John Steinbeck a 1955 movie directed by Elia Kazan and starring James Dean. In 1960, Steinbeck bought a pickup truck and had it modified with a custom-built camper top – which was rare at the time – and drove across the United States with his faithful 'blue' standard poodle, Charley. Steinbeck nicknamed his truck "Rocinante" after Don Quixote's "noble steed". In this sometimes comical, sometimes melancholic book, Steinbeck describes what he sees from Maine to Montana to California, and from there to Texas and Louisiana and back to his home on Long Island. The restored camper truck is on exhibit in the
National Steinbeck Center affiliated programs. The National Steinbeck Center Archives constitutes of over 45,000 historical documents, family documents, manuscripts, letters, photographs, films, interviews, and artifacts all pertaining to author John Steinbeck and the history of his hometown of Salinas. The Archives department manages and preserves these holdings. Currently the NSC is working to digitize and make their collection browsable online. Interested researchers, scholars, historians and students are able to reserve and schedule time to research the collections with the archivist. Events and outreach programming makes up the bulk of the National Steinbeck Center's time, effort, and budget. The Center plans and runs over