Girls camp out weekend

[vanbrat]

I have a few girlfriends that want to join me for a girls only weekend camp out. We are all over 50 and some well over (me) and we all love our hubbies but, time for some girl time. Now I am looking to find some things to do, not that at our age we need to be entertained but...... I love stories by the fire, potlucks and night's that each of us is in charge type dinners. I have a few silly games like 'Cards Against Humanity' and Mexican Dominos. But any other ideas...... Oh yea none of us are prudish and most of us grew up in the 60's and 70's so we probably could shock the crap out of the youth of today with our coming-of-age stories.... but since a few are thinking of bringing their teen daughters with them maybe we should not......
So what ideas do you have? Oh yea, I am the one bringing the bar.

 

[VanFan]

So what ideas do you have?

Oh I think you've got this! Have a great time!

 

[maki2]

You will be to busy talking and doing tours of each others camping space and gear and solar va no solar setups the first day.

Of course at every gathering of nomadic women endless hours are often spent discussing your personal hygiene and toilet setups. I suggest putting a ban on that “potty talk” subject as it gets beat to death in every Van life forum and essentially is truly a boring subject that tends to dominate true friendship conversation bonding time. Instead discuss great campsites you have visited or would like to visit. Or demonstrate and learn some useful knots, ways you create shade to stay cool, nature craft hobbies you like to do in camp. Foraging for food fun you have done, etc. Basically and intentionally put the focus on the outdoor living time and deliberately, and of course mutually agree, to steer the conversations away from what it is you spend your time doing back at home base. I remember one camp fire group where a person brought along a good quality outdoor speaker with a playlist of older popular tunes. A lot of people started singing along. That was pretty fun, easy going, entertainment for a half hour or so of campfire time. A break from “chatter” can lead to some real unwinding relaxation in the evenings. There was also star watching group time for trying to spot satellites and UFOs.

 

[vanbrat]

I should have also noted Most of these girls don't do much 'camping' 1 has an RV but the others will be bringing their own tents. I expect that my kitchen will be the one we use as the RV one is 'inside' the RV and it is a small RV, my kitchen is on the outside of my van so nobody needs to be around for that except whoever is cooking or mixing drinks or? Even if I am sleeping in the front nobody can see through to the front. We may all be using the RV bathroom though. Most of us have worked together for years or at least all of us are in the childcare/teacher field.

We spend some of our time laughing about that kid that said what and that parent did whaaaaat!???? And do you remember when we all did????? Potty talk takes on a whole new level when preschool teachers are involved.

The rest of the time is what I am thinking about what do we do? I know we will hit the topic of curriculum and art ideas and story time only this time we will use all those stories we have had to edit for the kidos. I think our biggest no-no talk will be politics, there are girls with strong ideas on both sides... so no politics. And of course, the one lady who always asks where was the weirdest place you did #$&^%. ? That one question has been really fun to start things rolling. We may have to wait till the teens are out of earshot though for that one, like I said we were all young in the 60's and 70's. One lady was a wild Navy lady and me I was a wild child until I was the mommy. One lady has a son that takes her all around the world with him and his hubby, and 2 have teenagers, one has 8 kids and she is great with jokes. I like the idea of some good old music stuff, as a kid we sang really stupid camp songs every single night. Maybe just some good old rock and roll stuff this time though. I don't think I could deal with "100 bottles of beer". Beattle's and Rolling Stones seems good to me.

Thank you for reminding me about some nature crafts. I know a few that might be fun....... And I am sure a few others do too, maybe that can be something I ask them about before we go. I'll ask the sourdough lady if she wants to do anything with her love of that. Fire roasted sour dough wrapped around a good thick stick with apple pie filling sounds so good. But that's me I love anything food wise.

 

[maki2]

Food wise oneof my favorite summertime backyard picnics with various cousins was making churned ice cream. When I was a young mother I came across a small sized hand crank churn at a garage sale. Just the right size for a mother with a young son and a friend to have grilled burgers and home made ice cream for desert! Sometimes I wish I had one to travel with but I am already space challenged so it will not be happening. But what fun it would be at Quartzsite for ice cream Social potlucks.

 

[vanbrat]

Food wise oneof my favorite summertime backyard picnics with various cousins was making churned ice cream. When I was a young mother I came across a small sized hand crank churn at a garage sale. Just the right size for a mother with a young son and a friend to have grilled burgers and home made ice cream for desert! Sometimes I wish I had one to travel with but I am already space challenged so it will not be happening. But what fun it would be at Quartzsite for ice cream Social potlucks.

Have you ever made ice cream in 2 large ziplock bags? Fill one with ice cream mix remove as much air as possible and then put that bag inside a bigger one with lots of ice and salt and mix until ice cream is soft service frozen. I bet you have room for 2 ziplock baggies. Thank you for reminding me that sounds great and I know the girls would have fun with ice cream.

 

[maki2]

I have room for ziplock bags but it simply is not worth buying a bag of ice and the ingredients to make a ziplock bag of ice cream for myself.

I do not go to a lot of potlucks but once in a while at Quartzsite there is an ice cream social. One year it was a Root Beer Float Party, I introduced the idea but then someone else surprised us all
by immediately going to town to get all the ingredients and party ware. I have another friend from this forum, Abnorm, who sometimeshas had Klondike Bar parties. There was an ice cream social at Quartzsite with friends in this recent early spring. But that was initiated by my friend (also a member of this forum) who was wanting to make space in his freezer so having friends help finish off a carton of ice cream was the easiest way to create space.

 

[VanFan]

Have you ever made ice cream in 2 large ziplock bags?

We used to do this with two different sizes of coffee cans, and let the kids roll them around for (what seemed like) ever. Ziplocks would be much more packable!

So no "Wee Sing Silly Songs"? Okay... I get it. As a 10-year Girl Scout leader, I know more than my share of obnoxious songs. Then there's Schoolhouse Rock from the homeschooling days, and Pub Sing from ren faires. Yea... Maybe stick with some classic rock.

You girls will be chuckling about this outing for years, I suspect--especially the newbies. No need to overthink it.

 

[maki2]

I thought about bringing along one of these little roll around ice cream makers. You put the ingredients in the inner metal container and ice and rock salt in the plastic surrounding space. It works reasonably fast. I sometimes see them in thrift stores or they can be purchased online.

Regarding needing bags of ice. A friend I camp with has been getting her bag ice from McDonalds. She uses the online ordering system which has ice listed as a purchase option. She accumulates a lot of bonus points she uses for getting “free” food and drink specials offered from that app. Sometimes stores in Quartzsite run out of bag ice which might make McDonalds a good alternative option to buy ice from.