Milestone Journeys | Our Stories A travel club for those on the best side of 50!

More Than Double The Fun by Linda Rothenburger

I had been stuck in a rut. I’d always traveled with only one other person – a friend, my daughter, my sister, or some other family member. So when I was invited to join a 3-day adventure with “the girls” I jumped at it. My sister-in-law, Connie, and I joined three other women, all strangers to me, and headed to Whistler for a women’s conference. All of us are close to the same age and we hit it off right from the start, as though we had all been friends since grade school. This was the first time three of us had ever gone away with a small group of women. How had it taken us so long to discover this joy? We stayed in a 2-bedroom condo, instead of at the conference hotel, so we would have more privacy. We attended the conference workshops for part of each day but we lingered over meals blended with leisurely conversations and great coffee or wine. And when we weren’t in workshops, we played! Carmen, Connie, Sue & I all decided to master our fears and go zip lining. Carmen’s playfulness won out in the end as she sailed across the fifth and last line upside down with the rest of us cheering her on. That night we raised our wine glasses to each woman’s triumph. We especially toasted Ginny for having the courage to stand up for her own conviction that she couldn’t do the zip line, instead of caving in to the peer pressure from the rest of us. The first thing we all said to her when we got back that night was, "You would have hated it!" We acted silly and laughed until we cried. The intimacies we shared cemented our new friendship into an unbreakable bond we will cherish for life. We had so much fun together that we decided to make this an annual event. This is exactly what the travel club is all about – a place where strangers will become new, life-long friends. If, like me, you’ve always traveled with just your spouse or one other person, let your mind explore the alternatives. A women’s weekend like ours is only one possibility. Imagine the sun glistening off the water as a group of guys live out those tall fishing tales. Or how about three couples, who love to cook, taste-testing each other’s culinary attempts at a cooking school in Tuscany. I now know from personal experience that mixing two or three extra, like-minded people into your vacation will more than double the fun. Here’s to my new friends and all the ways they enriched my life this weekend.