Road trip provides stories for retiree's first published book

Barbara Thierwechter envisioned retirement as a time to rest, maybe catch up on her reading. Her husband, Lou, of 54 years had other ideas. The Blessed Sacrament parishioner, along with her husband, embarked on a seven-week road trip that would become inspiration for Barbara’s book, “Catholic Churches we attend when traveling in our Motor Home,” published by Shuler Books.

“Two weeks after our 50^th wedding anniversary I just wanted to rest,” muses Barbara, “but my husband wanted to buy a motor home. So I decided it was a great opportunity to put my journalism degree to use and write about all the churches we would attend for Mass.”
Barbara returned to school at age 45 and earned her degree in journalism from Western Michigan University when she was 60. She worked for a few months for a small newspaper but soon discovered that she preferred feature and creative writing to news writing. After her newspaper stint, Barbara worked for close to 25 years for a senior citizen complex which left her without any time to pursue her writing. So when she and her husband packed up their two cats and embarked on this journey, Barbara was determined to capture the experience through the lens of her Catholic faith.
During the seven-week, 7,500 mile, 18-state-road trip, Barbara and her husband visited seven churches, however the book details the couple’s visit to 27 Catholic churches, including a trip to St. Augustine Cathedral for the annual Diocesan Golden Jubilee Mass to celebrate their 50^th anniversary.
In full disclosure, notes Barbara, the trip to the Cathedral was made in their car, “in fact, “ she writes, “probably the shortest trip we’ve taken but I wanted to include it because I’d like to let young couples know this goal is possible.”
Barbara considers her travels and writing about the blessings they received a form of evangelizing. She hopes that readers and others are inspired to put faith first when traveling and also stop to reflect on the many daily blessings.
“It’s so important to stop at the Lord’s home and ask for His guidance,” she says.
Barbara was recently invited to talk about her adventures and book at St. Margaret’s Parish. Her talk, which she will give wherever invited, details the 30 different blessings she and her husband received along thei rroad trip from serendipitous moments to the challenges of dealing with a 1993 motor home. The very first blessing was Rev. Al Jorgensen, then pastor of Blessed Sacrament, blessing their motor home before they left town. A daily ritual Barbara did along the way to keep them safe.
Barbara notes she wrote the book to “Inspire, educate and entertain.” True to that goal, the 148-page book with more than 300 color photos also includes two puzzles.
“It’ll give you smiles, and maybe a few tears,” adds Barbara.
Books are available online at www.shulerbooks.com/chapbookpress. The author may be reached at: barb.thierwechter@gmail.com