The History of Girl Camp (Part II, and So Far)

Right after 9/11, Girl Camping Girl and Mr. Ed, hubby dearest, managed to buy a little weekend-use house in an Idaho mountain town that's at the end of the road.

Originally, the 1915 house was built as worker housing by the timber company that built a sawmill and the town to go with it. Entire streets of houses were built from the white pines cleared to make the town.

Friends and relatives came to visit, and some even bought their own properties in the little town--setting up what became something of a colonization.

One day, two adjoining lots across the street from the little house came up for sale. GCG could only afford one, so she picked the higher one of the two, for its view, and because it offered a level, nearby place to turn her first vintage trailer, an Airstream Land Yacht, into a summer guest house. Someone else bought the lower lot, and used its mobile home as a base for weekend recreation.

The view lot still had room for more trailers, so sometimes GCG's friend Miss Shelley would bring her trailer, and spend the weekend at what quickly came to be dubbed 'Girl Camp,' with a funky hand-lettered sign adorned with two china plates--just to underscore the 'girly' part.

Another friend, Miss MJ, came for the first  'trailer slumber party for three' at Girl Camp, took photos, and used some of them in her fab book, 'MaryJane's Outpost.'

From one trailer, to two, to three--why not add a couple more for the next trailer slumber party, as long as there was room? (Would other gals make the drive to the town at the end of the road? It turns out that they would--and that they loved being the girls at Girl Camp!)

Next, an especially heavy-snow winter proved too much for the mobile home on the lot below. It caved in, the owners cleared away the debris, and then stuck up a For Sale sign. And one of the Girl Campin' friends decided to buy it, making Girl Camp twice as big.

In our fantasy life, we'd just be there all the time, hostessing and playing! But of course there are things like jobs, and regular homes, and family needs, and that other stuff of real life (for which camping is the antidote). So the latest version of Girl Camp gets enjoyed privately as often as chances allow, and on special occasions, gets to host some parties.

Still a work in progress, hope to have you on the guest list sometime (cuz if you're reading this, you're already someone we know we'd love to have).