return to the family he has kept at a distance.

Warm, humorous, and deeply human, Ten Days on the Long Road is a novel about aging, kindness, grief, family, and the quiet wisdom found in ordinary people. It is a story for anyone who has ever traveled far, missed home, or learned that arriving is more than reaching the destination.

Sometimes the longest road is the one that leads back to the people who still have room for us.