Summer Camp Buddies, Adult Style: How Two Strangers Who Came to Camp Lola Whiskey Alone Became Each Other's People
From strangers on Thursday to fast friends at our Saturday night closing party
The Thursday before Camp Lola Whiskey, Kristina had convinced herself not to go.
She worried she'd arrive too early. That she wouldn't find the location, even though she had GPS. Would she know where to park? Did she pack the right clothes?
All of that masked the real worry: that she'd drive all this way — to something she paid for — and end up the person sitting alone in her cabin while everyone else had the weekend of their lives.
"As the dates got closer, I was starting to feel like this trip was a huge mistake," she said.
This is the story of two people who signed up for Camp Lola Whiskey as strangers, got assigned as roommates, and left with a friendship that's still going a year later.
I'm Laura Ericson, I run Camp Lola Whiskey and Type 2 Travel, and the question I get more than any other is some version of what if I don't know anybody? So here's how it actually went for Kristina and Alison, and how I build the weekend so it goes that way on purpose.
Summer Camp: a childhood rite of passage
Kristina is in her fifties, happily married, and runs a hobby farm and pasture yoga just outside of Eau Claire, Wisconsin (shout out to goat and alpaca yoga at Hidden Timber Soul Sanctuary). She also describes herself as "not an outgoing person and socially awkward most of the time."
But like many full-fledged adults, some part of Kristina desperately wanted to go to camp. Growing up, she never got the chance to attend a summer camp, so when she first saw the invite, her inner child lit up. Her responsible adult self promptly talked her right back down. (The irony isn't lost on her: reconnecting with your inner child is basically the founding philosophy of her own sanctuary.)
"I'm just not always good at self-care, I guess," she said.
The person who wouldn't let her off that easily was her wife, Tiffany. Tiffany was so convinced Kristina needed the break that she launched a full-on Facebook campaign to get her there — publicly making the case that, of everyone she knew, Kristina deserved this most.
Running a hobby farm, a business, and a whole cast of animals means only one of them can leave the property for more than a day at a time, so Tiffany lined up friends to cover the chores. This was going to be a solo trip, and she made sure her wife had zero excuses.
Tiffany’s Facebook campaign to get Kristina to camp
Endless comments of support poured in, encouraging Kristina to take the opportunity to finally do something for herself.
It worked. Nerves and all, Kristina arrived on opening day.
Why it's so hard to make friends as an adult
Over half of the people who signed up for Camp Lola Whiskey last year signed up alone, and almost every one of them showed up with a version of Kristina's nerves.
It seems like it shouldn't be this hard. We've mastered paying bills on time, buying toilet paper on a schedule, and keeping kids and pets alive. Walking into a room full of strangers and introducing yourself should be easy, right?
Yeah…no. The recipe that made friendship easy when you were nine — proximity plus a little time — hasn't changed. What changed is that these days, adults don't get much exposure to either one. Nobody assigns you a desk next to somebody anymore. We have full-fledged careers and endless responsibilities that take up most of our precious free time.
The truth is, the recipe for friendship is the same at fifty as it was at nine. We just stopped being handed the ingredients.
Which is the entire reason finding your people as a grown adult feels so much harder than it did in fourth grade. An adult summer camp hands both ingredients back — and for Kristina, it started working before she'd even packed the car.
Making friends before you make it to camp
Many people come to camp alone, and many sign up for a randomly assigned roommate. Some people do it to save a little cash, and others (like Kristina) do it because they want to be forced into making friends (although we have a solo room option for those who want their own space).
We know making friends in one weekend can seem daunting, and that’s why the group chat starts months in advance. Cabin assignments go out weeks early on purpose. A carpool signup is sent out to encourage people to ride together. Many camp friendships start over text, before anyone gets in a car, but the majority still happen after people arrive.
A few weeks before camp, Kristina saw she'd been paired with someone named Alison. Alison lived near her in Eau Claire, but they'd never met. Kristina sent a message. They started chatting back and forth immediately.
"We both shared that we were nervous about going solo," Alison said, "but that it also sounded too fun to pass up. That was a way to bond from the beginning."
Kristina added that talking with Alison prior to camp helped relieve some of her anxiety. She wasn't driving toward a camp full of strangers anymore—there was at least one person she sort of already knew, and she was coming alone too.
Friendships start in the first 15 minutes
The first fifteen minutes of camp are engineered so you never have to stand in a parking lot wondering if you're in the right place.
Kristina was nervous the whole drive. Then she pulled in, and got approximately zero seconds to panic.
"I was immediately greeted by Lauren, one of the counselors, who said I was in the right place and right on time." When she got to her cabin, Alison was already there. "We immediately — within seconds — hit it off," said Kristina. "It was like we had always been friends."
A lot of that was due to Alison's energy. "She was all about it and didn't care that she was solo — like, let's have some fun, let's do this! I instantly thought, Hell yeah."
That's the thing about how camp is designed: none of that is luck. There's someone to greet you so you never get the "wait, am I even in the right spot?" spiral. There's an icebreaker that isn't lame — last year it was a fiercely competitive round of bingo — built so strangers have a reason to talk to each other and nobody has to invent one. (Because we all know how painful inventing one is.)
By the campfire that first night, Kristina had stopped bracing and started having fun. Which is kind of the whole point.
Kristina and Alison competing together in the Camp Lola Whiskey World Games
You're there to have fun, not to be all the fun
You are not responsible for the group's energy at camp. You're responsible for showing up and eating a s'more.
If there's one thing I want the nervous version of you to hear, it's this, straight from Alison: "There's always someone to talk to — at morning coffee, at the craft table, playing beanbags, at cocktail hour. And if you need to recharge your battery, you can do whatever you need to make that happen, whether that's taking a break in your cabin or taking a walk in the woods."
That's it. That's the whole deal. Camp isn't a three-day audition for Coolest Person Ever. You're going to camp to have fun, not to be responsible for being all of the fun. When you want a buddy, you'll have one (or fifteen). When you don't, you'll have plenty of downtime and a lot of trees.
The friendship that outlasted the weekend
Camp friendships often survive far beyond the drive home. By the end of the weekend, Kristina and Alison already knew that if camp happened again, they wanted in, and they wanted to be roommates.
A few weeks later, Alison drove out to Hidden Timber Soul Sanctuary to hang with Kristina, meet her wife, and try goat yoga for the first time. Dinner every few months became a standing date. And when registration opened this year, they signed up as roommates — even though Alison offered to give her a different partner if Kristina wanted to gamble on someone better at flip cup.
Kristina kept Alison — some things you don't roll the dice on.
Camp cracked something open for Alison, too. Despite she and I also living in the same city, we’d never met, and camp was her first group trip with me. She's since traveled to Cuba with me, with another round of camp on the way and Greece on the calendar for September 2026. As it turns out, one weekend of saying yes has a way of snowballing.
"Going to camp taught me that I can still make friends, even in my fifties," Kristina said. The woman who almost talked herself out of the whole thing is a completely unbothered, seasoned camper this year. "I'm so looking forward to going again, and I'm not nervous at all this time. This is the thing I've found that resets my BS tolerance and recharges my soul."
If you're the one talking yourself out of it
Maybe you've read the camp page twice and closed it twice. Maybe you're outgoing everywhere except the one place you'd have to walk in alone. Maybe you don’t drink a lot, stay up late, or you're a self-proclaimed introvert who's already decided Camp Lola Whiskey "couldn't be your thing."
You don't need a buddy. You don't need to be the fun one. You don't need a personality transplant by August 27. You need a cabin assignment and a ride.
Those nerves have a shelf life of about fifteen minutes once you get to camp. I designed it that way. All you have to do is sign up. Camp handles the rest: putting you in a room with people you'd have picked yourself, keeping the awkwardness to a minimum, and sending you home with friends who own goat farms.
If the thing stopping you isn't the money and isn't the calendar, it's worth knowing what it actually is. For Kristina, it was a story she was telling herself about being socially awkward that stopped being true the moment she arrived.
Camp Lola Whiskey is August 27–30 in Hayward, Wisconsin. Registration for 2026 is now closed, but you can join the waitlist for 2027.
Come find out who your Alison is. ✌🏻
Want to hear it from the 2025 campers themselves? Three of them — Troy, Rachel, and Megan — talked me through their first time at camp on the Type 2 Travel podcast.
Camp Lola Whiskey FAQs
How much does Camp Lola Whiskey cost? Camp starts at $1,200, with a $750 deposit at booking and the balance due before camp. It includes all accommodations, food, drinks (NA and alcohol), and activities throughout the entire weekend, plus a camper welcome bag, t-shirt, and chances to win prizes.
Is Camp Lola Whiskey women only? No. Camp is 25+ and mixed gender, with about 50 campers total. Our 2026 campers are all ages, and roommate pairings are matched accordingly.
Can I come alone? Hell yes, you can come alone! In fact, over half our campers come solo, and they often leave with a whole new crew of friends. Camp is designed for people to mix, mingle and bond over shared experiences (like discovering you're both equally terrible at camp games after three drinks). Some of the strongest friendships in our travel community started with "hi, I'm here alone too!" at the welcome cocktail hour.
Can I get my own room instead of a roommate? Yep! We always offer single room upgrades for those who want a room to themselves. Single rooms can be limited, so we encourage early booking.
What if I don't drink? We'll have plenty of non-alcoholic options at every event where drinks are served. Will people be drinking? Absolutely. But you won't be watching from the sidelines - all the activities, games, and general shenanigans are just as fun (and sometimes more amusing) when you're sober.
How old are the campers? Our average traveler is 40-ish, but honestly, that means nothing. We've got 30-somethings trying to relive their youth and 60-somethings who are the last at the campfire. Age is just a number – what matters is that you are old enough to have stories and young enough to make more.
