“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” – Diane Ackerman, Poet
Sisters on the Fly: A Sisterhood of Adventure
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Sisters on the Fly: A Sisterhood of Adventure WRITTEN BY Irene Rawlings PHOTOS BY David Foxhoven and Audrey Hall
Editor’s Note: They are mothers, daughters, and grandmothers and range in age from 25 to older than 90. They are nurses, bookkeepers, kindergarten teachers, bakers, small business owners, artists, and housewives. Nearly 1,500 women from across the United States and Canada have heard the call of adventure; 12 are from Utah, 19 live in Nevada, and over 100 are located in Arizona. They are bound together by a force “stronger than campfire coffee and wider than the Montana sky” – the love of the open road. They are the Sisters on the Fly and author, Irene Rawlings is Sister #1322. Her new book, Sisters On The Fly: Caravans, Campfires, and Tales from the Road, takes you inside of the trailers, the travels, and the journey of two women from Phoenix, Arizona who extended the invitation for a few thousands to join along. Here, Irene shares with Élan Woman an excerpt from this enchanting book that makes one eager to become a part of the sisterhood.
Chapter One: How It All Began
The golden age of trailer travel, from the 1930s to the 1960s, was a time when Americans found it easier than ever to get away from it all while taking all the comforts of home with them. A new type of vacation was born that combined the adventure (and economy) of camping without the need to really “rough it.” During the next four decades, however, people began traveling almost exclusively by plane, over-flying the national parks and roadside attractions that were a part of their childhood memories. At the same time, motor campers became more utilitarian but less interesting as wood and aluminum gave way to molded plastic and vinyl. Now, Sisters on the Fly—the little girls who climbed into the back of the station wagon pulling the family’s Airstream on a cross-country adventure—are rescuing these relics from fields, ranches and farms. They are finding vintage trailers through want ads, in junkyards and on the Internet. They are restoring their finds to their original glory and creating comfortable spaces in which to make new travel memories.
SEPTEMBER thru OCTOBER 2010
FAR left: Becky Clarke stands outside Twisted Sister, a trailer she restored from top to bottom. It took six months to sand and finish the outside. TOP: Pretty Indian ponies run gracefully along the side of Pretty Shield, Maurrie Sussman’s 1943 Franklin, the largest of her trailers. RIGHT: Denise Saldana-Beste (Sister #761) stands in front of her 1958 Chinook, Shantilly Lace. When she bought it, her brother-in-law called it a shanty and the name stuck.
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right: Indian ponies painted on the bed frame echo the trailer’s exterior design. The buckskin curtains are hung up on arrows affixed to the wall by square nails. MIDDLE: Making comfortable and decorative cushions for your dinette is easy and fun to do. Wire and wicker baskets are great for storage. BOTTOM: Pink dishes and floral fabrics add a “girly” touch to the rugged cowgirl theme. Vintage cloth tablecloths and linen napkins are easy to find and are necessary luxuries for feeling at home on the road.
“We find it so comfortable to drag our own bedrooms with us,” says M aurrie. “A fter a hard day fishing and having fun, it is pure bliss to fall into your own feather bed.” “Our motto is: We Have More Fun Than Anyone,” says Maurrie Sussman, who, along with her real-life sister Becky Clarke, are the founding Sisters. They were sitting in a drift boat in Montana, happily drinking a glass of wine in celebration of catching a huge, eight-pound Brown trout and thought it would be so much fun to share this experience with friends. She won’t tell who actually caught that big trout because “it is a fish-tale, you know.” Maurrie and Becky were taught how to fish by their mother (who’s now 90+ years old), simply known as Mazie, when they were just little girls. She also taught them the art of telling a good fish story. The group that was started in 1999 by these two sisters soon grew to a dozen who met in Montana for fly-fishing. That dozen grew to more than 1,500 women all over the United States and Canada, each with a vintage trailer and a story about the trailer’s history. The women range in age from 25 to 90. Many of their rigs are from the 1950s and 1960s, range from 12 to 16 feet in length and contain between 100 and 150 square feet of interior space. Models include the popular Shasta, Scotsman, Aloha, Airstream, Scotty, Holiday, Aljo and Empire.
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SEPTEMBER thru OCTOBER 2010
Tending to Landscapes . . .
& Communities
Serving Southern Utah 435.674.2325 Four Time Best of State Winner Community Project as seen on NBC’s Three Wishes
left: Sometimes the Sisters, encouraged by Mazie (Sister #4), in the center of the group, get giggly. The campfire takes the chill off the early morning air. bottom: Sisters don’t let their rough, rugged surroundings affect the dinner preparations; table linens, candles, and fresh flowers are always part of a properly set table. right: Trompe l’oeil wagon wheels, logs, a whiskey barrel, and a trotting horse give a glimpse into the love Karen LeGlue (Sister #459) has for all things Western. BOTTOM RIGHT: A caravan sticks together as the Sisters head toward their next adventure. It’s great fun to travel in groups, but it’s also much safer – these gals watch out for one another. “We never leave anyone behind,” says Maurrie Sussman (Sister #1).
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SEPTEMBER thru OCTOBER 2010
Becoming a Sister is not difficult. You don’t have to fish and you don’t have to ride horses. You should have a trailer but that, too, isn’t always necessary as most of the Sisters are willing to share. But, you can be sure, that before long you’ll really want to have your own little portable playhouse. So what does it take to be a Sister? Just this: you must want a Sister and want to be a Sister to some of the most independent, freedom-loving, warm-hearted and generous women in the world. Sisters on the Fly meet in groups of 10 or more on the Oregon Coast, in the Smoky Mountains, on the great Midwestern plains, in the Ozarks, in the Shenandoah Valley, in Texas Hill Country, on Tybee Island. “We drive the two-lane back roads in a cowgirl caravan and when we stop in the little towns everyone comes out to look at our trailers,” Maurrie says. Sometimes they camp in a national park, sometimes in a rancher’s meadow. “As long as it’s near a beautiful stream, we’re happy” she says.
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Sisters on the Fly: Caravans, Campfires, and Tales from the Road is available through: www.indiebound.org linking you to local independent bookstores near you. Also available through amazon.com.
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