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OUR EVOLUTION TO GLAMPING

Let me be very clear that I am not a camper. Waking up damp, freezing or sweating all night, wearing flip flops to an iffy campground bathroom, YUK! I once shared a shower stall with the world's largest daddy long legs spider. No thank you!

My husband and kids, on the other hand, love everything about camping. So about 8 years ago when Steve wanted to take B on a camping trip with his dad and grandfather I opted out. They camped (in a tent) at the Oshkosh Air Show and had a great time. The next year Steve wanted to go back and bring E and me along. He also started throwing around the idea of a camper. At the time we both were diving smaller SUVs which meant our options would be limited. After many discussions we decided it wasn't in the budget (nor was I interested in making camping our main form of vacationing).


After lots of research we came upon a nice compromise and invested in a tent trailer. This got us sleeping up off of the ground- yay for not waking up damp! And it was light enough that we could easily tow it with either of our vehicles. We had the Transformer of tent trailers and it was working well for us. We even hauled it all the way to Banff. 

During this time Steve worked so hard to encourage me to like camping. He did all of the cooking, clean up, campsite set up. He made it a point to get up early and get coffee for me first thing in the morning. We bought a king sized heated blanket to use over night- we learned the hard way on a Memorial Day Black Hills trip that we weren't very well prepared for cooler nights with small kids. 

On a July 4th trip to Door County (we stayed at Wagon Trail Campground- 5 stars!) in 2019 I threw in the towel. In the middle of the night one of the girls woke up and needed to go to the bathroom. I rushed to find a flashlight. Woke the other girl up to go with- I wasn't going to make this midnight dash twice- and we started running across the campground. Just before we made it to the campground restroom B ran smack into a huge bolder. She flipped completely over it. We all stopped, stunned. She was still half awake and too dazed to even cry. When I got back to the campsite I told Steve that was it- I was done tent camping. We needed a bathroom on site. The whole drive home I took notes on each of the campers we passed. 

By the next year Steve was driving a truck and we purchased our first travel trailer. We had graduated to
glamping. And now I was a happy, comfortable mom AND I started to fall in love with glamping. The air conditioning/heat, bathroom, a shower... so fancy! This is the style of "camping" I could get excited about. 


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