A summer adventure | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Please join me in welcoming our newest contributor to BCN, Kathy Manos Penn, a native of the "Big Apple", by way of the "Peach City" - Atlanta. Kathy, a former English teacher, authors The Ink Penn blog and is now happily retired from a corporate career in communications.

    My husband, who retired long before I did, has two groups of friends he connects with regularly. First is a group that I think of as the Coffee & Computer Club, a group of guys who meet monthly at 45 South Café in downtown Norcross. While it's not officially a computer club, several of the members−though not my husband−are fairly expert with computers, so the conversation often veers in that direction.

    The second group sprung up a few years back when more and more of his high school friends were retiring. They nicknamed themselves the ROMEO club (retired old men eating out) and began meeting every few weeks or so at different places for lunch, eventually settling on California Dreaming in Duluth as their regular spot. My husband and I both attended Clarkston High School, but, as I like to say, many years apart. That means I never knew his classmates, but did know many of their younger siblings and cousins.

    As I was still working until late last year, my schedule never permitted me to join the group. This year, though, when an invitation was issued for an afternoon on Lake Lanier, my newly minted retirement status allowed me to accept. One of the group members has a home on the lake complete with a pontoon boat, a kayak, and other water toys. The plan was to motor to lunch and return for some relaxation on the dock.

    Given our summer thunderstorm season and a forecast for late morning showers that day, I did wonder whether the play date would be canceled, but I was happily not in charge and let that thought pass. I should have held on to it.

    We all arrived at 11ish and set out for Holiday Marina for lunch. We had a pleasant lunch watching the sun come in and out of the clouds, up until we were paying our bill. It suddenly got much darker, and our waiter mentioned in passing that there were severe thunderstorms in the area. That prompted our captain to hurry us to the boat and set off for home.

    It was immediately clear that we weren't going to avoid the storm. A few brave souls had to sit up front to keep the boat balanced, while the rest of us huddled beneath the awning, and our captain soldiered on. With rain blowing sideways, lightning striking all around us and waves splashing into the boat, it was quite the adventure. Our captain called it the perfect storm as he steered us through the whitecaps and safely back to the dock.

    Though we were thoroughly soaked, we laughed it all off. My husband had to borrow a hair dryer to dry out a hearing aid, and his cell phone got so wet it changed colors. One wife threatened not to let her husband sit in her new car, and he threatened to strip in the driveway, but mostly we took it in stride. After all, it makes for a great story-a story of how you're never too old to do something stupid. We all know we were very fortunate.

    I can only imagine, though, what all these parents would have said if a teenager had done the exact same thing: "Thank goodness you're safe," followed quickly by "I can't believe you did something so dangerous" and "What were you thinking." The final comment would have to be, "Just never you mind what I did; do as I say, not as I do."