Girl Scout Troop 107 Takes a Road Trip
Sixty years Friendships in a Honda Odyssey
Henny, far left, and her childhood friends.
Editor’s Note: Henny Warren, a co-founder of Le Car, took an annual road trip with her friends that she met in elementary school, six decades ago. While none of them live in the town where they grew up, they’ve stayed connected and started taking road trips together a decade ago. The women rented a 2022 Honda Odyssey minivan for their excursion, the perfect vehicle for their journey. Naturally, Henny did all the driving.
Six of us got together to travel in a true “go there with friends” odyssey. This friendship group started in 1954—adding a few to the circle over the next few years and has remained strong for all these years. We made it through elementary school, our Brownie troop, Girl Scout camps, slumber parties, and high school together. Friendships remained through college and into marriage, kids, and grandparenting. We were there for each other for most of our important life events. Our shared history makes the friendships easy. We knew each other’s parents and all the ups and downs of tween and teen years.
We met at the aiport in Detroit early one Saturday morning in April and flew to Jacksonville, Florida. We rented a 2022 Honda Odyssey, which proved to be a wonderful surprise, since it held all our suitcases easily—especially when some of us needed more than just a carry-on. Since I made the arrangements for the car, I had major trepidations about the luggage space. I had hinted we may need to sit on suitcases or laps to get us and all of our stuff into one car, but the minivan had enough storage for six women’s travel gear.
“We all grew up in the Detroit area in the ‘50s and early 60’s, which made automobiles a central part of our life. ”
From Jacksonville, we headed north to St. Simons Island in Georgia where Trish has a great beachfront place. For one glorious week we walked the beach, watched the sunrise, sat in the sun, shared wine and cheese, ate good food, and had many hours of conversation reliving our youth and catching up on kids, grandkids, spouses, and retirement life.
Every day we piled into the minivan to do some exploring of St. Simons and the neighboring islands. We visited Jekyll Island and took a stroll at the eerie Driftwood Beach, rode a trolly ride around the St Simons Island, did some window shopping, and, being foodies, checked out the restaurants along the way.
One day we explored Savannah. Dolly, who has somehow been able to keep track of her Brownie sash with her one merit badge, wore it proudly around the city and led us to the Girl Scout museum to commemorate our fearlessly Girl Scout leader and Sherry’s mother— Mrs. Griffin. In high school, she included us on church field trips to Boblo Island amusement park with boys who I remember as being the spitting image of the Fonz. ( I wonder why we liked going?)
We all grew up in the Detroit area in the ‘50s and early 60’s, which made automobiles a central part of our life. I was driving and Trish was navigating (some of the time) and as a few turns were missed Sherry recalled a time in high school when she and Dolly were off to an Albion College weekend in her Camaro “talking faster than the speed limit” and ended up in Toledo- a 180 mile detour. This was maybe topped by Wendy who fondly remembered her sister and she having to explain how the rag top of the family’s 1963 Comet convertible landed on the grounds of the Oakland Hills Country Club because of a gust of wind and a forgotten latch. Things haven’t changed in 68 years—we always ended up lost or losing things in the wrong places, which always leads to a new discovery and continued shared experiences.
Of course, Trish had to remind us of the time her parents grounded her after they caught another one of us “making out” with a boyfriend in their driveway (I won’t drop names.).
And Nancy was grounded when she was caught at Ted’s after dark—one of the historic drive-in restaurants and a hang-out for teens along Woodward Ave, in the Detroit area. If you are from Detroit -- and above a certain age -- you know “Woodwarding” was a major pastime. My best memory was during my 16th summer—Trish and I double-dated twins who had matching MG Midget convertibles. We don’t remember what the boys looked like or their names—just their fabulous cars. Perhaps that explains why the two of us ended up buying small convertible roadsters in our 55 years later. Thank you to the twins, wherever you are.
We grew up at a time when most safety features of a car didn’t exist. The backs of station wagons could be turned into small playrooms when the seats were folded down and seatbelts didn’t exist. Dolly remembered endless hours of playing board games with cousins on the way to Florida and when the seats were up you could watch where you came from with an unobstructed view. I though appreciated the safety features of the Odyssey rental--the lane change warning, rear view cameras, and other safety features made driving our group easier. As the designated driver, I was glad that I got us around with no problems (except for a few wrong turns). The following Saturday, we arrived safely arrived back at Jacksonville for the flight home and a promise to do it again.