Several years ago, before COVID totally disrupted everyone’s lives, Randy’s immediate family made plans for a mini-reunion in conjunction with a trip to visit the life-sized Noah’s Ark at the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky.
We ended up cancelling once and rescheduling, then cancelling the second time because COVID was….well, a disaster. In the intervening time we made a few attempts again, but schedules didn’t mesh, we moved to Florida, and some family members just went to see the Ark on their own.
Earlier this year, someone suggested we resurrect the idea of a get together with all brothers and sisters and spouses who were interested. One thing led to another and before long we’d chosen Gatlinburg, TN as a relatively central location, picked a good week for everyone who would commit, and made plans for the long delayed mini-family reunion.
Three of the four couples each had about an 11 and a half hour drive to Gatlinburg. One couple coming from Cary, NC, only had about 5 hours. This morning, the Saturday before this will be posted, the other three couples all left to begin the journey to a vacation rental house called Bear Crazy in Gatlinburg. Because none of us are youngsters anymore, and one of the women (Scott’s wife Laura) works for Hilton Hotels, which entitles all of us to Friends & Family rates for any Hilton chain property, the three traveling the long haul all left a couple days early and overnighted about halfway to Gatlinburg. We plan to arrive and stay at a Hilton Garden Inn in Pigeon Forge on Sunday night. Then we check into the amazing house we rented as early on Monday as they’ll let us.
It made my heart happy today to visualize Scott and Laura driving south from Green Bay, Lynn and Dave driving east from the Lake of the Ozarks, and me and Randy headed north from Florida. On Monday, Kristine and Gary will drive west to meet us at the house. We are literally converging from the four compass directions to meet and enjoy the time we spend together. We agreed beforehand that rather than fill our time together doing all kinds of tourist things, we want to spend time BEING with each other and enjoying the natural beauty of the area at this time of year.
Here’s a secret I’ve never admitted to anyone before. I love these in-laws and out-laws more than I love some of my own sisters. They say we shouldn’t have favorites, but I do. I genuinely like all of the people with whom I’m going to share a house in the mountains this week. They are kind, decent, caring, thoughtful people. They are all intelligent and creative, and each of them are interesting in their own right. Between us we have a variety of quirks, and a few of us are quite funny, which make us laugh, sometimes hysterically.
Sunday night, after the 6 of us had finished dinner and were sitting in the lobby of the hotel playing cards and hanging out, in the interest of blog post research, I posed the question: Who of us are in-laws and who of us are out-laws. Everyone chimed in, sure they knew the answer. Or at least had an opinion about the answer. Kristine, Randy, Lynn, and Scott are progeny of the same two parents, full brothers and sisters by birth. That’s a given.
I had to laugh, though, because everyone gave the question credence. They assumed I asked a legitimate question about familial relationships. There was a lively discussion. Dave said he was definitely an in-law because he was married to Lynn. Laura said she was too, married to Scott. So, I asked what that made them to me, since I was also an in-law. Does that make Dave, Laura, and me out-laws?
That gave everyone pause as they considered the question. And the answer. No one was quite sure.
The truth is that there is no dictionary definition for out-law used to describe family relationships. Our trusty dictionary describes an outlaw as lawless people or those excluded from the protection of the law. But the very last definition Merriam-Webster mentions an outlaw (or out-law as used in this post) is a person who is unconventional or rebellious.
That’s what I was after in asking the question.
In addition to all the traits mentioned above, each of us is a bit unconventional or rebellious (sometimes both!) in ways we ought to be proud of. I know I wear the rebel label with great pride.
When I explained to everyone the first night at dinner that in reality we’re all in-laws AND out-laws, everyone sat up a little straighter and agreed that yes, they too were happy to be in-laws, but labeled out-laws.
Did I mention how much I love these people? I really do.
P.S. We hadn’t been at the house we rented for 2 hours when the bear came to visit. We took the photo above from the kitchen window. The cars are parked 15 feet outside the window so that bear was really close. We hadn’t locked our car doors (even though we’d been warned to do so) after we’d gawked at the bear for about 15 minutes, Randy pressed the lock button on his key fob. That little click was enough to get him (her?) to move on down the road. What we’re trying to decide now is whether that bear is an outlaw.
P.P.S. Lynn got up early this morning and came running down to our bedroom. “Both your front car doors are open!” she called. Sure enough, Randy had somehow unknowingly unlocked the doors with the keyfob in the evening. The bear payed us another visit and opened the doors. Thankfully other than a little dirt on the seats, the car seems fine. The bear is definitely, absolutely, unequivocally an OUTLAW!
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