It had been years since my last campout.. So long in fact ,that I was worried about this trip and yet excited. I used to love camping many years ago and I thought that it was about time to get back to doing things that I love. What really got me excited was it would be the first time that I participated in an all women’s campout. The group of women I was going with all were camping with teardrop campers. I do not own a camper of any kind. But this did not present a problem with this group. This is where I came up with the idea of glamping for this trip. I wanted to make my tent as nice as camping in a camper.
I had a great deal of fun planning this trip. Of course I had all kinds of ideas of things I wanted to make for this campout. As you must know, I had more ideas than I had time. it was fun making everything. Much of what I made I did tutorials for in previous posts. I made the pillows for each of us. The words glow in the dark. The pink round things are weights made out of brass washers from the hardware store covered with fabric.
If you ask people what do they think glamping is you will get a great deal of difference of opinion on what that means. In the dictionary (which I was surprised it was there) it is defined as follows. Glamp·ing[ˈɡlampiNG]NOUN a form of camping involving accommodation and facilities more luxurious than those associated with traditional camping. “glamping is likely to satisfy any city slicker seeking a little refuge in nature—without foregoing any of life’s luxuries” Having read this I began my interpretation of what I felt glamping would be like in my tent.
What I found was you end up taking a ton of stuff camping. So you do not want to do this kind of camping if you are just setting up for one night. It is so much easier if you camp for at least 3 days if not longer. Keep in mind that comfort while camping is the key, whatever comfort means to you. Being that this was the first time I went camping in over 10 years I made a few mistakes also. I also kept notes of what I would do differently. Here is some other things I found to take glamping. I found the lightning bugs at Bed Bath & Beyond. They are solar powered and the bodies light up in the dark. I found the coffee mugs,candles and red lantern at Scheel’s sporting goods store. The plates we already had. The blue jars have straws with them also and I found them at Walmart. The table cloth and napkins already had them. Made a French press coffee wrap for the coffee pot. Have several for sale also.
First mistake I made was to book a site without knowing what it really looked like. I am not in the best of health so this should be a priority from now on. The campsite was great if you are healthy, had a great view and everything. My campsite was on a hill over looking the lake and RV’s. My dilemma was when I found I had to hike up a flight of stairs from the car. It was about 70 yards. I first unloaded the tents and carried them up the stairs. By myself it took me about 3 hours to get them both up the stairs and set up. I had to get my bed set up so if I got to tired I could just go to sleep. I had a lower air mattress I had to blow up at my car and carry it up the hill. By now as you can imagine I am starving. The ice chest with food and the camp stove were in the car and also needed to be carried up. When I finally finished setting up and preparing dinner I was famished.
What I had prepared ahead of time was hamburgers in containers for hamburgers and precut all the vegetables at home. I put the burger in two layers of tin foil and added the sweet potatoes and carrots. Then I folded the tin foil like a burrito. I cooked the whole meal in the foil and in a cast iron skillet. This made cleanup so very easy.
I draped netting fabric all around the inside of the screened in tent. ( won’t do that again. the fabric has everything stick to it.)
I also hung windchimes inside of the screened in tent. It made for nice sounds while camping. I had several and at different weights. It helped me to know how strong the wind was.
I forgot to take pictures of what I cooked for breakfast. What I made was eggs and sausage with sweet potatoes wrapped in tin foil. The eggs were harder to do in the tin foil. I also made coffee.
I spent some of my time sketching ideas out. I will post those in a later post. Now during the day it rained and then stopped, rained then stopped. This went on all day. Of course it blew in at an angle so I ended up having to take the table down and set it back up several times through out the day. Sigh! Even with all this I will camp again. I kept a journal of the campout of all that went wrong and all that was right and changes I will make for my next campout.
For lunch I made a chicken breast and rice with sweet potatoes. If you have not figured it out I love sweet potatoes. I cooked wild rice in the cast iron dutch oven and the chicken in the frying pan. I drank water with fruit in it or a fizz from Arbonne.
Love the Arbonne products that I also sell them. (roxannestorlie.arbonne.com)
What camping trip would be complete unless you saw some wild life. We saw Two male deer as close to us as 5 feet.
Then as we got tired and thinking of sleep the lights went on and this is some of that experience.
When I got home I washed everything and repacked it in their proper containers so when we decide to go again all I need to do is grocery shop, and prep the food. Already planning my next trip and searching for the items I wish to take. Can’t wait to share my next adventures with you!
Be on the lookout for my glamping cookbook that will be for sale very soon!