I was 27 and was mobilized for Desert Shield/Storm, to Ft Campbell KY. We were down there waiting for the rest of the unit to catch up with us. In the meantime there was this hang out called the Red Carpet. Bunch of us went, I was sitting at the bar, talking to someone to my right. A lady about my age strikes up a conversation with me. we start talking, then I was asked to dance, I find out that she is divorced and has a daughter that will be going into 3rd grade in the fall. I had some real strong feelings for her. while on the Arabian Peninsula we are writing a letter a week. it was about an 8 month deployment. My feelings have grown stronger for her. so we get back and start to out process, gone on some dates and some real serious talk, about staying down there . My biggest hang up was finding work. At the time of me volunteering I was unemployed, and had a hard time finding work, where I am connected. We spent the whole night up talking about the difficulties I was having trying to find work in Michigan. Trying to find work in Tennessee where I am not connected, is a whole different ballgame. I decided that I was going home. I thank her for showing me what being in love was like, because I would not feel that again until December 2023. If I do not come back , I probably do not write my book about Mackinac Island. If I stay who knows.
Love
Published by Walter E Kitter
I am a U.S. Army Veteran for 13 years, served in Desert Shield/Storm. I graduated from Saginaw Valley State University with a degree in Education. That is where I found out about the joy of writing. I was a tour driver for about 10 or 11 years for Mackinac Island Carriage Tours. I learned to harness, hitch and drive a team of horses. That job really slowed my life down. Driving 3 to 5 mph, if you went any faster there is a good chance that you could be in trouble. I am in no hurry to go nowhere. In the beginning I was using information about the island that was written by someone else. I Had to make the tour my own. So I bought the books and researched the information for the tour so I could answer any questions that customers had answering with something else besides I don't know. One rainy day, sitting on my carriage, watching the team, rain dripping down my back. it was cold and rainy, all you needed was the ducks, decoys, call and the dog you would set for duck hunting. I wanted to write a book about the island. I found the story behind the facts sometimes more interesting than the facts themselves. I am going to write a book, now I needed pictures for the book, how am I going to get them? thousand yard stare looking out at the team in front of me, pulling up now and then when the carriage in front moved up. Making it to the ticket office, waiting to be loaded still wondering about pictures for my book, customer sees that I am deeply thinking about something. He asks me what am I doing, I explain to him the problem of pictures for the book. He explains that I have the frame for the pictures right in front of me, the two horses heads are the frame for the pictures. That is when I came up with the title, A Place That I Love a tour drivers perspective of Mackinac Island. I spent a lot of time at Anne's Tablet. That is how the book came about View more posts
Walter E Kitter 