I saw on a friend's Facebook page the other day that some SISTERS were coming to Round Lake State Campground this weekend.
This friend is one of my recent "new best friends." Our family met Michele, a retired educator from Nevada, and her family at the Old Ice House in Hope about a month ago.
At the time, I learned from Michele, who has recently moved to the Rapid Lightning area, that she was a member of the Sisters on the Fly.
That tidbit was pretty exciting for me because back in 2011 one of my assignments for the Appaloosa Journal was to write a feature about the group, which at the time numbered about 2,000 nationwide.
Since then, membership has sky-rocketed, thanks to the group being featured on shows like "Good Morning America" and in national publications.
And, why not? With a theme of "having more fun than anyone" curiosity alone would entice women to check it out.
Since writing that feature, I've learned that one of my former students, Shirley Messmore Walson, has been active in the group.
Anywho, when I found out that some SISTERS would be out and Round Lake, of course, I had to go out for a visit yesterday.
Twas, as you might imagine, a great experience. New Best Friend Michele wasn't there, but her trailer was.
Shirley was there too, but our paths didn't cross in the campground.
I did meet several SISTERS, though, and, sorry, Michele, they are now most recent New Best Friends.
During my visit, the crew was walking over to check out a restored vintage trailer called "Norma Lee Lost."
This tastefully restored model is owned by a mother and her two daughter who live in Absarokee, Mont.
They stood by quite proudly in their matching T-shirts while others admired their camping quarters, complete with wine rack.
Turns out this week's trip to Round Lake is their first-ever adventure as full-fledged SISTERS. They even whispered that to me, but it seemed to be okay cuz I never would have guessed that they were newbies.
This morning I'm including the story written eight years ago and some photos taken yesterday.
I'm told that this weekend's gathering, which includes women from Sandpoint, Spokane, Colville and Montana, is fairly laid-back----just camping, gabbing, eating and playing a few tunes along with visiting areas around Sandpoint.
I was also informed that this is the WA (shington-Ida)HO group, but we must add MO to it since the Big Sky Sisters are partaking.
Hope you enjoy the story and the pictures, and who knows, maybe some of you readers may just decide to join the SISTERS having more fun than anyone!
I can tell you, from my experiences of reporting on them and meeting several of these women that they're fun gals.
Sisters
on the Fly
By
Marianne Love
For
the Appaloosa Journal
Published 2011
It began as a
simple fish story.
Two sisters were
fly fishing in Montana . One hooked and landed a lunker. Neither will tell which sister held the rod.
What they will
divulge, however, is that while sitting on a drift boat, sipping wine and reveling
about the big catch, they came up with an idea.
Why not share this experience with others?
That was 13
years ago. Since then, the sisters’ fish
story has triggered ongoing tales of adventure that continue to grow with every
telling.
Sister No. 1 and
Sister No. 2 now share their outdoor fun with hundreds of fly-fishing,
trailer-towing, horse-loving or shopping junkies who happily add their two
cents’ worth to extend and expand the original fish story.
They’re called Sisters
on the Fly (SOTF), and as their individual and collective tales continue to
unfold around the country, the story-telling sisters happily boast that
“they’re having more fun than anyone.”
Plus, they get a
lot of attention while they’re having all that fun hitting the open road, riding
horses on Western cattle ranches or trails, wading trout streams, strolling
through cowgirl craft fairs, spending money at shopping malls, sipping wine,
etc.
In 2010, author,
editor, radio show host Irene Rawlings released an attractive, full-color book
about the group entitled Sisters on the
Fly: Caravans, Campfires and Tales from
the Road.
Between its covers,
photos, stories, recipes and website addresses deal with the history and
ongoing activities of the organization, which includes several regional sub-groups.
“The two sisters
started Sisters on the Fly in 1999, a group that soon grew to a dozen members,”
Rawlings writes. “That dozen grew to more than 1,300 women all over the United States
and Canada ,
each with a vintage trailer and a story about the trailer’s history.”
Numerous
magazines and television shows have featured the Sisters, most of whom pull their
restored, thematic travel trailers behind them. Recently an announcement appeared on the SOTF
Facebook page, revealing that O Magazine
would be featuring the group in an upcoming piece.
A magazine
editor herself, Horse and Rider’s
Juli Thorson “found her tribe” from an article in Country Living magazine. She
joined in 2006.
“It showed a
group of women camped out in the Arizona
desert, using vintage trailers, decorated in Western/cowgirl themes “Thorson
explains. “I was immediately enchanted.”
Enchantment and
a hunger for adventure seem to be common threads that attract the growing list of
members.
In addition, website photos and testimonials (www.sistersonthefly.com) illustrate
clearly that the Sisters, always adding new angles to their high level of fun, have definitely arrived as a solidified enthusiastic,
sometimes wacky women’s movement---not only here to stay but also on the go—er
“the fly.”
Who ARE
These Sisters?
“We are a group
of women who challenge ourselves in all that we set our minds to do,” explains
Sister No. 1 Maurrie Sussman of Phoenix ,
Ariz.
That welcome,
coupled with the seed planted by Maurrie and her sister Becky Clarke of McCall , Idaho
“SOTF women are
like a diamond,” says Grace Brown, Sister No. 472, a retired corrections officer
from Spokane , Wash.
Grace joined the
Sisters after seeing a segment about the group on the Travel Channel in 2005. After
conducting more research, she contacted the organization, “sent in my money
[$60 annual dues] and the rest is ‘herstory.’
“I needed to get
out of my ‘comfort zone,’” she says, “I was mentally ready to do something I
had never thought of doing . . . to spread my wings, and this seemed right up
my alley.” Her husband Gary, at first
skeptical, expressed pride in her decision.
The two have worked side by side, restoring not one but three vintage
trailers since then.
Meanwhile, for Sister
No. 42, JoAnn Jackson Edgar of Dallas, owner of the “Tumbleweed Hotel,” the
trailer restoration bug hit before SOTF.
She had already fallen in love with vintage trailers, had found an old
hunter’s trailer in the classifieds, restored it and sold it. Buyers of her second restored trailer brought
along a magazine article featuring vintage trailers.
“I saw the
article about SOTF!” she recalls. “I
couldn’t believe there were other women out there who loved vintage campers.”
She joined the next day.
Edgar has
restored several trailers but loves her Tumbleweed Hotel, which reminds her of
her childhood in West Texas .
Generally, SOTF
trailers reflect something about their owner---appearance, likes, etc. For
Cindy Carter of Hayden , ID.
“Queen Bee,” a Georgia-based trailer, with its
décor of bees, bee facts and even a whimsical bee girl, reflects owner Paula
Bush’s fetish for bees.
Vintage trailer
towing is not a requirement for Sisters.
Some bring tents or campers to events.
All pay $60 annual dues, which covers membership record-keeping,
bookkeeping costs, insurance, attorney fees, etc.
Beyond that, the
only other requirement is to be female.
What Do These Sisters Do?
Well, of course, many take up fly
fishing, meeting for annual outings on
Montana’s Missouri and Madison Rivers, Arizona’s Lee’s Ferry or Wyoming’s
Platte River, to name a few. Every year Maurrie and her son Austin Lowder
coordinate a fly fishing school in Montana .
SOTF angling adventures have
attracted corporate interest from fly-fishing event organizers and retailers
like Cabela’s, where five different Sisters’ events are planned this year.
“They [event organizers] give us a
booth,” says Maurrie.
“They want us to
show the world that women do fly fish and camp.”
Meanwhile, Sister No. 2 Becky
started Grammas on The Loose in McCall. This
year’s event at Wanda Flanagan’s ranch on the Rosebud River Mont. ,
will include SOTF grandmothers, daughters and grandchildren. Its purpose:
to teach kids how to camp, fly fish, use float tubes and other outdoor
skills.
As a longtime horse lover, Maurrie
also spearheads Cowgirl
College Kaycee , Wyo.
“We stay at the main quarters in
bunkhouses, go gather cattle, do some team penning and have a branding day,
capped off by a hoedown with Sisters, donned in their old prom dresses, stomping up a good time with ranch hands and
neighbors.
“You don’t need to know HOW to be a
cowgirl, but it helps if you know the front from the back of a horse,” SOTF
events site states, “Cuz you will be living on one for four days.” The Willow
Creek Ranch gathering also includes “jammie parties under the stars.”
Also, for horse lovers, Grace Brown
loves to tell about pulling her trailer to Deary, Idaho, last summer for the
Appaloosa Museum’s annual Apalousy Trail Ride and Dutch Oven Dinner (Aug. 12-14
in 2011).
It was “Show and Tell” time for
Grace, Juli Thorson and several other Sisters who parked and showed off their
trailers while “glamping out” at the site on former ApHC executive secretary
George Hatley’s ranch.
Down South, Sisters at the Seashore
sponsor several activities unique to their region. Their April campout at Tybee Island Savannah ,
Geo., attracted Sisters who towed their trailers cross country from as far away
as California .
Sisters 1 and 2, Maurrie and Becky
along with their “amazing mom” 90-year-old Mazie Morrison were planning to attend
the Tybee gathering.
Mazie taught her daughters camping
skills when they were little girls growing up in the Northwest. She still does
her share of fly fishing.
Besides campouts, kayaking
adventures, dutch-oven cookouts, antiquing, historic visits and numerous educational
opportunities, Sisters hold regional get-togethers for lunch, holiday
celebrations or even high teas.
So How Do These Sisters Have More Fun Than Anyone?
Maurrie Sussman
will be the first to admit that sheer numbers of SOTF have presented
challenges. Nonetheless, problems pale
in comparison to the ongoing fun associated with each SOTF-sanctioned event
across the country.
Even before
their brainstorm, inspired by landing that big one on the Madison
River , the founding sisters say they’ve always served as magnets
for people seeking fun.
“I’m very
hyper. I never stop. I’m constantly in
movement,” Maurrie says. “I’ve been doing this day in and day out for 13 years,
and I love it.
“I see what
happens to the girls to change their lives.
They’ll send notes. That’s very
cool, and you know you’re on the right track,” she adds. “The point is you go
overboard on everything you do----whether it’s dressing up in costumes or going
to a picnic---you push the button and go over the limit.
“We Sisters are
everywhere now,” Maurrie recently wrote on her blog “Remember, that wherever you are, SMILE,” she
advised, adding Mark Twain’s words: Wrinkles should merely indicate where
smiles have been.
To
learn more about Sisters on the Fly: Irene
Rawlings’ book is available at www.amazon.com;
SOTF Website: http://www.sistersonthefly.com/index.php
 |
| Siblings Kim, Linda and their mom Joyce. |
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