Tenting at Riverwood

There is lots of room to sleep in the old farmhouse, but we do like to tent while we are there.  So every chance we get, we pitch our tent somewhere on the grounds and sleep out under the stars.  We had a fabulous, bright yellow, four seasons,  tent from MEC that we used for quite a few years, but it was small, and the older we got, the harder it got to get in and out of the thing.  We finally passed it on to the A-Team, with wishes that they would make many happy memories camping with it like we did.

Here it is in the back yard at Riverwood in 2010 beside the kids little play tent.  .

We missed tenting though, and when AC saw this One-minute tent on sale at CT this summer, we thought it was just the ticket for these aging bodies to be able to enjoy tenting at Riverood again.  So we gave it a try.

Sitting on the front porch contemplating how to put the new tent up in the morning, and would it really be as easy as advertised?

The advertising said it would take only one minute to set up!   Hmmmm, really?  It was also roomy enough for two queen air mattresses, and was tall enough for us to stand up in it.  Wow! We'll see.

Time to give it a try.   First we had to find a nice flat spot with a great view, and open the tent.  We had an old ground sheet, so we put that down first, and opened the tent.  Next step was to fold down the four arms, and put them flat on the ground with the center pole still in the upright position.

Next, we had to extend the poles, at each corner, click into place, and voila...the tent was up.  It really was that easy. 

I unwound the stabilizing ropes that were already attached to the top of the tent...

...then AC got busy with tent pegs to secure them to the ground. 

Big smiles because it really was that easy.  I think it took us more than a minute, but not much more than that.  What a pleasant surprise.

It had nice big windows on each side.

 And I really could stand up in there. 

It went down almost as easy as it went up.  The hardest part was getting the air out of it once we collapsed the poles.  It took us a few minutes to squeeze the fabric into place and tie it up so it would fit back into the handy dandy little carry bag, but we did it without too much fuss, and I am sure with a little practice we will have that step down pat too.

All in all, it was a great tenting experience.