Day 16 – 2018 AWAC

The 2018 August Write Away Challenge

If you’re just joining us, please feel free to go back and read the previous content so you’re up to speed! Otherwise, scroll down for today’s prompt.

• 2018 August Write Away Challenge original post
• Day 1 – What book did you read over and over again as a child?
• Day 2 – Some of the things that make me happy are…
• Day 3 – Name three things you’d do if you weren’t so afraid.
• Day 4 – How easy is it for you to forgive those who have caused you pain?
• Day 5 – What are your best character traits?
• Day 6 – What grand adventure do you wish you could go on?
• Day 7 – Dear past me…
• Day 8 – If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be?
• Day 9 – Your favorite movies.
• Day 10 – Did you ever run away from home?
• Day 11 – How do you indulge yourself? Do you need to indulge yourself more often?
• Day 12 – As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
• Day 13 – What would you do if money was no object?
• Day 14 – What one thing caught you off guard this week?
• Day 15 – The most terrifying moment of my life was…

Keep scrolling down for today’s prompt!

Reminders before we get started:

• The prompt is to use or ignore as you wish;
• Absolutely any form of the written word is allowed;
• All participation will be on the honor system, though sharing is strongly encouraged;
• Participants will be asked to let me know each week that they’ve written daily;
• Those who do write daily for the week will have their name entered into a drawing at the end of the month for a $25 Amazon Gift Card;
• Any blogger who participates and writes every day for the month will receive a badge for your blog.
• Please send me an email or contact me to let me know you’re participating!

Thu, Aug. 16 – Do you have a plan? Do you need a plan? Have you had a plan fall spectacularly to pieces?

Oi. Truth.

I had been corresponding by postal mail with my Uncle Bub for several months. I’d been working on our family history for some time and Bub was helping me fill in some blanks. He was an excellent storyteller and an unexpected stockpile of information treasure. He convinced me to visit the Saginaw Valley and do some of my own research, as well as visit himself and my Uncle John for some unprecedented storytelling.

And so at that young moment of my genealogy disease, I planned my very first ever Genealogy Get-Away. My excitement was both unspeakable and contagious, because before I knew it, my mother and brother were scheduled to go along! I knew that our April weekend would fly by faster than a… than a… than… uh… (oh my gosh; I ran out of coffee yesterday, and have no emergency resource; I’m really dragging, if you couldn’t tell, without my magic beans this morning)… well, it would be fast, for sure.

So I planned everything. I mean everything. I scheduled a tour of the church where our immigrant ancestor worshiped; I printed cemetery maps and plotted out our course through each section; I set up an appointment to review archived records; I set aside writing time for the evenings; I arranged with my uncles to visit and listen to stories; I planned for a visit to Manistee on our way home so we could visit my grandparents’ graves; I even bought tickets to a Detroit Tigers game — might as well do it if we’ll be in the area, right?

Absolutely nothing was left to chance. Meals and potty breaks? Showers? Downtime? Every bit of it was worked into my amazing Genealogy Get-Away Itinerary. And if there happen to be any pieces that didn’t pan out? — I had a backup list of things that could be easily inserted into the Plan. Oh, I was proud! And the only stipulation to my mother and brother joining me on this amazing Genealogy Get-Away was that they had to agree to follow my Itinerary. And they did. They agreed.

The Itinerary began with a 3:00a.m. departure on Thursday, April 12, allowing us plenty of time to pick up my brother in Petoskey and make it to Detroit in time for our baseball game. I packed. Everything was ready. I curled up to sleep for a few hours and set my alarm for 2:30.

I awoke to a 4:30 text from my brother asking me to call when we got to the Bridge. Apparently I missed my alarm!

Great way to start a meticulously planned weekend, eh? An hour and a half behind?

We did make it to the game — I think it was the bottom of the first when we arrived — and the Genealogy Get-Away was a successful weekend. But I learned something valuable about myself in the process:

I don’t wake up at 2:30 in the morning.

From the shores of Wicket Lake,