"This book is the very best kind of story: real, human, funny and bittersweet and refreshingly honest. It is a love letter to those we don't fully understand, the kind that starts with "I can't stand you" and ends with "I can't stand to be without you". A breathtaking piece of work." - Goodreads
Can an epic adventure succeed without a hero?
Andra Watkins needed a wingman to help her become the first living person to walk the historic 444-mile Natchez Trace as the pioneers did. She planned to walk fifteen miles a day. For thirty-four days.
After striking out with everyone in her life, she was left with her disinterested eighty-year-old father. And his gas. The sleep apnea machine and self-scratching. Sharing a bathroom with a man whose gut obliterated his aim.
As Watkins trudged America’s forgotten highway, she lost herself in despair and pain. Nothing happened according to plan, and her tenuous connection to her father started to unravel. Through arguments and laughter, tears and fried chicken, they fought to rebuild their relationship before it was too late. In Not Without My Father: One Woman’s 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace, Watkins invites readers to join her dysfunctional family adventure in a humorous and heartbreaking memoir that asks if one can really turn I wish I had into I’m glad I did.
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Make a Memory with Not Without My Father
The Natchez Trace contains 10,000 years of history. From March 1 to April 3, 2014, I became one of few living persons to walk that tunnel through time. I did it to launch my debut novel To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis. I thought my stunt would rocket my book to best seller status.
That must be why I was willing to spend five weeks with my eighty-year-old dad. And his gas. The sleep apnea machine and self-scratching. The repeat stories and endless chatter.
How did we fare? That story is chronicled in Not Without My Father: One Woman's 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace. If you struggle with a loved one. If your family is dysfunctional. If you enjoy reading about the stupid things other people do.
Not Without My Father is for YOU.
The Natchez Trace contains all kinds of history. Some memorable. Some we wish we could forget. Here's a story of the origin of the name "Tennessee."
People will fight over the origin of a name. History records the stories of the winners. In the Tennessee Valley, the Yuchi lost, and their story was pounded underfoot during the Trail of Tears.
Water laps through rock and tickles my toes. It carries the stories of those who came before me.
I can’t stand on the shore of the Tennessee River
without thinking of the Yuchi.
Like many Native American tribes, no one knows the origin of the Yuchi. Nomads, they wandered from the shores of Carolina, across Georgia swamps and into the Tennessee River Valley. Centuries ago, they fought Hernando De Soto and his conquistadors along the Natchez Trace. They sided with the British in most conflicts, a loyalty that cost them their land.
He ordered John Coffee, one of his ablest generals from the Battle of New Orleans, to eradicate the natives from the Natchez Trace region. Thousands of people packed what they could carry and left the land of their ancestors. Destination: Oklahoma. Tears singed a gouge in the landscape, as they looked back and longed for home.
Under threat of execution, the Yuchi could never return.
Forever, they were banished from the land they named. Is it ironic that the word Tennessee is Yuchi for
the people who lived here before we came?
***************
Colbert Ferry is located near milepost 327.3 on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Follow the signs to the bicycle-only camping area with picnic tables, grills and fire rings, plus enjoy the new restroom facility.
About the author:
Andra Watkins lives in Charleston, South Carolina. A non-practicing CPA, she has a degree in accounting from Francis Marion University. She’s still mad at her mother for refusing to let her major in musical theater, because her mom was convinced she’d end up starring in porn films. In addition to her writing talent, Andra is an accomplished public speaker. Her acclaimed debut novel To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis was published by Word Hermit Press in 2014.
Her latest book is the memoir, Not Without My Father: One Woman’s 444 Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace.
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