Ah, she's brilliant. Miss, I finally got plans out the group chat. We get it. Four votes for a festival,

three for a city break. It's hard to adhere to everyone's needs. There's Betty with her oversized

tent. Sarah and her six foot eight boyfriend.

All right.

Roger Junior and his dog, Roger Senior.

And don't get us started on Mel.

But, like a marriage counselor, she's the one keeping things together.

All aboard Miss I finally got plans out the group chat. Keep everyone's plans alive when you

travel with us. P, and O'Ferees, there is another way. I grew up in Northeast Iowa where my older sister and I spent most of our childhood playing in the meadows and woods around our property.

She was two years older than me and we had a neighbor friend who was between us and age. Most of our days were

filled with fishing and catching frogs and playing make-believe and conquering the

world. There was a pond down the hill from our house where a lot of this took place.

North of it was 20 acres of timber that provided an excellent spot to hunt for mushrooms

in the spring or to cool down in the shade during the hot summer months.

And to us, it was Paradise.

West of that timber was a green inviting pasture full of long grass that made the perfect bed to lie in

when we wanted to watch the clouds and the land was owned by Mr. Lindle who had fenced it off

but he was a neighbor of ours who lived down the road, and he had

given us permission to play wherever we wanted.

The meadow included its own pond that was roughly an acre in size, and we spent as much time fishing

and playing around it as we did our own pond.

And that was where we were headed the day that we had our first encounter. My sister who was 10 at the time

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