Summer Dares: Go glamping

if ordinary camping is too primitive and dull for your personal tastes, then glamping - "glamorous camping" - may be the solution.

While "glamped-up" vintage trailers are the most popular expression of the practice, there are a hundred ways to do glamping. In 2013, before she had ever heard of glamping, Sue Johnson of Lewiston bought an old trailer with a leaky roof and covered the warped ceiling and walls in wallpaper, painted zebra stripes on the outside and found a home for the African decor and animal prints that didn't seem to fit in her 100-year-old farmhouse. She put it in her yard, and her husband, Arnie, built a roof structure over the top - so while the trailer is now immobile, it serves as an unusual guesthouse.

And that's what glamping is about: adding your own fanciful flair to what you already have. You can glamp up a new trailer with a favorite theme, play off the vintage styles in an older trailer or even do some tent glamping. Wall coverings, light fixtures, unusual fabrics and neatly arranged shelves create a tiny, cozy spot with all the visual comforts of home. Gone is the austere outdoor experience: glampers bring potted plants, ornate beaded curtains, strings of outdoor lights and plenty of gussied-up pillows.

Johnson has held a "glamp-out" the past two years at her home. After all, glamour is only one part of what is typically a social experience. Events that draw fellow glampers have a built-in camaraderie that lends itself not only to plenty of fun and laughter, but the sharing of glamping ideas and tips. And some glampers have found that public glamping on its own seems to attract interested fellow campers.

Aspiring glampers can start with what they already have, said Johnson, then build a decor theme based on what they like. Glamping out a tent or trailer is a slow project that builds over time as ideas (and money) come. Read up on glamping, she said, and don't forget to join in any local glamp-outs.