Following My Thumb follows the wandering, rambling, bumbling travels of Gabriel Morris from 1990-2000. In the summer of 1990, at the age of 18, he sets off to Europe with his over-sized backpack, thumb guiding the way. He hitchhikes the entire length of Great Britain, sleeps in barns, on bridges and beaches and under benches, explores the Greek Isles, sneaks into a Parisian movie theater, spends a night at the center of the Place de la Concorde roundabout, and more. In Part 2 of the book, he spends the bulk of the mid-1990s as a wandering traveler back home in the United States, searching for something elusive: a place to call home, a community, love, adventure, meaning, purpose. He both finds and loses all to varying degrees as he attends tribal Rainbow Gatherings in the woods, falls in and out of love on the road, lives on farms and communes, and spends several months in an idyllic valley, far from civilization in the Hawaiian rainforest. The book culminates with his amazing and thought-provoking travels in the mystical land of India. ,

For years, veteran Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Charles Salter roamed the state in his 1975 Chevy station wagon in search of the most offbeat characters to appear in his celebrated column, "The Georgia Rambler." From tall tales of the Okefenokee Swamp, to treasure hunters of Duluth and ex-moonshiners of North Georgia, Salter's stories are as eclectic and extraordinary as the people he interviewed. Along the way, he discovered the alleged original recipe for Coca-Cola in the pages of an old pharmacist's book, a find that inspired an episode of award-winning radio show This American Life. Read these remarkable stories and more in this never-before-published compilation of the best of "The Georgia Rambler."