FINDING FRITZ: The Heart of an Adventurer AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
FOGELSVILLE, PA – Road Less Traveled Publishing is pleased to announce the launch of the long-anticipated book, FINDING FRITZ: THE HEART OF AN ADVENTURER
When celebrated adventurer, Fritz Sprandel, paddled his canoe into New York harbor on Thanksgiving Day, 1978, he capped off another headline grabbing adventure. He anticipated welcoming crowds cheering him on, as had happened in all his previous adventures. But when he was met with deafening silence, he pushed his canoe back into the New York waters and just disappeared.
Fast forward 30 years. The owner of a limousine service in eastern Pennsylvania is working late, trying to take the business to the next level. One of his drivers, Fritz Sprandel, walks in and says, “You’re working late, chief.”
“It’s my work ethic,” the owner, Doug Kemmerer, says. “I got it from my dad.”
The driver squints at him, as if seeing him for the first time. “You’re Reds’ son, aren’t you?”
It turned out that Doug and Fritz had crossed paths decades earlier when Doug was a boy working at his dad’s service station, and Fritz was between adventures, sleeping in a car Reds left open for him.
This chance encounter began a unique relationship between them. Fritz telling Doug about his famous Cuba adventure where he was captured and arrested by Fidel Castro, which made international headlines, about a cross-country hitchhiking trip where hobos taught him to jump freight trains, about a 5,500 miles snowmobile trip across the northern part of the US which earned him a place in the “Guinness Book of World Records” and about the cross-country canoe trip—mirroring Lewis and Clark’s adventure—that landed him in an empty NY harbor on Thanksgiving Day. All of these adventures spanning two decades and 25,000 miles were featured in national magazines such as Argosy and Sports Illustrated.
But more than just the physical adventures, Fritz told Doug about the forces that formed him. A turbulent childhood. Alcoholism and recovery from it. Star-crossed marriages that crumbled and left him without the family he yearned for.
Fritz was eager to tell his story and Doug soon realized that the way to do it was with a book to be the basis of a documentary film about his adventures which they are recording and editing now. People from his past, who Fritz had forgotten, reappeared to testify to the lasting impact his adventures had on them and to share their roles, however small, in those adventures.
FINDING FRITZ: THE HEART OF AN ADVENTURER is about the unlikely friendship between Fritz and Doug and what happens when you step out of your safety zone and go on the adventure you’ve dreamed about but never dared to take.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT FINDING FRITZ:
THE MORNING CALL received a 1971 Story of the Year Citation from the Associated Press for its coverage of Fritz’s release and return from Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
Fritz’s adventures are almost too unbelievable to be true, but they are true and that’s what makes his story so amazing. In some ways he reminds me of the fictional character Forest Gump with all his wild adventures, except Fritz’s adventures were real. In hearing the accounts of his adventures firsthand I would constantly ask myself: “who in their right mind would do this?” Fritz would, and he did.
Steve Hillebrand
Hollywood East Productions
It wasn’t much fun in the jail. Fritz’s companions were real bad boys. Chico Miles was a friend of Angela Davis and had hijacked a plane to Cuba…Most of these men had arrived in Cuba in planes they hijacked themselves…After 15 days with the bad guys in Habana, Fritz was moved to Santa Clara, where the canoe came ashore, and given a trial. He had a lady lawyer. The trial was conducted in Spanish so he could not understand what was being said. He was judged guilty.
Frank Harvey
ARGOSY
Fritz is that iconic American adventurer, and his heartfelt lesson for the world is: Go forth and do it, make the attempt, turn the mundane life into something specifically you own.
Scott Garner,
Project Researcher
In four decades of interviewing people from the ordinary to the extraordinary, no one has captured my imagination or touched my heart the way Fritz has. You will love reading his story in this wonderfully written book.
Craig Cooper,
Award-Winning Video Producer
The August 17 release date of FINDING FRITZ celebrates the 54th Anniversary of Fritz putting his canoe in the Atlantic Ocean and setting off on first big adventure.
Doug and Fritz are an entertaining interview and are available for print, podcast, or video interviews. Please contact Doug Kemmerer at 610-360-1300 (Text and phone) or doug@adventureonadare.com.