Road Trip!!! With Two of My Dearest of Friends

We talked and ate and sat in the bubbling jacuzzi and hiked and talked and ate and shopped and talked...

Recently I had the opportunity...no, I TOOK the opportunity, to get away for a little girfriend trip with two of my oldest, dearest friends. The three of us are all celebrating our 50th birthdays this year, so we decided to reunite for a four-day celebration in the Great Smokey Mountains. We frequented Gatlinburg and nearby Sevierville several times on high school band trips.

Candy, myself and Michelle the afternoon
we headed out for Tennessee. Roadtrip!!
Our cabin in Gatlinburg

The porch where we ate our meals. Well, the ones we
ate at the cabin. We ate a lot!
Inside the cabin. You KNOW you want to rent this place!

Interestingly, these are the same friends (minus one who is a year younger than us) that I took my senior trip with right after high school graduation. That year we went to Candy's lake house; this year, right at about 32 years later (can that be possible!?!) we went to Michelle's mountain cabin in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Me, our friend Jeanna (who's a year younger and
still a dear friend, too) and Michelle
at Candy's lake house in 1982.
Michelle and I have been friends since we were about 9 years old, and Candy and I became fast friends when we met in the 7th grade. We both played the French horn in band. (Candy and Michelle have their master's degrees in music; I sold my horn years ago!) Throughout all of our middle school, high school and college years, Candy, Michelle and I have remained tight, close friends. These are the gals I did life with during all those formative, fabulous growing up years.
Candy and me with our beloved high school band director, Mac Bowman.
Me and Candy at her cabin on Lake Sinclair.
Probably taken on Labor Day Weekend, 1981.
Michelle and me at Univeristy of Georgia graduation, 1986. I look tired!

I cannot tell you how much I love these two women! They are both fun, godly, beautiful and precious ladies. We live in different places now, and only see each other maybe once a year or less. But we can pick up conversation like we just left off yesterday and talk up a storm! You know we solved all of the world's problems on that trip.

Candy and Michelle catching up with one another
while we explored Cade's Cove, a unique
Appalachian settlement in the Smokies.
We were make-up free during the days. That's how good of friends we are!

As the three of us caught up with each other, we discovered that one or the other had read books, seen movies or enjoyed music the others needed to experience. So on the car ride home Candy wrote out a list for each of us of the tips the others had given about media choices. I have books and DVDs to last me all year now.

Getting away with these two gals for a few days was one of the highlights of my 50th year. We relaxed so well together that we got completely off any schedule that we might normally keep. As we headed out for dinner each night around 8 o'clock and finally said goodnight around 1 a.m., we laughed that we'd have to keep our schedules a secret from our husbands because they didn't know we were capable of keeping such late hours!

Candy and me posing before shopping and dinner.
Hiking up to Laurel Falls.
Candy and Michelle have been constants in my life. The only thing that has changed between us is the distance between our homes. Yes, we do go for months without talking or texting sometimes. We are all busy women with full lives. But there have been countless times when one of us have needed the others and we've always been there for one another. Not only that, but we've continued to enjoy each other. We still deight in our conversations, our laughter and our commonalities. And we have roots with each other. There's just something about having deep roots that intertwine with another's deep roots, you know? We have history. I like that.

I absolutely adore these gals! And aren't they so pretty? Even sans make-up?

What about you? Do you have childhood pals or friends from your youth that you still keep up with? Do you have an enduring friendship that gives you stability and comfort? Why not send a card, type a quick text or arrange time for a long heart-to-heart telephone call with her? It will do your soul good to reconnect. Trust me.

We worked really hard at taking the perfect selfie of all three of us
those four days, and finally got this one. I'll spare you the others!!


We will definitely be doing another one of these girlfriend trips.
What took us this long? (Well, kids, careers, families!!!)

Thanks for letting me share my trip with you. Have you taken a similar trip with girlfriends or sisters? (Candy is on her 50th Birthday Sister Trip right now with her three older sisters!!) I'd love to hear where you went and with whom!

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