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Fools' Errand
Wayward Ho!
Four irascible college professors, forced to retire from academia with the advent of AI, abduct their lifelong friend from an Alzheimer’s home and set out in a restored vintage Winnebago on a humorous adventure across America to answer the
“Where would you go? What would you do?
Somewhere you’ve never been; something that’s never been done.
Not because others have tried and failed,
but because the objective is so profoundly pointless
that no sane person ever thought the goal
worth the time it would waste in trying?”
Sometimes heart warming. sometimes heart breaking, but always amusing, it tells the tale ofMike Flannigan, a Shakespeare quoting English professor who hatches a plan to spring the group’s friend Mac from an Alzheimer facility in hopes that, if exposed to “other worldly” things like Area 51, the meteorite crater, or a solar eclipse, he might “come back to Earth” long enough to recognize his old friends.Bob Thompson, the mathematics professor, who sees life as the shortest distance between two points, and hopes to reach the furthest points north, south, east and west in the United States, while en route to his ultimate to appear on Jeopardy.Ben Finch, the philosophy professor, a soft-spoken birder and bowler who finds the profound in the mundane.And Dave Young, the zany sociology professor and proud owner of the “Bago”, in search of Americana at gun shows, Corvette museums, and minor league baseball parks.
Together, they infiltrate a Las Vegas gun show, suffer a mechanical break down and cause a riot in Aspen, survive a tornado outside the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky, chase down Mac as he makes a run for it in Disney World, compete in a national birder contest in New Jersey, and find meaning in the U.S. Senior Open bowling tournament in Detroit.
A timely novel which reminds us that facts– while seemingly trivial–do matter, that the “insurmountable” differences of opinion which purport to separate us will dissolve if we would all just learn to laugh at ourselves, and that the point of life is not to reach the silly destinations we create, but to enjoy the here and now in the company of those we love along the way.
Four irascible college professors, forced to retire from academia with the advent of AI, abduct their lifelong friend from an Alzheimer’s home and set out in a restored vintage Winnebago on a humorous adventure across America to answer the
“Where would you go? What would you do?
Somewhere you’ve never been; something that’s never been done.
Not because others have tried and failed,
but because the objective is so profoundly pointless
that no sane person ever thought the goal
worth the time it would waste in trying?”
Sometimes heart warming. sometimes heart breaking, but always amusing, it tells the tale ofMike Flannigan, a Shakespeare quoting English professor who hatches a plan to spring the group’s friend Mac from an Alzheimer facility in hopes that, if exposed to “other worldly” things like Area 51, the meteorite crater, or a solar eclipse, he might “come back to Earth” long enough to recognize his old friends.Bob Thompson, the mathematics professor, who sees life as the shortest distance between two points, and hopes to reach the furthest points north, south, east and west in the United States, while en route to his ultimate to appear on Jeopardy.Ben Finch, the philosophy professor, a soft-spoken birder and bowler who finds the profound in the mundane.And Dave Young, the zany sociology professor and proud owner of the “Bago”, in search of Americana at gun shows, Corvette museums, and minor league baseball parks.
Together, they infiltrate a Las Vegas gun show, suffer a mechanical break down and cause a riot in Aspen, survive a tornado outside the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky, chase down Mac as he makes a run for it in Disney World, compete in a national birder contest in New Jersey, and find meaning in the U.S. Senior Open bowling tournament in Detroit.
A timely novel which reminds us that facts– while seemingly trivial–do matter, that the “insurmountable” differences of opinion which purport to separate us will dissolve if we would all just learn to laugh at ourselves, and that the point of life is not to reach the silly destinations we create, but to enjoy the here and now in the company of those we love along the way.
405 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 10, 2025
About the author
Rob Jackson
44 books10 followersRob Jackson is the Chair of the Global Carbon Project, a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy, and a professor of earth science at Stanford University. Through global scientific leadership and groundbreaking research, communications, and policy activities, Jackson’s work has reduced millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions and improved human health, safety, and air and water quality. One of the top five most-cited climate and environmental scientists in the world, he has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, and his writings have appeared in many outlets, including The New York Times, Scientific American, and The Washington Post. Jackson lives in Stanford, California.
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