In honor of the search we're doing for our next camper. I thought this story was fitting...well sort of.
In Search of the Perfect Tentby Kim Leady
It was time. As I glared at all the magazines, pamphlets, online reports, and advertisements that laid in haphazard piles around me on the living room floor, I had to face the facts. Our time was running out. We were just going to have to do it.
I mean, it's not like my husband and I have not made this decision before. However, the thought of having to make this decision again was causing me sleepless nights. This time, our choice could mean life or death. This time, if we made the wrong choice, we couldn't just crawl out of our mistake, walk a hundred feet and sleep in our truck.
No, this choice was going to have to withstand anything and everything Mother Nature could and probably would throw at us. And if that wasn't enough pressure, we also needed it to be lightweight, but large enough to accommodate our teenage sons if needed.
Over the past sixteen years, we have purchased three tents.
Our very first tent was a Fisher Price pop-up tent that we could set up in either the house or the yard depending on the weather. The boys loved this one, but unfortunately, they outgrew the canary yellow playhouse and it now is offering great adventures for their cousins.
Our next was a canvas castle. It was made up of three rooms, four large rain tarps and required a pack mule to haul it anywhere. It is now in Ohio serving as shelter for our niece's Girl Scout troop.
The third was scaled down to a two roomer, had its own rain fly and we could pack it on our backs. I guess we got what we paid for, because it only lasted one season and then we retired it to the dumpster and made a beeline for the closest RV lot to buy a camper.
To say the least, these tents were not designed to offer anything but great family weekend fun in either the backyard or a state park. And yes, we did have fun, but we also ended up with wet sleeping bags and clothes. Not one of our tents had been rain proof.
With this in mind along with all of the research floating in my head, we headed into Nashville in search of the perfect tent for our Minnesota canoe trip.
The first place we tried didn't have a good selection of three season tents. The second place had a better selection, but the salespeople were not very helpful. The third location didn't have the serious type of equipment that we were in the market for.
Grasping at straws, I suggested a place in Brentwood.
When we walked into the store, we knew this was the place. This store had everything. It had knowledgeable salespeople who loved their job. It had the kind of tents we were looking for and to top it off there was a sale going on. What more could we ask for? Right?
Wrong! Now came the hard part of deciding which one was the best buy for the money we wanted to spend. After an hour of setting up and taking down several tents, we narrow it down to one manufacture, Mountain Hardware.
I really loved their innovated designs and colors. I only prayed their product would be just as rugged as their named implied. Fifteen minutes later, we further narrowed our decision down to either the SkyView 2, which is a two-man tent, or the SkyView 3, which is a three- man with a larger vestibule.
Sitting on the floor in the SkyView 3 looking around trying to figure out how all four of us would sleep in the snug quarters, I looked up at Bryan, our salesperson, and asked him how wet he thought we would get when it rained - which it would, this I already knew.
He smiled and said we wouldn't even get damp, and if we did, I could come back to him and we would call the manufacturer together and voice our displeasure. In all our tent purchases, not once have we had that kind of guarantee. Can we say SOLD! That was until we noticed the price on the large one was seventy dollars more than the smaller one.
After Steve and I rationalized the cost against the welfare of our family, and the fact the tent could also be our anniversary present to one another, we carried home our very expensive teal and gray purchase.
That night as I held my husband's hand and we looked out our kitchen window at our anniversary present set up in the pouring rain, a thought came to me. Although many years have past since we said I DO, and many things have changed with time, it's still nice to know some things never change…when we pitch a tent - it's going to rain.
Kim
PS - we still have this tent and we have never gotten wet during rain.
