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One Year Anniversary for the Orange Dome

I bought my orange tent 1 year ago today!

    I just bought the Ozark Trail 7X9 dome tent. I like it from what I have seen, but I still have one question. Does it hold up well in the rain? I hope so. I probably will find out tonight, there is a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms in my area, and I look at this as a perfect chance to see how Ozark Trail does in the rain.                                                                      

                                                                                                                         

Today I got a Coleman camping cot. I soon found out that it barely fit in my Coleman Tent. At this point I was tired of the Coleman tent, not because I was bored of it, because I have been having some pretty bad luck with the Coleman Sun dome lately. It hasn't kept bugs out, I have found several holes in the stitching connecting the wall material to the floor, and my cot will not fit in it. But I have had my eye on this for a while:

It's a 9X7 Ozark Trail tent. It has more windows, and it is not green. I've never liked that green of the Coleman Sun Dome. Walmart customers seem to have pretty good things to say about it, and 600 people on Facebook like it. It's only $39 at the local Walmart. I am really thinking about buying it.

Today is June 29 2012. That makes 1 year ago today that I threw my Red Embark tent and bought the strangely small Ozark Trail tent. Throwing the red embark away was a huge mistake! I have never had a tent as good as it. I am sorry I threw you away last year, i still miss you.

    Today I was looking on line to see if there was any Red embark tents like the one in the picture above. I couldn't find anything except this.

.From what I can see it is identical to my old embark. I did some reading and found out that it is pretty much the same, only blue. The door is the same, the back window, the way the rain fly is connected, the size, even the poles are the same.The reason I mentioned the poles is because the pole running on the sides is grey instead of black. I also found out that it is the Greatland's 7X9 2-3 person backpacking tent.

I have been doing some thinking about the Orange Embark 4 person tent. Last summer I hated it, I wanted no part of it. Just seeing it made me sick. Well that was almost one year ago and now I realized that the tent's   one and only problem is that it water squeezes through the zipper on the door when it rains out. If you read my last post, your probably thinking, "Oh Yeah, mister tent expert, what about the broken pole." Well I fit all the poles back together and when the tents set up, there under pressure so the won't fall apart on you when you are sleeping. Over the past month, I have come to really like the Orange Embark. It Stinks when it rains because right under the gets wet but when it's nice out, you would have no way of knowing that it leaks through a small part of uncovered zipper. No it will never be as good as my red embark but its good for what its is.

Now there's proof that this isn't a quality tent! I was taking this tent down this afternoon, and when I was, the one of the poles cords snapped in half. Well that's just great. Now what do I do? Play Harry Potter with my broken tent pole or (magic wand)?  

This is a picture that I took of my orange Embark, and green Coleman tent set up side by side. Now out of the two, I prefer the Coleman sun
dome over the Embark tent for three reasons. Reason 1, on my first night in the embark, I noticed that there was a small hole punched in the floor. On my first night in the Coleman, there wasn't a hole in the floor. Reason 2, The Embark leaks water through the door when it rains. The Coleman doesn't. And finally, reason number 3, The Coleman seems to be much stronger in the wind, and is easier to set up.

   So after reading this, I'm sure that you have second thoughts about buying the Embark. If you aren't, I will just tell you straight out, DON'T DO IT! It was a waste of  $60.

How to set up the MOTOTENT

This is the MOTOTENT. I have seen videos on youtube, such as this, that show how great this tent is. From what I've seen, people like it also referred to it as "The only motorcycle tent you'l ever need. This quick video demonstrates how to set up the MOTOTENT with a salesman who really likes the MOTOTENT. In other videos I have seen, They show the MOTOTENT in a sever thunderstorm with a man and his bike staying perfectly dry inside.

  The MOTOTENT has two sections inside, a garage where you can park your motorcycle, and a place for you to sleep in. No I do not have one or would suggest it to you when I don't know how good it rely is, but from what I have seen, people look pretty happy with it.

The Coleman can hold up to four people max, but I would only recommend three people if you have claustrophobia. These are some pictures that I took on my first tent adventure out in the Coleman. The Coleman is pretty roomy when you are sleeping in it alone but when you have two dogs with you, that's something else. I like the Coleman and I think that it is a good choice for picky tenters... like me. But I don't like the fact that it doesn't have a net that hangs from the top of the tent.

It's finally summer. The new tent came and I am all set for an entire summer of tenting! :)

These Coleman tent stakes are just wonderful. The other night, I slept out in my old orange tent, and boy was it windy! The rain fly was just all over with that wind. It is a good thing that I had these Coleman stakes on hand, otherwise, the tent surely would have been ripped out of the ground. These stakes are very firm in the ground and are very strong. I got these at Walmart for a couple bucks so I thought "what the heck". I needed them any
way so I bought them expecting "Walmart standards out of them, but from what I saw, they work rather nicely!

This Coleman sleeping bag is water proof unless it is soaking wet. The bag is good for cold weather 10-30 degrees, as shown on the bag, but not for extreme cold. If winter camping is your thing or you are headed for the Arctic Circle, you will want to keep looking. But, for most normal camping use, this bag will keep you warm and dry for a reasonable price. I have spent many nights in this bag and have no complaints about it at all.

The words Walmart, cheap, and unreliable usually go together like peanut butter and jelly. Not in this case. This is the "Ozark Trail" camping lantern. This is a really good lantern that was selling for a good price so I bought It. When I got home, I found that it was rechargeable, that is good because you don't have to run to Target to pick up another set of batteries every time it dies. You just have to plug it in and let it charge for about 4 or 5 hours. It includes a car charger so you can recharge it in your car to so that is cool to but the question still remains, How bright is it? it is very bright and stays bright for several hours before the bulb starts to go dim. How long it stays bright rely depends on how long you charge it. like if you charge it for 6 hours, it might stay bright for between 18 and 12 hours so it's a good lantern. My first experience with Ozark trail was negative because of that tent but this lantern changes that around. I rely like it!

New Coleman Sundome Tent

Yesterday, I bought a Coleman Sundome 4 person tent from Amazon. This tent gets high marks from Amazon reviewers, and I am pretty excited about finding that package on my door step in a couple of days. After the tent arrives, I will be updating this post with a review and pictures.

The spring camping season is here and the new Coleman is just what I need to start the 2012 season. So, if the Mayans are right and the world ends on December 21st, I will be going out after a great summer of Tent Adventures with the Coleman Sundome. Sweet!!

This is the tent that I had for the remainder of the summer of 2011. It is 7 by 9 feet. It is an Embark dome tent that sleeps 4 people. It's a family tent. I spent $54 on this tent and hated it all summer long. The reason I hated this tent is because water leaked in through the zipper on the door. I tried so many things to fix that and nothing worked. I would suggest staying away from this tent and do your home work on other family sized tents because this one isn't the one. I got this tent on July 14 2011 and hated it by July 18 because it leaks water in several spots including the back. 2011 wasn't a good tenting year for me because I had 3 different tents with problems.

This Tent is a Walmart brand tend known as "Ozark Trail". This is the tent I bought after my red one from the last review broke. I bought this tent for $25. This tent gets three and a half stars on Walmart.com but I would only give it two. The reason is that it is 7 feet by 7 feet. That may sound large but when it is set up in front of you, you will think different. I only had this tent for about two weeks in July and by then I was so sick of it, I donated it and bought another Target brand tent, but I will talk about that in my next review. This tent is good for a couple of 7 year old kids. That's it. But I will say that it is very easy to set up and I think they are selling this 2011 model again this year.

This is a 2010 Target brand tent known as "Embark". Embark tents aren't the greatest tents in the world but this is an exception. This is a 7 by 9 foot tent that sleeps two people. It's life average is about 1 to 2 years. I bought this tent at Target for about $30 and man was it worth it. This tent will keep you completely dry,and, it is a bath tub bottom. There are no tie down straps to trip on, you just have to hammer the seven shaped stakes into the ground. I slept out in this tent several times in the summer of 2010 and loved it. I slept out in it so much, that by the time June of 2011 was around, the strip of fabric where the poles
plug in had tore the sides of the tent out from the stress of the poles. I don't think that they make this tent any more, but if you find one on the internet, I would suggest buying it for a reasonable price. You won't regret it.

Hello, I am really excited for summer. Every summer I buy a tent and set it up in the back yard or take it some place else. On this blog you can find reviews on tents, brands, sleeping bags and lanterns. My real posting will start in late May when school is out and should continue to about late August. Right now, I am just setting up the blog. Sorry if it isn't that fancy but please check back around May.