1. Backstory / Deciding to Go

Dateline: August 2012. I’m a happily married mom of two girls… way too old to do crazy stuff like this.

But….! My favorite actor (Richard Armitage) was filming a movie in the Detroit northern suburbs. They’d started shooting right after we returned from our annual summer pilgrimage to visit my husband’s family in Michigan - such bitter irony! I made sure to whine about it extensively on twitter and tumblr, just in case anyone was unaware of my inner turmoil.

I kept seeing news tidbits on the filming - the locations were a stone’s throw from my inlaws’ house! I’d e-mail these to my mother-in-law, and she e-mailed me back encouraging me to come visit her so we could try to meet him in person. I demurred — it was too expensive; it was too crazy; I couldn’t take time off from work — but nevertheless, THE SEED WAS PLANTED. I wanted to be convinced.

Finally, a fellow fan posted some wonderful news to the fan forums: She’d visited the movie set and met Mr. Armitage! I e-mailed the story to my mother-in-law, and a flurry of late-night e-mails ensued that gave me the push I needed — I was finally convinced; I would go to Detroit the following Monday afternoon — with absolutely no idea where (or even if) they were filming. I cleared it with my husband (who is now officially a candidate for sainthood); put in for vacation at work; and bought a cheapo ticket on SPIRIT airlines, allowing myself 2½ days to accomplish the task at hand. 

I must confess I was a tad nervous about spending so much time alone with my mother-in-law. We don’t see eye-to-eye on much; it’s an election year… feelings are strong on both sides…

Nevertheless, I threw caution to the wind….  This was going to happen.

Continue on to Part 2