What do you do when you love camping but your best friends don’t? You buy a camper and convince them to go “glamping” for your birthday! Cathie and Jen both love to hike and be outside, but neither of them are big on sleeping outside and roughing it. Cathie in particular won’t even entertain the idea of a night in a tent. Luckily I have a hotel on wheels, so I was able to convince them to come with me on a trip to Byrd’s Branch Campground in the foothills of North Carolina one weekend in March.

As with most trips, I over prepared and over planned the details. I was hoping they’d enjoy this trip so they’d be into another adventure at another time. I researched things to do in the area and places to explore. We divvied-up the food to buy and figured out what else we needed to bring.

Around noon on Friday, we hit the road and had an easy drive to Elkin, NC. I struggled with backing the camper into the spot without my husband’s eyes, but the campground owner came by with an assist. We settled into Site 06 which has full hook ups and borders a pretty stream. I tried to teach Jen and Cathie how to set up the camper, but they mostly just watched and had some snacks.

Once the camper was set up, we grabbed a beverage and enjoyed the fresh air. We watched the cows in a pasture just beyond the campground have their dinner. Dinner consisted of cheese and crackers and heavy snack d’oeuvres. Once the sun went down, I tended to the fire and we planned tomorrow’s activities.

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Saturday morning we slowly woke up and laughed off the last night’s antics. I made my standard breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and pancakes with lots of coffee. Thanks to the full hookups, we all took showers and got ready to hit the trail. The destination was Grassy Creek Vineyard which is located just 1.5 miles from the campground. The Grassy Creek trail was really pretty with cute signs pointing the way.

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At the winery, we each selected a tasting tray of five different wines to try. I opted for the riesling, the chardonnay, the rose, something called a chambourcin, and the red blend.

The wines…were not great. The three of us had traveled to San Francisco about a year ago and got to tour wineries in Napa and Sonoma so maybe we were expecting too much. That didn’t stop us from sitting there for several hours and drinking three bottles of not great wine. We don’t really have high standards when it comes to just enjoying a beautiful place outside with some drinks.

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As you can imagine, the hike back to the campground was a blur after 3 bottles of wine. By the time we got back, it was dinner time and none of us were in any state to drive. So we pulled a lazy (and responsible!) camper card and ordered delivery pizza to the site. That pizza hit the spot and we settled in for another campfire and another bottle of wine as darkness fell.

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Let me tell you, camping with friends is a hell of a lot different than camping with your family. I got to stay up late, sleep in, and laze around as much as I wanted to. I still packed lots of snacks for the hike (an entire cheese and crackers plate was pulled from my backpack at the winery) but the days were carefree. When we got home, there wasn’t a whole lot of enthusiasm for another trip. My camper is a bit small for sleeping 3 adults in their own space. They said they’d go again, but I think they were just being polite. So I’m not really sure if I’ll be able to get my friends out camping with me again but at least we had one memorable adventure!