As a writer, I keep open to story ideas and pack a travel notebook. Sometimes it’s a quick write about the day’s adventures, the places visited, the foods sampled, and the people that I met along the way. More recently, I took a trip aboard one of the Viking expedition ships, the Polaris, for the sail on the Great Lakes which covered all five of the lakes. We started with Lake Ontario, sailed on to Lake Erie, then Lake Huron, then Lake Michigan, and ended in Lake Superior.

The tour proved beyond exceptional.

We visited the Canadian side of Niagara Falls; the Henry Ford Museum in the “motor city” of Detroit; Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers in Wisconsin; the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio; Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada; several other ports along the way. All very memorable.

However, as much as I enjoyed the cruise, I experienced a setback. During my visit to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, the quaint setting for the 1980 fantasy romance movie Somewhere in Time featuring Christoper Reeve and Jane Seymour, I enjoyed a buffet luncheon with fellow passengers. Then I went up to the fourth floor to get an overlook view of the island. On the way down, I missed a step and took a tumble at the bottom. In immediate pain from the fall, I had to be brought back to a tender boat and then onto the larger cruising vessel. What began as smooth sailing, ended up with my staying onboard the main ship until the last port in Duluth, Minnesota.

Not much fun! Despite that, I found so much warmth and concern from fellow passengers and the crew of the vessel. The onboard medical center provided excellent care and follow-up for my injury. Even the ship’s captain came by to ask how I was doing!

I remembered how sometimes the best plans get waylaid. Life is that way! To paraphrase a saying, “we mortals make plans, and the gods laugh”.

I’m writing again, nevertheless, using my trip, pun intended, to journal, to blog, and to recall the good times I have had despite the setbacks.

In my lifetime, I have had losses. Some are harder than others to take. However, I’ve often found that writing has helped me get through it. There is something cathartic in it. As someone who enjoys writing fiction, there may even be ideas for stories.