Getting Bolder: New Year, New Adventures
“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
I love to turn the calendar over to a new year. Every month...actually, every DAY gives us a fresh start, but there’s something monumental about starting a bright, shiny new year. A year full of hopes, dreams, adventures. A clean slate.
When December 2012 melted into January 2013, my hope was based in a new adventure of my own. I dropped to part-time
at work to pursue my creativity. My goal was to make and sell jewelry from antique silverware and maps. Marshmallow Ranch was born as my art studio nestled high in the Rocky Mountains. The view from my studio looked out over the slopes of Mt. Medaris...not much more than a hill, really. But at any given time, you might catch glimpse of a red fox or a mule deer or the majestic elk that called this place home long before I moved in. I looked out over that vista after with my morning coffee, a fresh blanket of unbroken snow before me, and felt the freedom of the entrepreneur. Then, tragedy struck and my husband died suddenly.
After that, the new year became something I both dreaded and looked forward to...for the same reason. Each new year brought me further from the pain of loss, but also from the memories I held dear. Eventually, the new year began to hold promise again. Being a Sister on the Fly was a huge part of that. I found myself looking at future events as opportunities to get out and explore and meet new people. And, once I’d met so many, the events brought me back to those who so lovingly supported and walked along side of me in my loss as I began to explore who I was in this new life.
I have yet to do one of the big bucket list trips. I once asked Maurrie, Sister #1, if I was “too old” (I’m 65) for Cowgirl
College. She gave me a look as if to say... “Are you out of your mind??? YOU are who we designed this stuff for!” You are never “too old” to go on an adventure. You are never “too old” to have more fun than anyone!
One of my favorite events to attend is "Rocky Mountain 'HI'." It’s one of the bigger outings and, since the Rocky Mountain group is who I started out with, I know many of the Sisters who attend. It’s like Old Home Week...a reunion of women who were there with me from the beginning. I’ve slept all night at a drive-in. I’ve listened to bluegrass and had lunch with just a handful of Sisters. I’ve Jeeped through Rocky Mountain National Park with my mentor-sister, Diane S. #16. I’ve greeted visitors and stood onstage with Maurrie #1 and Becky #2 at the Denver Fly Fishing Show. When I was interviewed for an article for the New York Times, it was Maurrie who sat with me for the teaser photo. I’ve stayed the night with Sisters as I traveled cross-country. I’ve met, and laughed hysterically with, our own Maizie...Sister #0.
This organization is unique in that YOU make it what it is. Without YOU, and your wonderful ideas for adventures, WE would be nothing more than any other newsletter about camping and fly fishing. I stepped out of my comfort zone and hosted an event. You can, too. I stepped up and volunteered to be a Wrangler. You can, too. I write a monthly story for the newsletter and blog. You can, too. There are opportunities galore out there if you want to do more than just gather together.
Let’s look at some of the fun events Sisters can enjoy in the coming year...
--- January has the Dutch oven Divas in Quartzite, Arizona...the capital city of Boondocking. There’s crafting in Glen Rose, Texas at Flannel & Fur II. Or, the Blue Butt Rendezvous II at Banbury Hot Springs in Hagerman, Idaho.
--- February brings Sisters on Skinny Skis in Mozambique, WA as well as Winter Frosty Fun in Yellowstone National Park. If you haven’t been to Yellowstone in the winter, you’re missing an amazing treat! Steamy geysers and hot pots, buffalo and eagles and grizzlies and streams full of salmon and trout. Wrapping up in a cozy blanket in front of a fire. Photographic opportunities galore.
--- March will see the Panama Canal Cruise and Rocking the Red Rocks in Utah. These are already full, but there’s always next year if you plan ahead. The Swamp Sisters will gather at the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.
--- Grandma’s on the Loose gather in Cougar, Washington in April. What a wonderful way to share the camping life with
the littles in your life and, at only 11 miles from Mount St. Helens, teach them about geology and our changing earth. Bluegrass, Barns and Bourbon shows up at the Kentucky Horse Park. I’ve camped there a few times and it’s wonderful.
--- May...NOW we’re getting into some fun camping weather! You can go to Send in the Clowns and spot puffins at Cannon Beach, Oregon. Or how about White Gate Farm Camping 101 in Maine for those Sisters just starting out?
--- June brings us Camp Quilt S’more on the Mississippi as well as Sisters in the Sierra’s in Yosemite National Park. There’s also Junk in the Trunk 6 in Decorah, Iowa where you can bring your pets!
--- July...ever seen a “moonbow”? It is what it describes...a rainbow formed by the bright light of the moon. Cumberland Falls Moonbow in Kentucky gets you up close and personal for an unbelievable experience. I’ve seen a moonbow...it’s amazing! Or, how about Teton Tango 2 in Grand Teton National Park...Colter Bay Village. I love when you start seeing numbers after events, don’t you? It means the first one was SO much fun they had to do it again!
--- August brings us Dirty Dancing Weekend with the Sisters at Mountain Lake Lodge in the Appalachians. You can experience tent camping at it’s finest in Hungry Mother State park and get a fabulous hot dog at Got Dip Dogs over Labor Day weekend.
--- The 50th Anniversary of Woodstock has a “Save the Date” announcement on September’s calendar. My mom wouldn’t let me go the first time. Who’s up for making the memory of a lifetime, eh? This one is being held in Columbus, Indiana so it’s not quite the same as Yasgur’s Farm, but a good time will be had by all, I’m sure.
--- You can ride September right into October at Sisters Take Gonzales, the 20th Anniversary Celebration. A week long 
affair with Cowgirl Karaoke, kayaking, and a cook off. What could be more fun than that?
--- November and December already have a few fabulous opportunities to gather and get to know even more Sisters like Sisters on the flying Dragon or the amazing Danube Waltz - Budapest to Passau 8 Day Cruise on Viking Cruise Lines??? Wow!
So, as you can see, Sisters all over America are working hard to share adventures with you. And, if you don’t see something that tickles your fancy, schedule an event in your neck of the woods. I am planning to be a hostess again this year. Life is what you make it. This year, make it GRAND!
May you continue to keep GETTING BOLDER!
With much love and gratitude,
Ginny
❤️
Post contributed by blogger, Positive Aging Expert & Motivational Speaker,
Ginny McKinney, SOTF #3537
Marshmallow Ranch Blog
I poured myself a cup of coffee and went out on the front porch to savor the moment. I opened the envelope slowly, wondering how it could be possible to be this age. Didn’t I just graduate from high school? Didn’t I just have that first baby...and the second? Wasn’t it just yesterday I sent them off to school? How did this sneak up on me like this?
remember. Most times I don’t. I had the same gynecologist for years and I trusted that he would find something if it was there. If not, the mammogram would catch it. That worked great until I was in my early forties and had a hysterectomy. I was informed I didn’t need to continue with the gynecologist because I didn’t have any lady parts. Then I discovered my regular doctor didn’t routinely do breast exams. Still, I had that mammogram religiously and thought I was good.
are working, raising a family, keeping a house. But, trust me, I tell them...you are going to need your peeps. I did the same thing. I put a husband through medical school while raising my older daughter and working full time. I had girlfriends, but when we moved away and started a practice, I had to start over. This time I had acreage to tend to. A much larger house. A growing medical practice that kept my husband busy and kept me entertaining. I had a teenager in cheerleading and choir and drama. And then we had another baby. My friendships were selective.
someone to come be with you. You shouldn’t be alone right now.” My mind drew a blank. I told him, “I don’t have any friends. I don’t know who to call.” It wasn’t true, of course. I had plenty of friends. I just hadn’t kept in touch with them for so long, I felt awkward calling. I ended up calling one of my long time friends and she dropped what she was doing to run to my side. I was never so grateful as I was when she walked in that room.
largely prevented with a healthy lifestyle and regular maintenance healthcare. When I became a widow at 59, it was six years too early for Medicare. Insurance was expensive with a large deductible. I put off a lot of routine medical care and now that I am 65, I’m paying the price for that. I’ve had doctors appointments every week since the first of June and that really ate into my camping time!
restroom, guest room, library, a dining/conference room, and a large, comfortable living room. A communal garden with sitting areas and manicured pathways connect the little houses to one another for easy visiting. This allows women to age in place, have their own space, and be a contributing member of the community at the same time. I have had wonderful conversations with other Sisters about this subject and we only half-jokingly refer to the “Sisters on the Fly Retirement Community”. Wouldn’t that be fun?
unlimited time to spend traveling, meeting new friends, and exploring new places. My husband had just died in March so my time was now my own for the very first time in my life. As a method of coping with his death, I signed up for every event I possibly could and I have to tell you...that was singularly the best thing I ever could have done for myself. I had instant support, yet there wasn’t any of this “hand-wringing pity” you so often are faced with as a grieving widow. Instead, I had empathetic listeners who sat respectfully while I shared my story, reached out and gave me a hug, then immediately said, “Hey, a bunch of us are going hiking in a little bit. Wanna join us?” It was exactly what I needed. Acknowledgement of my pain...encouragement for my healing.
fireworks to celebrate our nation’s independence. But, it’s so much more than that. Our personal freedoms have grown exponentially since that fateful day in 1776. We are blessed with the freedom to go where we want, do what we want, say what we want, and believe what we want. And we, as Sisters on the Fly, exemplify that better than most.
Maurrie and Becky, were taught by the best...the original Sister. Their mother Mazie was a remarkable women who taught her girls the freedom of the great outdoors at a very young age. They fished, hiked, boated, camped, rode horses, and traveled extensively and learned to be brave and bold. There are certainly like-minded women in this group who were raised that way and were looking for others to share in the fun. But, if you are like me, these were skills learned much later in life. I only camped a handful of times in my whole life before I found the Sisters. I, like many of you, came here after losing my husband.
sorts, I was stuck in a time warp. Growing up “country” in West Virginia was a conservative, naive, innocent time where the women in my family were taught to type and marry young so you could start those babies coming. I remember riding my bike as a young girl and fantasizing I was traveling cross-country and up into Canada. I would pretend I had panniers on my bike at a time when I didn’t know what panniers were. I planned out my food and lodging and how I would get there. I envisioned sleeping in a small tent along streams where I would fish. I may not have ever had the opportunity to camp, but camping was in my blood. My favorite book was The Boxcar Children. Then the adolescent indoctrination began and I was bombarded with speech after speech on the importance of getting married and raising babies. And my dreams of the long, long bike ride got stuffed way down inside.
older daughter. As a single mom, I bought a used bike with a child seat on the back and rode around with her. The long bike ride bubbled up a little. My second marriage was spent putting my husband through medical school and residency. There wasn’t time to think about much more than survival. I got closer to touching those dreams when he was establishing a practice and time was more flexible. We had a second child. We backpacked once. We hiked. We rode bikes. We even camped in a small dome tent a couple of times. We had a very brief stint with a VW Vanagon camper in the early ‘80s but the money from its sale was needed for a down payment on a house. That was the end of that and the dream went into hiding.
me to be brave and go. I did things I have never done before...alone. I went into the wilderness and backroads of Colorado. I traveled to Mexico...not by camper, but by plane. The freedom to cross borders and go where I wanted was alluring. The freedom to be who I want to be was life altering. The Sisters showed me that HE died...I did not. I had this great big world to explore and the freedom to do it.
Wide, pea-graveled lanes weave in and out through massive displays of azaleas, rhododendron, camellias, live oak and loblolly pines. Paths lead you along the sound, through a brick walled rose garden, and on to a meticulously groomed formal garden with sculptures, fountains, and exquisitely groomed crepe myrtle and boxwood hedges. It was easy to get lost in thought in such gorgeous surroundings on one of the most pristine spring days North Carolina has had to offer so far this year.
the mighty storm hit. It turned out to have downgraded from a true tornado, but I haven’t been in many storms that fierce. I was ever so glad I wasn’t sitting in TOW-Wanda under all those trees. I didn’t sleep all night as the storm raged outside. I kept repeating to myself “Be bold in the face of danger!” Morning dawned cold and gray with a steady rain pouring down. I got back to my camper and found it sitting on an island in a lake of water several inches deep. I was exhausted and there was no way I was going to hook up and start hauling in that condition. I went back to the office, signed up for another night, checked the radar and saw the storm would be past in just a few hours with no more threat of tornado activity. I crawled in my cozy bed in my big comfy camper and slept for the next twenty hours!