The Last Ride

Take a personal journey with former bull riding champion Glen Pee Wee Mercer, who on November 11, 1995, at the age of 25, suffered an accident while dismounting a bull at the Southeastern Circuit Final at Brighton, Florida. This resulted in a broken neck and severed spinal cord, thus changing his life forever. The Last Ride is the dramatic story of his life both before and after the accident.
Patrick Smith met Mercer following a speaking engagement for the Friends of the Library in Williston, where Mercer lived. The two struck up a bond of friendship. Mercer was unable to write but had a colorful life s story to tell. Smith agreed to help Mercer share his story and so they collaborated on the book. The result seven months later was publication of The Last Ride.
Although this book covers Pee Wee s rodeo career throughout Florida and many other parts of the United States, it is not just a book about rodeo. It is also the story of young love gone awry, of adventure, high humor, youthful exuberance during those years when people think they are indestructible, of hopes and dreams of the future and how those hopes and dreams are shattered forever in just one split second of time. It is Pee Wee s story, but told with Smith s masterful writing skill.
The Last Ride is unique among the books written by Patrick D. Smith.