By Jeanni Ritchie
Sometimes the best girlfriend getaway doesn’t need a packed itinerary.
Sometimes you just need a cabin, a golf cart, a pool, live music, and a friend who has known you long enough to remember all the stories but loyal enough to keep them in the vault.
Mary and I found exactly that at Paradise Ranch RV Resort in Tylertown, Mississippi, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Alexandria.
We arrived just as the rain did.
After checking into one of the resort’s brand-new cabins, rebuilt following last year’s tornado damage, we picked up our golf cart and started exploring until the drizzle turned into a thunderstorm.
That sent us back to the cabin with pizza from the Red Stag Café.
It felt a little like Mary and I had been sent to the Isolation Cabin in The Parent Trap.
Fortunately, neither of us were especially concerned.
We ate pizza, watched ducks from the screened-in porch, read, talked, and waited for better weather.
By morning, the clouds were gone.
We took the golf cart back out, winding past cabins and campsites, cypress trees, swampy stretches, and a bright red footbridge that quickly became one of my favorite spots on the property.
Paradise Ranch spans more than 100 acres and includes RV and primitive camping, cabins, a cypress lake, swimming areas, golf-cart rentals, and plenty of space to explore.
We grabbed biscuits from the café, then headed to the pool for a full day of floating, dozing, music, and conversation.
Mary did the zip line over the pool and bounced all around on the jumping pillow.
I supervised both.
We filled approximately 50 balloons and declared war from the wooden Water Wars battle station.
And we got matching tattoos.
Glitter tattoos, of course.
Each weekend is themed, and ours was Holiday Mash-Up Weekend. We met Santa in the General Store, hunted eggs with the Easter Bunny, and chased a green leprechaun through the property.
The weekend also included karaoke, crafts, Candy Bar Bingo, Build-A-Bear, archery, and other family activities throughout the day.
That evening, we headed to the pavilion for live music from the Chris LeBlanc Band. Our golf cart was our concert seating. There was something magical about sitting in the open night air, stars overhead and trees swaying in the breeze.
Mary danced next to the golf cart.
I chose the equally respectable option of dancing from the golf cart with lumbar support.
The two-hour show covered a wide range of music, but I especially loved the saxophone during Take Me Home, Country Roads.
Chris also performed Tush in tribute to the late Frank Beard of ZZ Top, for whom he once opened.
The evening closed with an instrumental performance of The Star-Spangled Banner.
American flags moved in the breeze while the moon rose above the pine trees, and Mary and I stood at attention until the final notes played.
After the show, we were invited onstage to visit with Chris and his band, where we got to tell them in person just how much we had enjoyed the night. We’d sung along to every song of a set list spanning decades and genres.
The next morning, as Mary packed her 27 bags, I took one last ride around the property.
I drove back out to the red footbridge and sat there for a while, writing and taking photos of the water, trees, and reflections.
A few of the pictures turned out so beautifully that I immediately started wondering whether I could find a photography contest to enter. Sometimes nature isn’t merely the backdrop; it’s the whole picture.
Paradise Ranch gave us exactly what we had hoped for: a low-key weekend with enough activities to keep things fun and enough quiet to actually relax.
There is something wonderfully easy about traveling with a friend who has known you for decades.
You can laugh about who you were at 17, talk about who you are now, and speculate about what your 80-year-old selves will someday remember.
I suspect we will still be talking about the weekend we watched an outdoor concert from a golf cart.
Paradise Ranch RV Resort is located at 660 Mississippi Highway West in Tylertown, Mississippi.
For lodging, events, and reservations, visit ParadiseRanchRV.com.
