"Not Without My Father"
Posted by Gary O'Rielly
on Apr 13, 2016
Our speaker last Friday was Andra Watkins, a New York Times Best Selling Author, motivational speaker and a fellow Rotarian from Charleston, South Carolina. She is a member of District 7770 and their District has 79 clubs with another one in the process. Andra was visiting the Pacific Northwest with several engagements in our area, a weekend stay in the Gorge and more appointments with Rotary Clubs in Oregon and Colorado.
After reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, she became interested in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Reading Undaunted Courage changed her life forever she said. Her first novel was To Live Forever. The book is the after life journey of Meriwether Lewis. He died at age 35 of unknown origin. Although murder is still expected and being investigated.
The next book on her list that became a New York Times Best Seller is Not Without My Father. The book is about one woman's 444-mile walk of the Natchez Trace. The Natchez Trace is over 10,000 years old pre-dating the pyramids and is now a highway. She planned to walk 15 miles per day for thirty-four days. To accomplish this goal and fete, she needed a someone to be her wingman. After striking out without just about everyone in her life, she was left with her disinterested eighty-year old father. She describes many reasons why having her father as a wingman was going to be very challenging. Although she trained on dirt she had to walk on a highway most of the time. Her feet bore the brunt of this. Along the trip she met some incredible people. Natchez Trace has very little traffic. Her father missed picking her up one day at mile post 165 where she got stomach cramps but in end, finished the historic walk. Andra is one of a ffew living persons to walk the historic Natchez Trace. The book is about her trials along the way and the fact that nothing was going according to plan, her tenuous connection to her father, arguments and laughter and the rebuilding of a relationship. Memories with her father that she will cherish forever.