Forever Friends

We met Scott & Peg in September 1981 at Campus By the Sea on Catalina Island at family camp. Our friendship grew from that week and it's never stopped growing. We have no other friends who we are so comfortable with. We have traveled with them, bicycled with them, gone to concerts with them, and just "been" there when we all needed each other.

This morning Peg sent a text to my phone just as I was walking from the car toward the church, she was letting us know that they were on their way to Moreno Valley to hear their former pastor speak. Scott & Peg live to the west of us in Orange County. Moreno Valley is to the east of us. I responded that if we had known, we probably would have hitched a ride with them. We love their former pastor Phil. He now lives in North Carolina.

Later after we had gotten home Peg sent another text letting us know that they were just leaving Moreno Valley and asked if we wanted to have lunch somewhere with them or were we too busy. I responded that we'd meet them at a restaurant or they could stop at a fastfood joint and bring their lunch here. In less than 45 minutes they were here with a big bag of In n Out burgers for them. Mr. Fun had his usual diet lunch (Jenny Craig), and I made myself a sub sandwich.

We spent no less than 6 hours together at our kitchen table--eating, drinking, talking, laughing, and catching-up on each other's lives. So as they began to make their exit, I asked if we could get a photo to prove that today our calendars aligned, that time stood still, and that we'd killed a few cancer cells by laughing together.

In our foursome -- Peg is the photographer; Scott is the musician; Mr. Fun is the jokester; and I'm the journaler. During the summer of 2000 the four of us traveled by riverboat from St. Louis all the way up the Ohio River to Pittsburgh. Several summers later when Peg and I didn't get to travel together to China because of the SARS outbreak, we went to the east coast of Canada from Montreal all the way to St. Pierre Island (which is a French island in the North Atlantic) and then our trip ended in Boston. The next summer the two of us left the guys at home again and went to the "Capitals of the Baltic." We all love to travel. Peg is a geographer and teaches geography to college students and currently she is a student in UCS's Ph.D. program. She is also the youngest of the four of us, so she has more brain cells left and currently uses them to study.

Today was a surprise and a joy. I vote for more days like this. How about you?

Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol

P.S. We all agree that to "Take the Long Way Home" is the best way.

P.P.S. We placed the camera on the hood of their car and used the timer to capture this photo. This method doesn't produce the best photo, but it did produce a fun moment.