Trip. — Of Well Behaved Women. Wait. What?

A well behaved woman rarely makes history.

Oh yeah? Well never, ever underestimate a group of six women.

Because they are guaranteed to make history.  One way. Or another.

Four years ago, I read a random article in a random magazine about a group of random women who took a trip together each year. I thought to myself, “Oh. That sounds like fun. I’ve got a group of girls that I’d love to road trip with.”

My group of ‘well behaved women’ added a twist.  As only we can. Only one person knows the destination.  Now we’re talking. Yeah, that’s how we roll.

And with that, the S.I.S. Mystery Trip Weekend was born. And History was indeed made.

From the past four years, there are so many stories. Too many to tell. So many that wouldn’t make sense to anyone else. Most of them are certainly of the “You had to be there” variety.  So many fall into the “You’ll have to wait for the inevitable book to be written” category.

And this past weekend was no different. I’ve been trying to think of the verbs to describe the times: Pull. Polish. Pop (some tags). Actually there are too many verbs to describe our weekend. And see, well, you had to be there.

Five of us packed our bags without knowing where we are going. Only vague clues from the planner of what the weather might be like and essentials to bring, as well as times to have your A.I.S. (ass in seat). It’s true, since we are sans kiddos and hubbies, we do tend to cuss just a little more on these weekends.  (Don’t judge us.)

Now that we are four years in…there are traditions, of course. And since I am the resident, self-proclaimed keeper of the traditions, I tend to worry about making sure I don’t drop the ball. My Tucker reminded me this time that one tradition is that I usually email her the week before to have her remind me what the traditions are. Ah. See. I do love a tradition.

One thing that was the topic and feature of many texts and emails leading up to the week before, was the Grey manatee. So, this year’s tradition of a surprise S.I.S. gift was inspired by Target’s inappropriately named plus-sized grey dress advertising faux pas last week. To mark the event, I made everyone a special grey manatee, personalized water ‘jug’ for the trip.

I know. It looks gold here. But trust me, it was grey and brilliant. I’ll fix it …only if the WordPress Gods decide to freshly press this…and only then.

Hey. We’ve all learned just how important hydration can be on  these weekends.

This week however, water and food were topics of discussions …  health and nutrition is hot as many of us are on new journeys of wellness. This led to one frustrated S.I.S. to declare that she “needed to find some new friends who didn’t just like to eat grass and gravel!”  The health kick eventually led to all of us trying out “oil pulling” for the first time, before 9:00 a.m., seeing who could hold a teaspoon of olive oil in their mouth for 15 minutes. (I didn’t win by the way, but I did document the event, hence the word, PULL.

Pre-shower, oil pulling. Yeah. That happened.

This was followed by our invasion of a local salon for six pedicure and polish appointments. (There’s the verb: Polish.) It is true what you hear. You can’t take us anywhere.  We will be inappropriate. We will over-share. We will be loud, but funny. And people will love us. They will take our picture and post it to their facebook page and talk about what a fun group we were.  I guarantee that they talked about us to their loved ones when they got off of work.  Yeah. We were the highlight of their workday. We do that for people. We are givers like that. 🙂  (And we tip pretty well when we are loud like that, too!)

    

(Beautiful feet and ladies courtesy of Smoky Mountain Salon and Spa.)

Later, we held a pool tournament that the local hot rod runners wished they had been invited to.  After that, we solved way too many problems in the hot tub under a not quite full moon, way too late. The next day we did a little outlet shopping. (Yes, we ‘Popped’ some tags. Because we are cool and hip like that.)

And even though we were accused of looking bored by the guy at the Cat House, after jiggling at Jiggling George’s, we never were and I can pretty much guarantee that we never will be … when we are all together.

I am so thankful for my SISses. So thankful for my tribe. I am blessed to have you.  I am grateful for everyone’s unique version of ah.may.zing that you bring to our little group that just adds up to … magic.

Well behaved, we are not. But we are guaranteed to make some history.  And some memories.

“Laughter through tears…is truly my favorite emotion.”

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And one of the best, though not really part of the story, is what we found in the upstairs bathroom of the cabin we rented.

Sadly, no manatees. But a little Zebra action.

And the one who wasn’t invited.

I said we weren’t always well-behaved, right?

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