SibSab – 20th Anniversary

At the end of September, I got together with my two sisters and brother for another edition of our SibSab—our Sibling Sabbatical.  As I have written several times before, this is an occasion when just the four of us travel to some destination to enjoy time with each other and to catch up on what’s been going on in our lives.  And this year just so happened to be the 20^th anniversary of us first getting together.

Having been preceded in death by our mom in 1999, our dad died in March of 2002, less than three years afterward.  I don’t recall who came up with the idea, but we decided to get together in 2003 close to the one-year anniversary of his death.  We chose to meet in Knoxville where our oldest sister lived at the time.  My other sister lived in Memphis then, so she and I drove up together from Memphis.  Our brother flew in from his home in Pennsylvania.

None of us envisioned this might become something more than just a one-time event, so many of the photos we typically have taken over the years at these gatherings never crossed our mind.  In fact, this pre-dated the wonderful smart phone era we enjoy today where we gladly hand over our phone to a complete stranger to snap our photo.  Thus, from that first visit, we have no photos of all four of us together.

Probably due to busy family activities, it was five years before we got together again, traveling to the Big Cedar Lodge near Branson, MO.

Although we did not call it a “SibSab” at the time, we did at least get a photo of our younger selves after dashing in from the rain for an adult beverage.  That year, 2008, marked the beginning of our annual ritual to meet somewhere.  Now I can imagine some of you might argue that this year is really the 15^thanniversary, but I chose to call it the 20^th based on that first gathering in 2003.

So, for this milestone year, it seemed appropriate to meet once again in the Branson, MO area, this time at a resort that our sister found for us.

Arriving in the afternoon on Wednesday, we had three full days and two half days to enjoy each other’s company and do fun things together.  Before traveling, our oldest sister came across a list of the top 77 things to do in Branson and the surrounding area.  We decided that in addition to doing other things that came up, we would each pick one from the list to do together.

Our oldest sister recalled a really fun go-cart ride from a previous visit to Branson and so that was what she chose.  Unfortunately, that track had since been torn down and the one built similar to it was closed for the season.  We found another go-cart track close by, but it proved to be quite a bit more challenging for us senior citizens, at least the three oldest of us, with its tight circular corkscrew track up to the top followed by a jump ramp where pressing the brake completely to the floor did little to slow down our rapid speed.

My other sister picked an interesting sounding runaway roller coaster that ran down the side of the mountain.

Having been a bit intimidated by the roughness of the go-carts, I decided I was not going to use the brake at all on the way down and just enjoy the smooth ride the car would provide running on the steel pipe track just like a modern roll coaster.  For the first half of the run, I laughed with delight as I zoomed as fast as my little car could go.  But then I encountered a series of little bumps and valleys in the track that with my rapid pace, flung me up against my seat beat and then threw me down onto the hard fiberglass car seat.  After that, I judiciously used my breaks.

My pick was an almost 2-hour scenic train ride that probably would have been a lot more scenic had the leaves already turned (Branson like much of the country was enduring very warm temperatures from an extended Indian summer).

We did get some great views sitting in the dome car, although when the sun came out from behind the clouds, it was a bit warm in our greenhouse.

My brother chose as his activity a nice long hike on a paved trail along the shore of the lake.  We went early Saturday morning, and it was a most pleasant 1.5-hour trek.  At the agreed upon 1.6-mile turnaround point, our brother decided to go further to extend his hike and catch up with us on the way back (he walks much faster than the three of us).  As it turned out, we were all glad he did for he came across a very nice visitor center by the dam that formed the lake around which we had been walking.  Rather than hike back, we chose to drive over.

We spent quite a while looking at all the informative displays there and before leaving, took in a very good documentary film that covered the history of the flooding in the area and the 20-year political struggle that Dewey Short endured to eventually get the dam built.

In addition to our four planned activities, we took in some of the resort’s complimentary amenities such as the miniature golf…

…swimming in the three pools…

…one of which was an infinity pool…

…and tried our hand for the first time at Pickle Ball (which did not end well for me with a bad backwards fall onto the hard surface court).

Always thinking of our mom who loved food whenever we dine together, we also shared some very nice meals, here celebrating our oldest sister’s birthday early.

One of the dinners we took on the campus of the College of the Ozarks where students serve both to gain practical experience for a future career in hospitality as well as cover college costs (the college boasts that all students graduate debt-free, something unheard of in the 21^st century).

On one of the mornings when we were sitting around the kitchen table in our suite drinking coffee and talking, I asked what everyone’s favorite activity had been.  All agreed it was that very activity getting up early in the morning and enjoying each other’s company.  For years, this has in fact been one of the highlights of our trips together, unencumbered talk about our lives, our families, and our kids or grandkids.

For this milestone year, our sister made matching t-shirts for us to wear with a custom design she created herself.

It was in 2009, when we met in Memphis where we started the tradition of sitting in birth order for a SibSab photo.

This was no doubt inspired by a photo of the four of us taken in Montreat in 1986, more than 20 years earlier.

Donning our custom t-shirts, we struck a very nice pose in the lobby of the resort adding one more to the collection of similar annual photos.

Our last gathering was a brunch at another resort high above the top of a hill with a great view of the lake.

After that, our sisters started their trek back to northwest Arkansas and my brother and I drove back to Memphis.

It was sad to be leaving each other but joyous in the fond memories we made of one of our best SibSabs.