Dress-Rehearsal Camping at Home (Invite a Friend!)

If you're like Girl Camping Girl (above), you'd be out traveling and camping all the time. But for most of us, that's not our real world.

With family needs...work duties...iffy weather...fuel at $4/gallon...well, there are a lot of times when we just have to stay home with the trailer parked in the driveway or the tent stored in the garage.

But that doesn't mean we can't still have fun, Girl Camping style!

How: Round up a friend, make a date, invite her over, and do some camping at home.

After all, home's not a bad place to be, especially when it comes to testing things out at the start of the season or after you get a new camping abode (trailer or tent) to enjoy.

In fact, home is a great place to hold a dress-rehearsal campout, because it's a no-risk, little-expense way to to identify needs and supplies before you get out on the road later. You can shower in the house, raid the pantry or the shop for what you're missing, and duck inside if the weather turns nasty.

Miss Mig and GCG did this very thing last weekend. On Friday afternoon, they set up their trailers by GCG's garage and plugged 'em in. Then they lit a firepit blaze on the patio, declared Happy Hour, and set about having a ball for the next 48 hours.

They rooted around in the trailer drawers and closets for items they could use to decorate the outside areas alongside their trailers.

They got into their little kitchens and played house with the contents.

As you can see, they have completely different styles--which makes it even more fun!

GCG's furkids got a chance to check out the trailers.

The girls had to go to town on a hubby-errand, which gave them the perfect excuse to slip in a little bit of thriftiquing. Girl Camping Girl got the score of the day, a leather bomber jacket for $3.50.

They tested out their sleeping quarters. MM added a crocheted afghan she found at the thrift store, and GCG basked in the warmth from her mini electric fireplace.

They raided GCG's spring garden for daffodils, and invited each other over for morning coffee and tea. In their glam-pajamas, of course.

By the time the sun sank on Sunday evening, the Girl Camping Girls felt like they'd had a week's vacation. They had good new lists to work from when packing for a for-real camping trip. They still had plenty of gas left in their tow vehicles' tanks, and they had money left in their wallets, too.

Excellent, all the way around!