John Steinbeck Timeline and Summary

Steinbeck embarks on a journey ranging all over the U.S. to get in touch with different people and places in America and learn what's going on with them.
Along the way, he meets a whole slew of different types of people, mostly enjoying the journey (even if he does get a bit lonely).
He has some misadventures here and there: he gets lost a lot, gets some bad directions, has a run-in with U.S. customs at the Canadian border, has to leave Yellowstone early because Charley totally loses his mind when he sees bears, and gets a flat in Portland (and is in danger of getting another one before a kindly service station worker heroically finds him some better tires).
He goes through the South going back east and gets a firsthand glimpse of the racial tensions that are at full boil there. He's disgusted with the bigoted attitude of some of the southerners he encounters.
He heads home after that, basically deciding he's psychologically done with the journey when he hits Virginia.