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Yo Betty, lets go camping and pack the cocktails! A review and giveaway!

May 26, 2008 By 36 Comments

Where I live, Memorial Day weekend is the kick off for camping season! Except the cost of gas is $4.20 a gallon and its freezing cold. I haven’t seen too many campers headed into this normally booming tourist town. I could be wrong though. Personally, I’m not much of a camper but that doesn’t mean I haven’t slept ina tent with gross, camp fired scented clothing and toxic bug spray fumes and the sticky marshmallows on my fingers. I have. I just didn’t love it. I’d rather “hotel” it. I’m just not a fan of sleeping on rocks and rolling over next to a dewing wet tent and then having to pee like crazy and running to a gross bathroom that smells like crap or better yet, going in the woods. I always pee on my pants when I squat! So then I smell like urine, among the other great things. I know, I know…there’s lots of great things associated with camping and now that I’ve read the book Backcountry Betty, Roughing it in Style by, Jennifer Worick …I think I might consider giving the tent a whirl. I’m going to start in my backyard and work my way to the camp ground and then the woods with no bathroom. Baby steps.

I think my problem with camping is the dirty, stinky gross feeling. I like showers and being clean. That doesn’t mean I don’t get nitty gritty dirty but I’m a Betty, just not my Aunt Betty. Bless her heart but she’s so grumpy and never smiles. The very first chapter of the book addresses hygiene and how to stay fresh and feel fresh. This chapter made me love the whole book right from the start. The book, besides being witty and humorous (like this blog), has many practical pointer and tips. For example, if you have to go number 2 make sure you build a “cat hole” and locate it 200 feet from water and downwind. Now that’s practical! Oh, and do not go swimming in the ocean if your having your monthly Aunt Flow visit because sharks can sense this. Go figure?

Jennifer Worick does a great job in a very non-boring way, pointing out how camping can be fun and still have style and class if you pack and plan ahead. This doesn’t mean wear your stilettos (which I can’t wear anyhow) tromping through the woods! No, just your comfy vegan hiking boots from Zappos! I don’t know if they have these or not, but maybe they do? The point is to mesh practicality, organization and a little bit of pizzazz without wreaking or giving up all sense of feeling like a woman. Over and over it is pointed out to respect nature, not liter, carry your trash and used toilet paper with you (another reason I’m not a camping fan), do not disturb nature and again to respect nature. Just because you’re camping doesn’t mean you can’t have fondue or cocktails and Backcountry Betty shows you how! Ahh and if camping with your hot sweaty man is your thing there are lots of green and clean tips on how to spice things up without disturbing nature. Backcountry Betty helps keep you warm without the sleeping bag!

Not every idea is “green” but not every person camping is either. If you’re looking for a fun read, have a friend who isn’t so keen on camping or maybe you’d like some fun tips on making your next camping trip a trip that screams, “I’m a hot Betty and I can rough it (wink, wink) in style!” then this is the book for you. I have plenty of suggestions on how Betty can be more eco-savvy and sassy, like suggesting earth friendly products, recycled toilet paper, and not being so Ziploc baggy loving (but then it is camping). Get your copy from Mountaineers Books for only $14.95.

Wanna win a copy? K. Just leave me a comment and tell me a funny camping story. I need a good laugh. I’ll send a copy of the book to whoever makes me chuckles the hardest and pee my pants. I’ll announce the winner on June 1, 2008 when the new site launches.




Filed Under: Green Beauty, Green Giveaways, Green Goods and Reviews, Green Solutions and Tips, Green Style Tagged With: , , , , ,
  • Cathryn Patrick

    Yay! First comment.

    My funniest camping story took place long ago, when I was about 12 years old and in the girl scouts. We took a big trip out into the wilderness with 2 nice, huge tents that were brand new and unfortunately, hadn’t been waterproofed yet. And to our dismay, it rained a flood while we were camping, and everyone’s stuff got soaked. We had standing water in those tents and all the girls, ages 7 to 12 had no place to sleep! Most of us stayed up late telling ghost stories. So while my story isn’t very funny, just imagine the chaos that was created that weekend! It was horrible.

    cathryn@graphicsbycathryn.com

  • Mya

    When I was 7 years old, my brother knew I loved to go camping, so he set a tent up for me in the front yard. I’ve never slept outside all alone before. I kept hearing all these wild animal noises and scratches on the tent. I just KNEW some animal was gonna eat me. I unzipped the tent really fast and tripped over my brother and his best friend. They had been making all these noises and using sticks to make the scratching noises. I’m 33 now, and still haven’t forgiven them!

    iluv2pray@gmail.com

  • idahomom

    I went camping witha friend and she just had to wash her hair. I was supposed to be helping her. I kept adding more shampoo so she could not get the shampoo out. The water was freezing. She didn’t have to wash her hair after that.

  • mverno

    went camping last month and who was there but my husband’s high school sweetheart she bugged him all weekend!

  • Anonymous

    LOL I love the way to enter this giveaway!

    When I was young my mother would take us (3 kids) camping. One year we ended up on Long Beach up Island on Vancouver Island!!

    We got there and had a looong trek through the forest, carrying all of our gear, down to the beach. At that time, you were still able to camp right on the beach!

    My mom and we three kids finally after a 30 minute walk got down to the beach and were able to rest and pitch our tent on the beach.

    We noticed that a lot of back packs were hung in trees and were really perplexed until a fellow camper told us that a black bear had been visiting and everyone needed to hand their food in the trees!!

    MMmmm kind of scary news, but not too scary

    We managed to make it through the day, hang our food in a tree, lol, sounds so silly and we were finally going to bed in the tent! Me, being the chicken of the family, had to sleep in the middle of the tent…if the bear came down and wanted to eat someone, it would get my brother or sister first LOL

    We woke up to bear prints on the sand around our tent. That was scary!! My sister, brother and mom went for a walk down the beach and me being the young teenager that I was, decided to stay behind.

    While I was sitting on a log with my back to the forest, I heard little noises and just felt that something was behind me. I slowly turned my head around and saw the blood black bear. He was smiling at me, I swear he was.

    So, remembering that you aren’t to run from a bear, I got my butt up off of the log and started to run!! lol Then, in my panic, didn’t see the tent peg and string and tripped over that falling flat on my face. Somehow I think the bear took pity on me and he just turned around and walked back into the forest!!

    What a memory; I’ll never forget!!

    anne_c_taylor@hotmail.com

  • camtaysmom

    hey sommer!
    brandon bielas and i went to wheatland music fest a (large) number of years back and we had a blast. our biggest belly laugh came after the first night, after dancing and drumming and stumbling back to our camp in the dark among the pines. we were brushing our teeth and rinsing our brushes and mouths out with water out of these sporty water bottles we’d filled and packed in with us. suddenly brandon started gagging and acking and acting like he’d just eaten something really terrible. he swore that the water was bad. well … in the morning we emerged from the tent, all bleary eyed and ready to brush our teeth again, when we saw that the water bottle that brandon had used was actually full of … orange juice! ha! we all know how the delightful experience of drinking icy cold orange juice goes terribly, terribly wrong after brushig our teeth, but just imagine actually brushing your teeth with it!

  • camtaysmom

    oh my gosh sommer, i forgot to include my name in that last post … it’s shelly gudmunsen!

  • mannequin

    “Alright”, I conceded, I will go camping with you but only if we don’t have to sleep in a tent. “Fine”, he said, “it’s a deal”.
    Well, we didn’t have to sleep in a tent but I had no idea that cabins don’t have bathtubs. That’s my whole thing about camping. I insist on a bubblebath nightly. If I don’t get one, I feel grungy and icky.
    When I saw there was no bathtub, I caused such a ruckus that we left. He was er…well, shall I say…ANGRY?

  • Scrappy Do

    LOL I love the way to enter this giveaway!

    When I was young my mother would take us (3 kids) camping.

  • Naomi

    This is sad to admit but I have never been camping. Not ever. My husband is very outdoorsy and finds this absolutely appalling. He intends to get our kids into the great tradition as soon as they are ready so I need some pointers so they’ll let me tag along…

  • fangirl

    My favorite story comes from my mom. When she and my dad were first married, they went camping in Yellowstone National Park. Dad was an experienced fishing guide and had grown up in the mountains. They got to their campsite and put up their tent. Like good little campers, they hung their food in a tree to keep it away from curious critters. Off on a romantic hike they went…

    When they got back to their camp, they decided it would be great to toast some marshmallows. Uh oh…. someone had figured out the marshmallows were in their tiny “Morris Minor” (think, smaller than a VW Bug). Accross the camp was a baby bear with a big bag of marshallows having quite a fun snack. Mom and dad got in the car to protect themselves (and laugh) when they realized that baby bear wasn’t alone. Momma bear was there too. The problem was that mom, dad, and the car were between momma and baby bear. Momma didn’t like this and decided that she’d shake thinks up, litteraly. Momma bear put both paws on the mini car and started shaking it back and forth, with mom and dad inside. Eventually baby bear decided to take his treat elsewhere. Luckily, momma bear followed baby bear, and mom and dad were safe. But… no s’mores that night!

  • mom2boys

    My parents would take us camping every summer when my sister and I were young. One year when I was 12
    on Memorial Day weekend we decided to go. It was a fun, relaxing weekend…up until the last day. We had swam in the river all weekend.
    On last day there we decided to take one last swim. My mother, sister and myself.Suddenly we heard a huge splash and look to see a huge gator
    jump from the other side of the river bank. I saw my mother walk on water…or least it seemed that way.
    I was the last one out because my sister pushed me under the water to swim pass me. We were so scared. It’s funny now, but it sure wasn’t at the time.

  • Anonymous

    I was about a teenager and out camping with my parents at a lake. Naturally being the age I was I noticed some cute boys on the shore. So I strutted past these boys and into the water only to discover there was slimy seaweed everywhere in this lake. With my long hair dripping green goo I must have looked like a swamp monster coming out of that lake!
    Elaine R
    emrosser@shaw.ca

  • carolsue

    My funniest camping story involves bears also! I am a night owl, so after everyone had gone to their tents to sleep, I stayed up and was reading by lantern-light. I glanced over and there was a big black bear lumbering down the path, just a few feet from me. I screamed and brought everyone out of their tents. Of course, the bear was long departed and everyone thought I was nuts!

  • gkstratos

    My son was not very keen to try camping out for the first time so we thought we’d try a simple overnight camping adventure on a friend’s land. He insisted it would rain but there wasn’t a drop in sight. Sure enough we woke up at 2:00am nearly floating out of our tents. Fortunately, we were able to just walk (okay, run) inside the house. We still haven’t heard the end of it from him …..
    gkstratos@yahoo.com

  • windycindy

    Happy Memorial Day! My friend and I were at church camp. We were about 12 or 13 years old. One morning we got up really early and went to take a shower! The shower hut was very primitive and yucky! We were undressed and prepared to get in our shower stalls when a mouse decided to pay us a visit! We screamed bloody murder and of course, the rest of our group (including the pastor and some boys) came running to see what was going on!!!!! Thank goodness we had our skimpy towels. Cindi
    jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com

  • SpicyOne

    I don’t know how funny this is but we went to go fising and when we came back a bear had gotten into our camp and ate all the food we brought with us. He collapsed the tent and ruined a couple other things in the process.

  • chromiumman

    we broke down on the way to the campsite and spent five hours waiting to be picked up

  • Sharon

    this may be gross. I was actually in Israel right after College with a bunch of other graduates. We were camping in the Sahara (where there were a few homes scattered around).
    To eat…
    the leaders brought-beans, corn, etc…need I say more…and NO “John/Jane”. Could not stand another minute and found the ‘safest and most private spot”…because I could no longer ‘hold it in’ After feeling better…I turned around and realized that my ‘private corner’ was someones tiny home and my ‘private spot’ was right in front of their door…ran like the
    dickens…right after I discovered this…

  • silverbele

    I hate camping but was my daughter’s Girl Scout Leader as long as the camping was in cabins with flush toilets.

  • vmkids

    The only story i have is that we stayed one time with fmaily and it rained. My mom was wet and tired and we went home. My mom was not a camper and I must say hotels are a better way of going.

  • blueviolet

    I had to rough it with the kids at band camp and I hate bugs like nothing else so I brought bug spray and sprayed it all around my area in hopes of preventing any critters from entering my personal space. It seemed to be working but one morning I woke up to find a huge black carpenter ant right on the top of my chapstick lid and my chapstick had been standing upright which made it even freakier. I shrieked like the girl I am and ran out of the cabin. I know I was being taunted that day but I don’t find it funny at all. Still.
    Elizabeth doot65[at]comcast[dot]net

  • bison61

    we have a screen tent to put over our picnic table. My husband awoke one night hearing some noises. He peeked out the tent to see a large skunk in the tent. we had sacks with some of our food in there. The kids and I went to the car. My husband tried to scare him away without making him spray. He had a strong flashlight and made some noise and soon the animal left-the kids were so excited! They talked about that for weeks!

    tiramisu392 (at) yahoo.com

  • jennem

    We went camping and it rained the whole time. There was a stream coming in one corner, and we cleared a path so it could run out another corner. While we were doing that, our dog ate our dinner.

  • Beth

    Ok…so I’ve been trying to think about a funny camping story and it’s hard. There have been so many…but I don’t know if any will make you incontinent. :)

    But one time, I remember there were no showers or anything like that. That never stopped us before really. But after day 3, we all needed to wash badly and there was no stream nearby. So I took our clothesline and strung it between 3 trees and hug towels and blankets over it to form a kind of “room”. I heated up water on the camp stove and all 4 of us bathed in this little room. It was kinda funny really because there I was..in broad daylight, buck nekked, behind these towels bathing as people walked by. I don’t know if they suspected anything…but it got the job done and we were all squeaky clean! :)

  • Anonymous

    Did you ever see The Long Trailer with Lucy and Desi?

  • Kristinia

    My funniest camping story: We set up in our backyard (which was out in the boondocks) and planned on going venturing decked in camoflage in the dark with just a few flashlights. We didn’t know any of the woods in our backyard or what we would find etc… We end up stumbling on some one else’s property (we didn’t even know they existed!) and as I was walking past this rusty barbwired fence I heard somethiing stomping the ground.. I’m thinking it was my Ex just playing a trick on me because we had somehow got split up on the walk through the woods. Come to find out there was 1 Bull in this fence and he started to charge the very rusty/old looking fence… I had never ran soo fast in my life I was soo scared.. my Ex didn’t believe me at the time so he went to go “check” it out, he was the next person to run screaming like a girl towards the camp! It’s funny cause we were scared of a bull and that’s something that you wouldn’t think to find out camping..

  • Mike

    i want to win

  • angelaandconnor at gmail.com

    Ok this isnt exactly a camping story.. but It always made me feel as if I was camping. I used to live in Minnesota and directly behind me (about a three acre field seperated us..) my neighboors were a large family of two parents, and five little girls. I’m not really sure what was going on but I would sit outside on my deck every morning and evening and just spend a little while winding down for the day and routinely the entire family would pile outside in the back yard and take a pee… or poop… I guess modesty is never an issue?

    I blogged you on prizeatron too
    http://www.prizeatron.com

  • Rachel Fox

    My funniest camping story occured at Lake Plesant, AZ campgrounds. While sound asleep, around 3 am, my boyfriend and I awoke to strange noises, getting louder and louder as if coming straight for our tent. We then heard whatever it was coming towards us, pass us, and continue into the lake a few yards behind us. Scared, we whispered to each other to “get the flashlight”, “be quiet”, “what is going on?” Finally after gathering pepper spray and a flashlight, my boyfriend was inching closer and closer towards the tent window when we heard the nay of a horse! A horse?! He finally looked out, and saw a huge black object that was WAY too close! It scared him so badly, he ended up on my lap! We finally realized that we’d been stampeeded by wild buroughs!!! The next morning, leaving the campsite, you could see a heard of approximatly 20 of them grazing in the distance! It was scarry, but also VERY funny!
    rachelfox1981 at yahoo dot com

  • Maggie Mannwieler

    OK, at the time, I was the only one who didn’t think this was funny…my husband and I had only been married a year or so when we agreed to go camping with his ex-wife and her boyfriend and my husband’s two kids from his marriage to ex-wife. We were all sitting around the camp fire just before dark when I felt a snake going up one of my pant legs. I screamed to them to help me while I squeezed the head of the snake with both hands. The group was laughing hysterically. I almost cried I was so frightened. Someone mentioned that I should drop my pants. So while I squeezed the snake in my pant leg, I unzipped and dropped my trousers; I could then let go of the snake (which wasn’t moving any more) when I got my trousers off, which I did. I backed away from my pants, but no snake? My husband picked up my trousers and began to shake them and out fell a little brown lizard. The kind kids like to play with. He was laying flat on his back on the ground. He looked dead, but when my husband bent over to touch him, he ran off like crazy. It felt like a snake when it was crawling up inside my trousers. Well, it could have been a snake. The group laughed so hard. I was so embarrassed. And mad that no one had offered to help save me. They tell this story to this day…Maggie and the snake story.

    I haven’t been camping since. I’m more of a 4* hotel person.

    maggie@mannwieler.com

  • Erica

    Once we went camping and it was very windy out. We thought it was hilarious that the tent kept feeling like it was going to blow away. We finally feel asleep. We we woke up we realized that we were about 10 feet away from where we had originally set up our tent!

    egreca [at] hotmail [dot] com

  • Samantha Pruitt

    I went camping with this group a couple years ago, and it’s real camping where the woods are your bathroom. So it was at night, and we all had to pee, so we all go together as a group. So we’re out in the woods peeing, and i see a shadow and hear some crunching of leaves, and i immediately think BEAR! so i scream “BEAR!!!” and everyone starts screaming and running back to their tents with their pants around our ankles and dive into our tents. Anyways, it wasn’t a bear (duh) and once we realized we weren’t going to get eaten that night we all felt stupid and started laughed hysterically!

    i love that story!

  • sarah woods

    This book would be the perfect gift to take on a camping trip/ I love to camp out at a Hilton, Sheraton, BB Inn. Thanks SW

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  • http://www.campingtipsandgear.com Camping Tips and Gear

    More people actually seem to choose camping according to some statistics I’ve seen so far as opposed to ’07. I attribute it to gas prices. Yes you’d have to drive to get to a campsite but once there you won’t be spending as much as you’d pay for a hotel etc. Same with air travel, those prices are going up so it seems more and more are opting out of trips abroad and camp inside their own country or even state instead

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