Which American author was also a budding travel writer and wrote of his adventures with his dog Charley?

The story behind the answer

John Steinbeck is the correct answer. In 1962 he published Travels with Charley: In Search of America, a reflective travel memoir about his cross-country road trip in a camper truck he named Rocinante, accompanied by his French poodle, Charley. The book blends reportage, dialogue, and keen observation as Steinbeck revisits American places and people late in his career—quite different from the fiction of Faulkner, Fitzgerald