Michelle Kennedy watched live coverage of a fiery, multi-car accident for an entire day before recognizing her father’s Chevy pickup pinned between the two semi-trucks. A television news reporter at the time, she narrowly avoided being assigned to cover the collision that killed her father. Suddenly a part of the news she’d reported on for years, Kennedy longed to run away from broadcasting, her life, and looped images of her father’s body underneath a yellow tarp.
Blending reverent reflection with rollicking adventure, Don’t Pee in the Wetsuit is a travel memoir about Kennedy’s attempt to sift through an unresolved relationship with her dad on a six-month trip around the world. Gallivanting through eleven countries with a best friend, Kennedy loses her clothes in Costa Rica, swims with bull sharks in Australia, gets scolded for peeing in her wetsuit on a cave tour in New Zealand, and overindulges on food, wine, and foreign men. Writing on the road, she struggles to forgive her father’s shortcomings and make peace with losing the first love of her life.