Dad’s Vacation Diary Inspired CLT Woman to Write Book

CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – We all know the adventures of the fictional Griswolds in the famous Vacation movies. They could be rivaled by a Charlotte family which is present everywhere.

As Father’s Day approaches, Grace Ly and her father Marty Ohlhaut can now laugh and cry about these moments. Their collaboration gave birth to a book entitled Tent for Seven: A Camping Adventure to the South and West.

Images courtesy of Grace Ly

“I feel lucky,” Ly said. “Because if we didn’t have this book, we wouldn’t have spent so much time over the last three years. And I feel lucky that this project brought us closer together.

The Ohlhaut family has very good memories in the great outdoors, led by Marty.

“We were camping to get out together and enjoy nature,” he told Queen City News.

“Somehow I knew he had written down everything that happened after our disastrous trip,” Grace says.

Marty felt compelled to document his family’s wild adventure in 1994. His diary inspired Grace for the book.

“My poor unsuspecting family’s vacation in the wilds of Western Canada,” Marty said as he read the newspaper.

“Everything you are going to read here actually happened,” he continued.

From the fear of bears to the kindness of strangers to the shedding of his wife’s blood, there was a lot to work on. Grace formerly worked in the White House for George W. Bush and later for the CIA.

When Grace read her father’s diary, she saw a literary gold mine.

“After I read it, I thought, ‘If I change this a little bit, I could make it appealing to a wider audience,’” she said.

Their vacation in the 1990s took a scary turn when Marty’s wife, Joeline, tried to climb out of a locked toilet window.

“It’s scary, but there were glass cuts everywhere,” Marty said.

“She fell to the ground, bleeding profusely,” Grace remembers.

“And I’m kind of like, ‘Whoa! “, Mary said, remembering a man who introduced himself. “And the gentleman looks at me and he says, ‘Doctor’.”

A couple came out of nowhere to help, which is a theme of the book.

“And so we jumped in the van and I started following the ambulance,” Marty said, stopping to relive the moment. “The main thing that concerns me is that I have to stay the course so that the little children are doing well.”

Marty’s wife, Joeline, recovered and the family trip continued.

Despite the trauma of his injuries, the father-daughter duo recount Tent for seven is also full of happy stories and was a pure joy to write.

“I just feel like I appreciate the people in my life more and that I was able to do this project with my dad,” Grace said, with tears in her eyes.

“It’s like, ‘Wow,’” Marty said. “As many struggles as we went through on this journey, I think it cemented what we were trying to do, which was for the family to be cohesive.”

The co-authors could tackle another book telling the story of another of Marty’s epic travel adventures. Tent for seven is available now on sites including Amazon.

They are both on the same wavelength; writing about the good old days never gets old. “Because I know people who would like to spend a little more time with the people in their lives,” Grace said.