Day 28: Glamping

Every summer my husband I go camping with our friends.  We go out to a nature retreat in Kansas about three-and-a-half hours from here, usually leaving on Wednesday and coming back on Sunday.

We have a large, orange tent.  There is both a front and side entrance, and a covered porch/entrance area.  It's large enough to house a queen-sized blow up mattress that we put up on camp cots.  Inside is also a five-foot table that we put our camping tubs under, with the table surface for our counter-top. There is room enough beside the bed to set the bedding tub up as a night table.

Outside we have an orange pop-up awning we use as our kitchen area.  We set up two more five-foot tables with our kitchen tubs and ice chests under; on top of the tables we have a small, propane grill. One of the tables is kept strictly for prep space, the other for eating from.  Underneath our entire personal area we put down tarps to protect against potential rain.

Personally, I prefer climate control, room service, and white-sand beaches.  My idea of "roughing it" would be Motel 6.  Sleeping in a tent in the wilds of Kansas is not usually my idea of a good time. But our friends have funny ideas of camping as well, and the experience isn't as bad as it could be.

Deborah is the organizer of our weekend.  Each year she is looking for the "next big thing", the newest way to make our camping trip less like camping.  Last year she really pulled off a doozie.

Outside of her tent (a large, white tent with three rooms) she has a kitchen with running water that is pumped in from storage jugs.  She also set up a jumbo circus-style tent for our group to gather in. She has music piped in by satellite.  There are several box fans and oscillating fans.  Assorted rugs cover the grass and dirt.  For your sitting pleasure there are rocking chairs, bag chairs, and outdoor couches.  This past summer there was even an 80-inch television that she brought out just for "movie night", complete with popcorn.

In front of the "social tent" there will be a volley ball net for afternoon play.  Deborah is a very social person, and she will venture into other camping areas and invite other campers over for a friendly game of beach-ball volley ball.  She keeps an ice chest stocked with water balloons so that we can defend our area should we get attacked with water guns (and yes, it does happen!).

There are tiki-torches marking pathways all around our compound.  We each go out at dusk and light the torches that lead to our personal tents from the social tent.  There are five to eight personal tents that make up our area.  Then we move out to the camp fire to sing songs and make s'mores.

As much as I moan and groan about camping, I wouldn't miss the  "glamping" trip with our friends for anything!