Veteran-Owned Glamping Business Reconnects People with Nature and Each Other

By: Susannah Moore

Glamping isn’t your parents’ version of camping. Instead of small tents, sleeping bags on the cold ground and the light of a campfire, think spacious structures, rugs, comfortable mattresses, pillows and string lights.

This luxurious style of camping has blown up in recent years. It enables people to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors with less of the usual accompanying discomforts.

John and Tameika Roames would know. John spent 20 years serving in the Army, and Tameika has served 14 years and is still in the Army reserves. After years of being forced to sleep outside on the hard ground thanks to their jobs, the discovery of glamping was a dream come true. It allowed them to enjoy the outdoors while also enjoying the comforts of home.

When they were surviving the pandemic in a small apartment, the Alexandria-based couple came up with the idea of starting a mobile glamping business, to share the dream with others. Inspired by a Portland, Oregon company with a similar model, they started Evolution Glamping in March. The premise of mobile glamping is that they set up the tent, furnishings and special touches for customers wherever they want whether a campsite, park, winery or backyard within a two hour radius of the DC metro area.

They came up with the name Evolution Glamping, as it represents what they were trying to accomplish with their business. “There’s camping and then there’s permanent [glamping] sites, but this is the evolution of glamping. It’s bringing it to your backyard, it’s bringing it to wherever you are,” said Tameika. “This is the evolution of being outside.”

The words comfort, ease and reconnect drive the business.

“The comfort is not having to sleep on the ground, how do you make camping nice so that people want to do it. Ease is make it easy for people so they don’t have to go set things up, and reconnect not just with nature, which is very important because of Covid, but reconnecting with people now that Covid is over,” John explained.

Customers can pick from a variety of packages based on their specific needs. The base package includes a tent, and a queen, two full or three twin mattresses as well as tables, lanterns, chairs, linens, poufs and outdoor lighting. One of their most popular packages is the sleepover package which is a tent with up to six twin beds, all the furnishings and a custom theme. This package has been a hit for bachelorette parties and birthday parties.

Evolution Glamping also offers a theater package, picnic package, outdoor package, lounge package and their most recent addition an indoor blanket fort big enough for kids and kids at heart. There is a lot of room for customization and add-ons. “We can only do what people imagine. They think ‘oh we don’t have the space, we can’t do this,’ that’s not always true, we can figure it out,” John said.

The Roameses own and store all the furnishings they provide in a converted garage. Most of the larger pieces are neutral so they can work with a variety of themes and color schemes. Except for a few larger scale events, where they hired some additional help, the couple sets up most of the packages themselves, giving themselves an hour per tent to set up and furnish them.

With winter coming, the demand for outdoor adventures may be less, but the Roameses are already booking for 2023. Word of mouth, social media and targeted marketing have helped the business grow quickly. Additionally, they are currently offering indoor mattress and furnishing rentals, perfect for all the extra friends and family visiting over the holidays.

The Roameses would love to see Evolution Glamping expand and become their main hustle. John is a realtor and Tameika operates two businesses, Nomadico Shop and Black Lady Whiskey, in addition to the Army reserves. “Our plan is to really get into the large scale events while still doing these small backyard type events as well. We don’t want to take that away because we think it’s really important to our customer base, not only that but also getting people back to reconnecting outside,” John explained.

They are also looking into a potential franchise in Dallas, Texas and a permanent glamping site somewhere in the DC region. It’s important to the couple to support small businesses, particularly other veteran and black-owned businesses, whether it’s the company that provides their tents, or caterers and artisans they work with for events. “We realize it’s not easy at all, and we can support each other,” Tameika emphasized.

Find out more and book your glamping adventure www.atevolutionglamping.com and follow along on Instagram @evolutionglamping.

Former Alexandria resident Brittany Butler’s debut novel, “The Syndicate Spy,” is a fictional account inspired by her days working in counterterrorism for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Although she and her family now live in Charleston, S.C., she plans to launch the book with a party at Lost Boy Cider and books will be provided for the event and for sale at Hooray for Books! It’s not a coincidence that Butler is celebrating the publication of her first book in Alexandria. She and her husband were Old Town Alexandria residents for 15 years. The book is inspired by her days at the CIA.

It’s a career she hadn’t expected. But after an internship at the American Embassy in Paris during her junior year in college, where she helped with some passport fraud cases, she was recruited to work for the agency after graduating with a degree in international affairs from Florida State.

“I’m from a small town in Georgia, I never thought in a million years they’d want me,” she said.

Although she was recruited to be a case officer, “I wasn’t really ready to sign up for that first 10 years abroad,” she said. “I wanted a good work-life balance and a family.”

Instead, she became a targeting officer, “identifying jobs [and people] with access to information we needed to support our counterterrorism efforts.”

She worked at the CIA for nine years. “As corny as it sounds, it was a privilege to have that job and be a part of that mission,” she said.