The New American Dream Pt 2: Glamping

The world of glamping (glamour camping) is exploding right now, and happens to be the star of our second half of The New American Dream. In part 1, we discussed workamping (work camping or working from the road) and how it suits the changing needs for many who are growing out of the suburban lifestyle.  Mobile freedom is the new prize for living well.

Living Without the Stuff

Many homes have basements, attics, and garages–great places to accumulate and store everything needed to go with the traditional family package. Unfortunately, we often wake up one day to discover the unhappy truth that we do not own all this stuff — it owns us. At one time, each item had its purpose. But now, decades later, lifestyle and priority changes are causing an entire generation to reflect and recalibrate.

How did we get all this stuff? Are there things just sitting that others can be using? Is it time for a lifestyle inventory?

The Cost of Stuff

Somewhere between starter homes and retirement homes, we are discovering that rooms of clutter and boxes of stuff have limited us. Weighed us down. Cost us money, time, and energy spent maintaining and upgrading (and sometimes just LOOKING for) our stuff. We’ve realized that instead of making our world fuller, too often it has actually made it smaller. Our focus turned inward where we had everything we needed. We settled for living life vicariously through characters and scenes on our flat screen TVs, forgetting there was a big, beautiful world outside waiting to be explored.

Traveling Light

Enter the RV lifestyle. By scaling down and hitting the road, you can choose any number of RV options. You can move into a full-time long term RV Park as your home base (Providence RV Park, situated in the east Texas piney woods near Lake Fork, has everything from weekender options to annual part time and full time). You may find you love the woods so much you don’t want to roam beyond it. Or you can unhook and take off to visit places you’ve always wanted to visit but without the hassle of having to book and pay for hotel rooms.

The more adventurous enjoy the idea of boondocking, or going off the beaten path to exotic locales. In exchange for often breathtaking views, they don’t mind foregoing the basic comforts of being able to “plug in” to electric and sewer facilities typically available at more permanent locations.

Glamping: the Best of All Worlds

But what about those who have a luxury mindset they can’t bear to leave behind as they head out to the wild blue yonder? Or those wanting to enjoy nature’s stunning views while surrounding themselves with at least SOME of the comforts of home? Yes, glamping is for the Eva Gabors in life who shudder at the thought of roughing it, even for a brief stint. You can glamp in tents, yurts, treehouses, tipis, and–of course–RVs. The point is to make your experience the most memorable ever.

 

 

 

 

To some, that means bringing your Edison string lights, a bottle of wine and a Coleman queen size air cot with goose down duvet to outfit your tent. To others, it means booking a romantic treehouse “hotel” room to get you up, up, and away from it all. If you’re anywhere near the DFW area in Texas, check out Grandview Treetops. You can nest in private luxury for a weekend or so high above a working ranch and raw goat dairy on 95 acres with trails and plenty of room to hike. Or not.

So check out the glitzy world of glamping with plenty of guides, directories and how-to manuals like Mary Jane Butters’ guide on Amazon. There are so many possibilities out there. Consider catching up on all the life you may have missed. You know, while you were looking for your stuff.