Ready? Set...GLAMP!

April 01, 2016

Spring is here and a brand new glamping season officially starts – today! Yep, you read that right. The Giesens are going glamping in APRIL – I never would have thought it was possible to go this early. Calgary has had a very warm winter and very little snow, so over a month ago, we took a chance and booked the April 1 weekend, thinking we’d cancel it last minute if the weather ended up being bad. Our gamble paid off – temps will reach 20+ degrees this weekend! Some summers the weather doesn’t even get that nice! :P And while we have seen weather like this in April in previous years, we NEVER considered going out in the trailer. Does that mean we are getting braver? More comfortable driving a massive condo-on-wheels behind us? Loving glamping more? Perhaps it means all of it.

Needless to say, we four are very excited. We’ve been talking about it non-stop for the last few days and we’re almost ready to go, even though it’s only Wednesday.

The thought actually came to us when we first finalized plans with my dad and stepmother, Aunty Jennifer, for their visit April 3-8. The kids will be on their second week of March break (stinkin’ lucky kids!) and Dave and I took time off work to hang out with them and my parents. We were trying to think of fun things to do with them. Calgary is a challenge for tourists, in our opinion. After you visit Banff a few times, go to the zoo, walk around Heritage Park for a few hours, there’s not a lot of unique places to take a visitor. We have no beaches, no aquariums, no massive theme parks. The shopping is meh and food is good, but expensive. We always run out of ideas. This time, we thought we’d take my dad and stepmother camping in the mountains. They’ve never been camping before.

The scenery would take their breath away. It would be an experience they’d never forget! Except…they didn’t go for it. I texted them and asked them what they thought. Here’s how the convo went:

Me: Do you guys want to go camping in our trailer one night? Not far – to the mountains.

Aunty Jennifer: Um…can you ask your dad? Will it be cold? How about we go for a nice movie, spend time with you all, take you out for a nice dinner?

(1 second later)

Aunty Jennifer: Dad would like to play with the children and spend most of the time with you all. We don’t need to go camping.

(Another 1 second later)

Aunty Jennifer: We are not really outdoors people.

Dad: I don’t want to go camping.

Me: We just thought maybe you’d like to go camping since you’ve never done it before.

Dad: I don’t want to go camping.

:P Oh well, would have been fun! :P

The kids had already warmed up (no pun intended!) to the idea of camping in April, so we quickly booked the weekend before my dad and Aunty Jennifer arrive. It’ll mean a very busy few days but the weather will be awesome and we’re so excited – it’ll be worth it!

De-winterizing the Enterprise (remember our trailers' name!) was very easy to do. We make it a habit of checking it every few weeks over the winter, to check for break-ins, leaks, damage, mice. Nothing happened, thankfully. Dave took a couple of hours to do whatever he had to do (I really don’t know what), while I swiped away a bit of dust inside. We had done all our trailer laundry at the end of last season and then packed everything in huge Rubbermaids and then stored inside the trailer, so I didn’t have to find or hunt for anything. I just unpacked, made the beds and put everything where it belonged. The RV kitchen is stocked with its own supplies so I just made sure everything was still clean and in order. I made a quick list of the packaged goods we had run out of last year and then made a quick grocery list. The kids brought out their “camping clothes” – these are clothes they aren’t fussy about, shirts they may not love anymore and don’t mind getting a campfire burn in, jeans that are maybe a bit too short or have a rip in the knee, that kind of thing. Enough socks, underwear and our camping PJs, and we’re good to go on the wardrobe for the season. I just have to go shopping on Thursday night and then we’re off on Friday. It was very easy and painless.

We’re off to Mt Kidd, our favorite, close-by destination. We won’t have water or sewer at our site (those don’t get turned on until May) but we’re prepared.

We’ve had a stressful winter. We’re really looking forward to some fresh air and some close-quarters family time. We’re taking Dave’s guitar and we’re hoping our site will be downwind so we can sing some campfire songs. Everyone picked a favourite meal. We’ve got some movies downloaded in case of bad weather (this is Calgary, it can happen without warning), and we’ll make our usual pact to not stress, have fun, and relax just before we leave.

Bring on the 2016 season!

Here's a few pics of what we've been up to in the off-season...