Vagabond. Logger. Miner. Welder. Machinist. Mechanic. Throughout his nearly eighty years, Isaac Earl Smith did whatever he needed to get by, from his home on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, to Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Montana, and countless other outposts in Canada and the United States. He married an Alberta girl, and together they were resourceful and hard-working in their efforts to climb that "100 step ladder of success." In his retirement, Isaac put pen to paper and filled a stack of legal pads with his recollections of a lifetime's worth of "capers." Beyond the minutiae of day-to-day life, Isaac tells a story of hope and perseverance, interwoven with the restless notion that something better awaits around life's every turn.