SAN ANTONIO – Sisters on the Fly is an adventurous group of women started in 1999 with a focus on outdoor recreation. Fast forward almost 20 years and Sisters on the Fly has had more than 12,000 women join the group across the country.
Last week, the sisters camped in Garner State Park, and showed us their dolled-up vintage trailers and talked about the joys and support of their sisterhood.
"It's almost an anti-aging device because it keeps us active and young and doing stuff and it gets us out of the house," Sherry Gibbons said.
Gibbons joined the group in 2004 do something on her own, but what she ended up finding was friendship and support.
"It started to become a support group because you know someone gets sick, somebody gets ill, somebody has a divorce---whatever---there is usually a lot of women that step in to give support."
These women aren't just helping out other women. In 2017, they started a sub group called Sister Corps that went to Port Aransas to help when Hurricane Harvey hit. Now the group has cleaned up or helped out other locations, like cleaning up the Frio River at Garner State Park.
"It's the best thing I've ever done for myself," Leann Moore said. She joined Sisters on the Fly in 2011. She had never camped without her husband or father on her own, but that's what she wants other women to know: You aren't on your own.
"We have women that say, Oh I would love to do that but I can't pull a trailer, oh ya you can because most of us didn't pull a trailer until we got one. And we are there to help you figure it out, how to do it," Moore said.
"You end up being pretty independent when you get it all under your belt," Roxanne Lavender said. She just joined the group this year. She compares it to a grownup sorority minus the cattiness.
"Because you are uninhibited. And you don't have to impress, you don't have to worry about what is he going to think about this dance move or you can say anything you can, wear anything, you can look like anything and other women don't judge you," Lavender said.
There are very few rules to joining the sisters. You don't have to have a vintage trailer, some sisters have modern campers. You don't have to have a trailer at all. You also don't have to be retired, even though most of the women are of retirement age. You just have to be 21 years or older to join.
You also don't need to know how to fish or pull a trailer or have any prior outdoor skills.
If you are interested in joining or meeting up with the sisters on their next adventure check out their website by clicking here.