Tents

I haven't really been 'camping' yet this year. Sure, I spent a week at Fort Rob, but was sleeping inside a house, not really 'roughing' it.


A few of us Cowgirls are thinking of camping in a couple of weeks. The full moon in August falls on a Saturday. Plans are to have a moonlight ride if the weather holds out. After making that plan, I had a little panic attack, thinking where in the heck is my tent!? I haven't tent camped in, oh, 2 years. The last time I used my cute little tent was at Fullerton when we were at Broken Arrows.

Even then, I didn't use my tent to sleep in----it RAINED both nights we were there! I ended up in the back of my Excursion, which really wasn't all that bad. What the tent was used for was a storage place for all of my crap.

So, after tearing the house apart and asking Mike just where my tent was (he said we didn't have a tent! I'm sure he was having bad memories of the last time we actually camped together at Big Mac...bad thunderstorm, high winds, flooding, tent got blown over and washed away...bad deal), I found it tucked away in a cooler that we no longer use. How in the world it ended up in the cooler, I will never know. I gave a little squeal and pulled the hidden treasure out to see if there was any damage. Ok, remember, last time I used it, it rained and when I left on Sunday, it was bloody hot and humid and I wasn't in a mood to pack things away nicely! No damage, no mildew, some dead bugs and dirt. Found all the poles, stakes and rain cover thingy.



Now, the goal was to roll that thing back up to fit in the duffle it came in. I'm not quite sure how exactly they roll these tents up to fit in the micro-duffles that they come in, but you can never, ever roll them up tight enough to fit ever again. I thought I had done a good job on rolling it up and went to find the duffle. What the heck, it was still half the size that I needed. Ok, unroll the tent and re-fold it, smaller. By now, my knees have little imprints of the concrete in my garage. Got it folded and stuffed into the duffle. Dang it, I forgot the rain fly thingy, I fold that up and then squish it on top of the tent and pray that the zipper doesn't burst from the pressure within. Forget about putting the poles and stakes in there, there is no room!



I'm thinking that a living quarter gooseneck or a slide in camper for my truck is sounding pretty dang good right now!



The tent is now tucked away in my trailer trunk, so I will at least have it if I ever need it.