Book Review: Glamping with MaryJane

Glamping with MaryJane: Glamour + Camping by MaryJane Butters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I love it nonetheless. Where to start?

First, I wish that it had more GLAMPING in it. I would have loved a book of nothing but gorgeous campsites and trailers. In that regard, the book was a bit of a tease. It provides loads of inspiration and definitely set me daydreaming.

The author really wants to share a lot of information tho. Like how to hitch a trailer, how to change a tire, why it may be a good idea to carry a firearm, etc...Things that are undoubtedly important when camping, but this is hardly the resource I think anyone would go to to try and learn those things.

There's also a lot of use of parenthesis. (It gets a bit much. Why not just have another sentence. When I keep seeing things in parenthesis it makes me want to whisper. Used excessively it makes me think of Mare Winningham's Mother in St. Elmo's Fire).

It's not quite a manual. Not quite a coffee book. It's some bizarre mix in-between and I wish there had been a bit more focus one way or another.

So why 4 stars? Because 4 stars means I really liked it, and I did, despite it's shortcomings. I am making plans to glamp up my back garden now. And this season when I take something pretty on our camping trips, I will feel a tad less silly.


View all my reviews

Travel Rewind: Inbetween Days

Between leaving Pennsylvania and going to Kentucky, we stopped in West

Virginia. This was a hard time for us as a family and me personally.

This is when I was crying and saying "I want to go home! I don't need

to see any of these things!". We had been rained on too many days. It

was starting to get cold. 2 nights before we had stayed at one

campground and during the night a bear was sighted in the dumpster.

This gave me a panic attack that lasted for days on end. How do I keep

my baby safe from a bear? Everything we do to be safe, suddenly didn't

feel safe enough. In Greenville, you sometimes hear about a bear being

in the city and climbing up someone's tree and usually it's ushered

back to safety or makes its own way. To me, it's something else

entirely to be in the bear's environment. I felt very vulnerable with

only a tent around us.

The next night we found a campsite that reassured us there were no

bears. It was hard enough getting into the campsite tho, because there

was a storm coming and it was after 8. Griff begged and finally the

let us in so we could set up. We quickly got the tent up and our bed

settled. I asked Griff to drive me up to the restrooms because I

didn't want to try and find it in the dark when I didn't have my

bearings.

The bathroom was on par with the one from Trainspotting. I came out

retching and gagging. The rest of the night wasn't easy either. The

loudest thunder storm I have ever heard came right on top of us. The

thunder was so loud I was coming out of my sleep in a panic.

Amazingly, Oz slept thru the entire thing.

The next morning we packed tent and headed out towards West Virgina.

We stayed at what was called a State Park Resort. Confused? Me too. It

has camping and trails, but also a hotel, spa and golf course. And

marina. And signs warning about deer, possums and BEARS. Good Grief.

It was during our stay here I thought I was going to lose it. We went

out to breakfast and a sign on the wall said something along the lines

of "Don't wait for the storm to pass, but try and find joy in the

rain". We smirked and tried to realign our thinking.

Instead of trying to figure out where were would be going day to day,

I sat down and mapped our journey all the way through to Seattle. I

said I wanted to do KOA's for a few nights, instead of just trying to

find somewhere, also day to day. I wanted from there on to know where

we would be sleeping that night and have the tent up before dark.

That night was our coldest ever. Griff and I slept hardly at all

between freezing and making sure Oz was warm enough. Of course he was.

He has the warmest space in the bed, cuddled right between Griff and me.

Since then, we've done pretty well. Obviously. I had my cry, and we

trucked on. We found a KOA directory and I have been pretty great at

aligning our stops with their campgrounds. They are hardly ever

scenic, but they are convienent, and for that I'm grateful that they

exist.I'm hoping I will be over my bear anxiety soon enough so we can

do a few more scenic places. I feel like it would be wasteful

otherwise. We'll see tho. Right now we're just enjoying ourselves.

 On reason for the cold, was that we were right on the water. 

 Another reason, the tent had to be on this platform and the wind would blow in off the water and then come right up through the deck. It was absolute hell.

GRIFF: Thank you again for my hat.  This has been the coldest night of the entire trip (If I looked carefully with the torch, I could see Oscars breath while he was asleep in the tent) and the hat and gloves and thermals that you insisted I buy made a HUGE difference.

A Witchy Hat

I started and finished this hat while we were in Salem. I love the "witchy" colors, and I made it to keep my head nice and warm at night when camping. Super comfy, it did it's job well. 

Travel Rewind: The Witch Is In

 I love Salem, Massachuesetts. I loved every single bit of witchy tourist tat they had going on. We spent 3 days there (probably 2 more than we expected) and I spent my birthday there. We went to every single witch museum they had and enjoyed different things about each one. All gave historical accounts of the Salem Witch Trials, but they all had very different interpretations of how to represent the word

"witch". And while at one would give a sympathetic approach to the story of Corey Giles, the 80 year old man who was pressed to death, by the end of all the museums both Griff and I found him to be a bit of dick who had sold his wife out as being a witch (that said, he still shouldn't have been pressed to death!). So long story short, we enjoyed them all and I didn't have a favorite.

 Our stay at the campground in Gloucester was also really nice and quiet. It was also the first time I had a run in with a snake. Alright, a dead snake (it's head had been run over), but I saw a snake! So I spent some time trying to find out what sort of snakes are in Mass and whether or not they are poisonous. The one I saw, was not. Hurrah!

 GRIFF: Salem was fantastic, and it was fun going to 5 witch museums.  They all had a different take on the history, but did repeat things a bit.  We also went to a pirate museum which was really good.  The tour guide was very into it which always helps. (Although it was a little awkward as we were the only ones in the tour group)

Travel Rewind: The Ben & Jerry's Factory and Other musings about Vermont.

Vermont is fucking gorgeous. But for the most part, we found the people to be assholes. I guess we're partly to blame but I don't really care. It all started with getting to our campground later than we planned. Most campgrounds have a 10pm quiet time, sometimes 11, but for the most part 10. We were got there just around quiet time and Griff had to set to finding us a campground and setting up the tent with on a head lamp for light. It fucking sucks, but sometimes this happens. We both hate it, but it's the only option we have. I sat in the car with Oz, getting him dressed for sleep and nursing him.

We finally get into the tent and Oz is a bit fussy, and all I can do is offer the boob. Eventually he settles and falls into sleep. We all do. It was maybe 6 am when Oz wakes up and is upset and crying. While trying to soothe him, some asshole the site over yells out "SHUTUP!!!!". Fucking dick. No doubt he heard it was a baby, and who the fuck yells out for a baby to shut up. That is one classless motherfucker. It took me not even 5 minutes to get Oz settled back to sleep.

Another hour or so later, our peeved off neighbors start making a big stupendous noise of packing their gear up. Lots of pots and pans clanging around. I'm' sure this was piss us off, but we're hardcore sleepers. If we want to sleep, we sleep. Their planned failed! Middle fingers to them!

Well, in the morning when we're all awake, Griff makes his way to the office to let them know where we are on the campground and to pay for our site. The woman informs us that our site is actually reserved for that day and we'll have to move. He checks that the site next to us is empty and we use the tarp to drag our tent over. It's a pretty big park and plenty of spaces. We're annoyed but we move on with the day.

Once the tent is moved we start the normal day routine. Or we thought about it. I was pretty pissed off and decided FUCK BREAKFAST, let's go to the Ben & Jerry's factory. O, and on the way out, let's stop and ask if we can stay 2 nights instead of another 1. Well, sure you can! But the spot you're in (you know, the one you just moved to) is actually reserved for the next night. What. The. Fuck.

I honestly do not understand why, if we are there and set up and PAID, we can't stay there. Why can't the people coming be moved to another site, since they aren't currently occupying a site. They are all pretty much the same! I said screw it, we won't stay the extra night...ON TO THE FACTORY.

And the Ben & Jerry's Factory smells like heaven. You walk in and you just feel good and want to roll around in ice cream. I had forgotten about their S'Mores flavored ice cream (vanilla with swirls of chocolate and marshmallow and chunks of graham cracker. SO GOOD.).

The tour was pretty short, but we had a great time. I think I will enjoy Ben & Jerry's more in the future simply because I think the actual people (you know, Ben & Jerry themselves) are pretty decent human beings that are trying to run a good business.

I don't remember *exactly* which ice cream I had afterwards. I know it was peanut butter ice cream and had marshmallow swirls. I know I had hot fudge and whipped cream on it. Griff had a banana split with three different types of chocolate ice cream and hot fudge and caramel sauce on it. Ice cream for breakfast is never a good idea, but now we know this for any future great ideas of ice cream for breakfast. It was awesome, but damn did we feel sick!

Afterwards we found a Sear's to get the car an oil change and tires rotated. We then went a Barnes & Noble to use the wi-fi. Pulling in a woman thought my car was taking too much space while she was pulling out and she flipped me the bird. Fucking Vermonters.

I was excited that I was able to meet another Imaginary Friend, Suzi, for dinner and then we sat outside downtown and talked till 11 pm.

The rest of Vermont was cool too. We went to a tiny town called Montpelier and enjoyed wandering around and had breakfast at a cute little diner. We bought maple syrup (SO GOOD). So while we enjoyed the state itself, but the people kind of suck. O well, no biggie.

(I need to take it easy with the parenthesis).

GRIFF--- I have to add a comment about the Ben and Jerry's factory:

You enter through the gift shop while you wait for a tour to start and they have a cowbell to let people know when the tour will start. I saw Ashley eyeing the cowbell jealously, so when the tour guide came round I asked if Ashley could ring it. He agreed and I so wish I had a picture of how excited she was, she really gave it her all on that cowbell.

Also, as sick as we felt all day for having had a huge ice cream for breakfast, I totally don't regret it and would do it again if we ever go to another ice cream factory.

Busy Days

Wow. It's really hard to blog on the road. We'll have days of being with internet access and then have none. But even then, internet is for a kick check of facebook and gmail and then it's on to doing something else. I will recap the best I can.

From Virginia we made our way to Baltimore, but it was a bit further out from DC then we liked. So we stayed a night in a Comfort Inn (which was nice because it was a Sunday so I was able to watch the new episode of True Blood and wash some diapers) then in the morning we did a bit of backtracking to the KOA outside of DC. There was call for rain so we spent the extra money and stayed in a Cabin. It was cute and had a little porch swing on the front porch. We were able to still cook all our meals, so it was kinda camping, kinda not. But our days went like this:

Wake up

Cook breakfast

Eat Breakfast

Make Lunch

Clean up

Get dressed

Head to the station

Metro into DC

Tourist Tourist Tourist

Head back to camp

Cook

Clean

Go to bed.

Rinse, repeat. It's go go go and it's hard to find a minute of quiet, but it's becoming clear that while it's important to go, it's important to rest. Especially for Ozzy.

After DC we made our way into PA and stayed at a really lovely park that I do no remember the name of. But we freakin' loved it. Much more scenic than KOA but still had bathroom facilities. Unfortunately while playing ball with Ozzy my back went out and I was stuck jack knifed over the car trying to convey to Griff that I was freaking the fuck out and couldn't stand up straight without scaring Oz. It sucked so badly and I was out the rest of the day in tent.

I'll take a minute to tell you how awesome my husband is. He did everything he possibly could to make me as comfortable as I could be. He went above and beyond to entertain and keep Oz happy, while also cooking and cleaning up camp. He is not afraid to step up and take care of his son and knows what he is doing. I have no idea what I would do without him. ANYWAYS....

While we had to cabin at KOA expecting rain, there was no rain. While camping in the park DID WE HAVE RAIN. I've heard the term "rolling thunder" but never really experienced it until you are sitting and listening to thunder nonstop going for a good 2o minutes. It was absolutely amazing. Oz was such a trooper tho. He wasn't afraid of the thunder at all, even when the storm was right on top of us. I wish I could say I slept better for it, but I didn't.

Backtracking a second, let me tell you about DC. It was a hard 3 days in the city and we STILL didn't see everything we wanted to. We are definitely going to go back (if anything, I need to see the staircase from The Exorcist!). We learned that the stroller is actually better than the moby in long day in the city trips and packing a lunch and taking it into the city is the way to go! O and buying bottle water OUTSIDE the city. We made that mistake only the once and never again.

Today we were in PA visiting some of my "imaginary" friends and bebehs and it was another nice relaxing day. My back is still fucked, but I can stand up straight so that's better, right? We are going to tough it out and camp out for 2 more days. I'm a crazy person and I want a hotel on sunday so I can watch True Blood. Priorities, eh?