Troubled by reports of nature in decline across the South, veteran reporter Dan Chapman conceived a madcap plan to take the region's pulse for himself. He would retrace John Muir's journey from Kentucky to Florida. From behind the wheel of his trusty Subaru, Chapman navigated traffic jams in national parks and sprawling cities Muir could never have imagined. In communities large and small, he interviewed farmers, scientists, Muir impersonators, business owners, riverkeepers, and engineers, all with stories of an endangered South but not ready to be written off just yet.