Between 1950 and 1952, Peggy Iris Thomas and her Airedale dog, Matelot, travelled 14,000 miles through Canada, United States and Mexico on a 125cc BSA Bantam. Perhaps when rounding a corner on some highway between Nova Scotia and Key West you have chanced upon this incredible trio: Oppy the indomitable motorcycle, its 125 pound frame swaying under three times its weight; Matelot, the automotive Airedale, perched on his box, ears flying in the breeze; and our gasoline gypsy herself, Peggy Iris Thomas, who has bumped her way over more than 14,000 miles of the United States, Mexico and Canada.

There is a touch of the vagabond in all of us but few have the determination and courage that started Peggy off from Liverpool in the spring of 1951 with $60 in her pocket and the gleam of adventure in her eyes. Her new Bantam motorcycle, Oppy, was loaded to straining point with clothes, food and complete camping equipment. Matelot, both companion and guardian, stood wagging his tail by her side.

Before they turned homeward once more, Peggy and Matelot had pitched their tents in such strange places as a vacant lot in downtown Los Angeles, a Mexican village bar room, a mosquito inflected Louisiana swamp and on the heights of New Jersey's Palisades. In A Ride in the Sun or Gasoline Gypsy, Peggy tells the light-hearted story off her adventures whilst motorcycling through the forests of Nova Scotia and over the Canadian Rockies stopping long enough along the way to recoup her finances by holding down two office jobs at once in an 18-hour working day and working as an apple picker and factory labourer in British Columbia. Then off down the beautiful Pacific coast, south to Mexico and up the eastern seaboard to New York City. Undaunted by sandstorms, earthquakes, tropical gales and incredible desert heat, thrilled by the invigorating life outdoors and cheered along by her many new found friends, she has woven her unique journey into an engaging account of life on the open road.