Mary and Lynn's excellent adventure

Mary and Lynn have been friends since Jr. high school. All through high school, they were inseparable but after they graduated they went their separate ways. Lynn went to college out of state and became a lawyer. Mary went to a local college and became a teacher. They both got married and got on with their lives but always stayed in touch.

When they were 25 years old, they decided to get together and have an adventure. They left their kids at home with their husbands and went sky diving. The instructor took a picture of them in the air holding hands, both with a terrified look on their faces. So they made post cards of their sky diving picture and sent them to friends and family with the caption "Mary and Lynn's excellent adventure." They both decided after that, from now on they would get together every summer and have an excellent adventure.

In the beginning they did some very adventurous things like snow skiing, rock climbing, and mountain biking. one year Lynn got it set up with a friend of hers, for her and Mary to open for a comedian at a comedy club. Every year they made post cards with the title Mary and Lynn's excellent adventure. Then when social media started they posted all of their past adventures and each year their friends and family's looked forward to seeing what they were going to do next.

Their adventures started getting a little less adventurous because of their age. They did things like horse back riding and hiking but the last few years it was bowling, the opera, and last year they went to a rock concert.

This year, 2020 would have been their 40th year but the pandemic kept them from having an adventure over the summer. Their plan was to go on a cruise together. But it was canceled because of covid19. Lynn was retired and lived alone in the city and Mary lived about 2 hours away in the country with her husband Rusty. Lynn's children were worried for her to go anywhere because of the virus.

One day in early October, Mary called Lynn and said, "I have an idea of something we can do outside, so it will be safe. There is an apple orchard about half way between us. They are taking reservations so that there isn't too many people at a time. We can wear mask's and social distance. So your kids will probably be alright with it."

"That's a great idea, Mary. I have been so bummed out that we weren't going to do anything together this year. Especially since its our 40th anniversary of excellent adventures." Lynn exclaimed.

So Mary called and made reservations for the 2 of them at 10 am the next day. When they arrived, instead of the usual hug, they did an elbow bump. They walked up to the window and told the girl that they had a reservation at 10. "Ok, they are loading up on the wagon right now behind the building. Just go on back." she said with a smile.

When they saw the wagon behind the building they felt a little disappointed. It had a lot of people on it. Mary told the man who was on the tractor that would be pulling the wagon, that they had a reservation. "I was told you were being super careful and only letting half as many people go apple picking at a time."

"That's true, mam. The two of you will make 14 people. We usually allow 30 at a time." He smiled a big toothless smile.

Mary looked at Lynn and could tell she was apprehensive. "Would it be alright if we drove our own car back to the orchard or if we just walk?"

"Well mam, we don't allow any vehicles on the path. But if the two of you want to walk, I guess that would be fine. It's a long walk though. Probably a little over a half mile."

Lynn turned toward Mary, "Would you mind walking? I promised my daughter that I would be super careful."

"Actually, I would love to walk. Its a beautiful day. All the leaves are such magnificent colors. Yeah, let's walk." Mary excitingly said.

"Well you gals just follow this trail up the hill and around the corner. You go passed the pumpkin patch and then you will pass a straw maze. After the maze hang to the left and its just up a little further. You will see all the trees." He smiled.

"Cool, is the maze open? Can we go through it?" Mary asked.

The farmer shook his head. "I'm sorry the maze is closed. We had a bad storm here a couple days ago and it knocked part of it over. They are working on it right now. Its a really big maze. You can take a look when you go by. Check it out it's a Maze ing." He laughed and started up his tractor, pulling the wagon full of people up the hill.

"Come on Lynn, let's go have our 40th excellent adventure." Mary started up the hill.

"I think this might be one of our most lame adventures. Right up there with when we went bowling." Lynn laughed.

"Well, we are a lot older and at least we are doing something. Lets just try to make it fun and take a lot of pictures to post on social media." They started up the hill talking and laughing and enjoying the beautiful fall day.

When they got to the pumpkin patch, they took some pictures. Mary laid down and put her face in between two jack o lanterns and made a silly face. Lynn took some pictures. Then Mary got a video of Lynn sitting on a gigantic pumpkin and acting like she was riding it, hollering hee haw. After taking a few more pictures and silly video's they headed up the trail. A little further up they saw the maze that the farmer had told them about. It looked huge.

"Oh my gosh, that maze looks like so much fun." Lynn said as they walked up to it. They could see a pickup truck parked in back and heard some voices behind the maze. Peeking into the maze exit, Mary said, "Lets go in and check it out."

They went in a little way and there was a fork in the path so they went to the left. Then they came to another fork. Mary thought if they keep taking the left it will be easy to find their way back. After a couple more left turns, they came to what looked like a roundabout. They decided that they better go back but they couldn't agree on which path they just came out of. Getting very confused they just choose one and hoped they were going the right way. "How hard can it be? This is for kid's right?" Lynn chuckled.

They must have been heading towards the back of the maze because they could hear the guys who were working on it talking. Then they heard one of the guys say, "listen, I just heard someone." Mary started to yell but Lynn motioned for her to be quit. She whispered in Mary's ear. "I have an idea. Lets freak them out." Lynn got her phone out of her jacket pocket and showed Mary that she has a voice changing ap that also makes animal sounds. She set it to sound like a bear and her phone started growling very loud like a ferocious bear. They heard one of the guys say. "What the crap." Lynn and Mary tried hard to not bust out laughing. Then Lynn set it for a ghost voice, so that when she spoke into it with the speaker on her voice sounded like a haunting. Lynn spoke through the phone saying, "What are you doing in my maze. I'm going to get you."

Then they heard the guys say, "What the crap again." The girls were trying so hard not to laugh. Next Lynn set her phone to sound like a witch. "I am the wicked witch of the west." When Lynn said that Mary busted out laughing. Then they heard a guy say, "Its a couple of old lady's." Looking up they saw a guy about 25 years old on top of the straw lookin down on them.

"We are not old lady's." Lynn sternly replied. The guy jumped down and another young man came around the corner. Both with their arms crossed, staring at them. They felt like a couple of school girls in trouble. Mary explained that they were on their way to the apple orchard and just wanted to check out the maze. The young men laughed and said you ladies made our day. The one young man said, "You actually scared him, he started running when he heard the growl." The other young man turned a little red and denied being frightened.

Mary told them about the 40 years of Mary and Lynn's excellent adventures. They talked the two guys into letting them make a fake video of Mary and Lynn scaring them. So Mary videoed Lynn making the scary voices on her phone and then she filmed the guys running through the maze screaming. "What's your names so we can tag you in the video?" Mary asked.

"My names Matt and he's Jeff, but we aren't telling you are last name's because we definitely don't want to be tagged in that video." Matt laughed. Then he showed the lady's their way out of the maze and told them bye.

Mary and Lynn watched the video as they walked up the path to the apple orchard. The apple orchard looked so beautiful. The fall colors and so many beautiful apples. The farmer who they spoke with earlier gave them each a bag to put apples in and they began picking. Mary picked 2 bags full but Lynn only wanted one bag. All of the other people finished picking and were loading up on the wagon. "Alright, it looks like we are ready to head back down the hill. Are you two going to ride with us or do you want to walk again?" The farmer asked.

"I think we will walk again but can we send our bags of apples down with you?"

"Of coarse." He answered as he took the heavy bags from them and placed them in the wagon. Then the farmer started up his tractor and headed down the path.

"I took a lot of pictures of the orchard but we need to get some selfies of us picking apples for our excellent adventure post." Lynn said as she got her phone back out of her pocket. Mary started pretending to pick apples and Lynn started snapping pictures. "Do something silly Mary." Lynn laughed. So Mary through her leg over a low branch and pretended like she was going to climb a tree. Then she said, "I think with this low branch we could easily climb this tree and then take some selfies up in the tree for our post." Mary began climbing up. "Come on Lynn."

"Don't you think we are a little old to climb trees?"

"We aren't old. Hey remember we used to climb that big tree in the field across from my house when we were kids. Put the phone in your pocket and get up here." Mary said as she reached for a higher branch.

Lynn snapped a few pictures of Mary in the tree and then began to climb up. "I don't feel as brave as I did when we climbed tree's fifty years ago." She reached for the branch Mary was sitting on and pulled herself up.

"This is a big branch, it can hold the both of us. Lets climb out further on the branch. It will look like we are up really high on the pictures." Mary said as she began shimmying her way across the branch. Lynn looked terrified and it took her about 5 minutes but she finally made it half way down the branch. She was too scared to let go with one hand to get her phone out of her pocket so Mary had to slide over and get the phone out. Mary took several pictures of the two of them. "Ok I got some good pictures. Start scooting back." Mary waited a minute then said, "Come on Lynn, start scooting."

"I cant move. I'm too scared."

After about 5 minutes of trying to coax Lynn into just moving, Mary said, "Well I can't get around you, so if you wont scoot back, then I am just going to hang and jump down. Its really not that high." So Mary lifted her leg over the branch and hung from the branch with her hands for a few seconds and then dropped down to the ground. "Ouch, I guess I am an old lady. That did hurt but it wasn't bad. Come on Lynn, either scoot back down the branch or hang by your hands and drop."

Lynn was froze. She couldn't move. After about 10 minutes Mary didn't know what to do. Her friend was literally scared stiff. So she left Lynn in the tree and jogged down the path to the maze. She walked around the back of the maze and found Matt and Jeff in their pickup truck getting ready to leave for a lunch break. "Matt, Jeff, can you please help us. Lynn is stuck in a tree."

"Is this another prank?" Matt chuckled.

"No, I'm serious. We climbed up a tree to take pictures for our excellent adventure post and Lynn froze and cant get down."

The two young men followed Mary to where Lynn was still froze and scared in the tree. They tried to coax her into just scooting back down the branch she was sitting on but she wouldn't budge. Jeff yelled up to her, "Just jump and I will catch you."

"No way!" Lynn screamed in a shaky voice.

"I promise that I will catch you. Don't be afraid."

"No way!"

"Well the only other thing I can think of to do is call down to the front desk and ask them to send farmer John up here with his tractor and he can lift one of us up in the bucket to get her down." He started feeling around in his pocket for his phone. "Oh crap, my phone is in the truck. Do you have your phone, Matt?"

"My phone is in the truck too."

"Mary said, "Here use my phone." But neither of them knew the number by heart.

"Come on Lynn, just jump. This big strong guy will catch you and I will get it on film. It will be great for our post." Mary smiled.

Finally they talked her into jumping. She closed her eyes and let go and pretty much just fell off of the branch, screaming as she dropped into Jeff's arms. Mary got it all on video.

After they calmed Lynn down they all walked back to the maze and Jeff and Matt gave them a ride down the hill in the back of their truck. They took the scenic route 4 wheeling through the woods. Mary got that on video too. "We are going to eat a little lunch here on the patio. Would you ladies like to join us?" Matt asked. "They serve some delicious sandwiches here. Also fresh baked apple pie or pumpkin bread. And the apple cider is to die for."

"Yes, I am starving. And lunch is all on me. You boys saved my life." Lynn insisted. They sat out on the patio and ordered lunch. Every thing tasted so good and the scenery was magnificent. As they ate they all looked at the pictures and video's from the day. The boys ended up letting them add them on Facebook and tag them in the pictures.

"I really thought this years, Mary and Lynn's excellent adventure post was going to be so boring but it is turning out to be one of the funniest ones we ever posted. It's almost funnier than when we did that stand up comedy act." Lynn laughed and took a sip of her apple cider. The boys scrolled through their page on Facebook and watched the post from years ago when they did the comedy act. "You are the coolest old lady's we have ever met." Matt smiled.

Lynn smacked him on the leg and said, "We aren't old ladies, but I'll take that as a complement." Matt and Jeff had to get back to work. They told the girls goodbye and said they would be looking forward to seeing what next years excellent adventure would be.

Mary and Lynn sat out on the patio sipping their apple cider and going through their pictures to make their post. It was a perfect day. A little breezy but pleasant and the colorful trees made for a wonderful afternoon.