Carpe Diem!

If you liked away camp when you were a kid, this is for you!

Growing up, I was a Girl Scout. I sold the cookies, earned the badges, and attended the weekly meetings. But my favorite part was the annual campout. A weekend of being outside nearly all our waking hours, learning new things with the many activities, and making new friends from the other troops.

The Moms from the troop would drive us out to the campgrounds, usually official Girl Scout camps, and chaperone us over the weekend. I am not sure it was their favorite Scouting activity, but we loved it. We usually stayed in large tents, big enough at least half the troop. Though I remember one campout when we had small tents that we had to set up and were expected to dig our own latrine. I managed to “hold it” until we got home!

We did activities that helped us earn additional badges like campfire cooking, horseback riding, and archery. I loved earning badges and had a sash full. To me, they were a sign that I tried a lot of new things. Well that, and I lived to always have more badges than Linda Connors.

We would hike through nearby woods, sometimes with a guide who would teach us about plants or the animal prints along the way, but often with a mom who barely recognized poison ivy. I don’t remember any of us using the wrong leaves during a visit to the latrine, so they maybe they did know something!

My favorite part of camping? The campfires and making s’mores! No matter how warm the weather, we always wanted a campfire. One camping weekend, it rained nearly the entire time. We were in one of those large tents with a wooden floor and cots. A wood stove warmed the cabin and we played games to pass the time. It was so disappointing not to have a campfire, but it was like a flood outside! However, the moms made sure we still had s’mores. They figured out how to use the stoves to roast marshmallows.

Now as a full-time RVer, I still love campfires and break out the s’mores on occasion. What is better than boondocking with friends and gathering around a campfire. The conversation is much better and we laugh so much more when sitting there, enjoying a fire and the stars!

Remembering those special times and missing the chance to make new friends, we here at The Virtual Campground partnered with Living a Stout Life to recreate that magic and bring you Camp Carpe Diem, a camp where you Seize the Day and just enjoy yourself! With the advantage of bringing your RV, so you can sleep in your own bed and don’t have to dig a latrine.

Rvers know how to enjoy the moment and where you are, but we still often put off fun because we have work to do or are taking care of normal life. At Camp Carpe Diem, you can enjoy yourself, try new things with people who are experts, and just relax. We will take care of the agenda with activities like mountain biking, photography, beer tasting and brewery tours, jeeping, yoga and more.

Plus, you will connect with fellow nomads! It is often hard as adults to make new friends and harder still if you are often traveling around. One of the things we missed as full-timers is having a community. Luckily, we found our tribe at the RVE Summit a few years ago and have built strong friendships of like-minded people to support us on this journey. At Camp Carpe Diem, we hope you can connect with your tribe.

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And of course, you know we will have nightly campfires (and s’mores!) to gather for stories, singing and lots of laughter.

We hope you will join us at Camp Carpe Diem, a camping experience where sticky s’mores hands, scraped up mountain biking knees, burnt BBQ’d fingertips, rainbow yoga minds, happy feet, revitalized taste buds and laughter-invigorated souls fill your world not just for the long weekend, but with memories and connections that you can take away long after.