The Sisterhood of the Traveling Windpants

Once upon a time there was a pair of NOLS windpants. They were an essential kind of pants–quick dry, naturally, green but not that stiff new green you see so often on restocking days. They’d had a good life before us. You could just tell. They had lots of stains and rip-stop patches.

I guess Outfitting’s dirty laundry bin is the place to find magic. Adrienne pulled the pants out one day and, miraculously, they fit all four of us. It might have had something to do with the drawstring waist, but I think it was mostly magic.

This is our first summer together at NOLS Rocky Mountain–me, Adrienne, Nate and Brooks. We are everything to one another. We don’t need to say so; it’s just true. Sometimes it seems like we make one complete person instead of four separate ones.

We knew right away the pants stood for our friendship and that’s how the Sisterhood was born. We each promised to take the pants on NOLS-worthy adventures all over Lander and the Wind River Range.

We the Sisterhood hereby instate the following rules to govern the use of the Traveling Windpants:

1. You must never wash the pants.

2. You must never think “I am fat” while wearing the pants.

3. You must blow incredible snot rockets while wearing the pants. Don’t even try to pick your nose, because shooting snot out is way cooler.

4. You must blog about the pants.

5. You must pass the pants along to your Sisters by way of the NOLS Outfitting dirty laundry bin.

6. You must not wear the pants with anything cotton. Cotton in the backcountry is tacky. There will never be a time when it will not be tacky.

7. Remember: Windpants = love.

*Inspiration for this post (and posts to come) was taken from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. (Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Delacorte: New York, 2001.)