A guest blog by SD: Life on the road; having the right gear is important

SD here again with another guest blog entry.

Now we are three weeks in, we've had to make some adjustments to our gear line up.  We have had to replace out trusty tent.

For almost a decade now, maybe longer as I have no clue when I bought it, a L.L. Bean 6 person dome tent has served well.

The existing tent, it has served us well.

Up to now there has been only one failure (although it failed three times so far, obviously a design failure), of the back fly pole, and Bean has happily replaced it each time it broke.  I have to say dealing with Bean is great, after the latest failure they offered to refund me the cost of the tent I bought 10 years ago, what a great company to deal with.

Little tent on the prairie.

But as we found out in the badlands, the tent wasn't up to 30 knot winds and a driving rain (http://kellytimetoo.blogspot.com/2015/06/rain-wind-and-clay.html).  The fly over each door sits straight out to shade the doors.  A good design in sunny or protected conditions, but when the wind blows it just catches the wind and the rain being driven sideways by it.  Spending part of the night holding the tent up from the inside then sleeping in wet gear just doesn't cut it when you're living on the road.  On a weekend trip its less of a problem as you go home after a couple of days to regroup.  The tent is our home now so no place to regroup.  So now that we're spending a couple of days in town we decided to do some research and look into upgrading our car camping tent.  One nice thing about choosing a tent for car camping is that weight and packed size just don't matter.  We are looking for comfort and the ability to stand up to all conditions.

After the great experience we've had with LL Bean that's the first place we checked.  We still find that their gear is well priced and fairly well designed for the average weekend camper.  Our top choice there (http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/85982?feat=506832-GN3&page=adventure-dome-6-person-tent&attrValue_0=Crisp%20Lapis/Stainless%20Steel&productId=1435382) had the same problem as our existing tent, overhangs to shade the doors that would be great in the right conditions, but not so great in some of the conditions we've run into already.  Considering how great they are to deal with, it was a disappointment to not be able to buy from them again.

The new LL Bean tent, a possibility.

The next place we looked is Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS).  Kelly used to work there and they also seem to have good gear at a decent price.   Their Big Easy 6 Tent looked good, and the price was right in there.  As you can see from looking at it (http://www.ems.com/ems-big-easy-6-tent/300026167.html?dwvar_300026167_color=3111#start=2) there's a fly extension that comes down to for a vestibule, which provides a bit more storage space, but more importantly stakes down to provide a wind buffer.

The EMS Big Easy 6.

The fly in the back, we can only assume since there's no picture, comes down towards the base of the tent.  We liked it but there were two problems, we couldn't buy it locally thus we couldn't check it out before purchasing, and there's only one door.  But it was a contender.

The next place to shop for outdoor gear is Recreational Equipment Inc (REI).  An interesting nationwide big box outdoor gear store.  As an aside; one of the biggest drawbacks to the homogenisation of shopping is the lack of selection.  You go to big box stores you only get manufacturers big enough or standard enough to supply a store that sells nationwide.  The prices might be better, and you can usually find what you want after a fashion, but the selection is limited.

Anyway, back to the tent story, we liked the REI Base Camp 6 tent (http://www.rei.com/product/862430/rei-base-camp-6-tent).  It looks like it is designed for windy rainy conditions, had two doors and we could check it out locally.

The REI Base Camp 6.

It is expensive, but being members of REI does mean a 10% kickback at the end of the year.  That helps.  So we trekked down to the local store and ended up purchasing it.  We set up this morning to try it out and make sure everything was there before we got out to a camp site only to find an important component was missing.  Everything was there and it won't be hard to put up when camping.

It is a huge tent!  But we camp comfortable when car camping, including a queen size air mattress, sheets, comforter, pillows, and all of our other gear that we want to keep dry.  This tent certainly looks like it will do the job.  

As I update you on how it works in stormy conditions after we've had a chance to put it to the test.  We have high hopes this one will last a few years of constant use.