tent practice

I bought a new tent for this year's Roo and am super excited about it.  It's a Coleman Sundome 5 and I got it for a STEAL (I just did a search and the cheapest price is still $20 more than I paid). 

10' wide x 10' deep x 6' tall with mesh sides, it's perfect for camping in the middle of a field in Tennesse in June.  For one person.  While the normal math is to divide what the manufacturer lists as the sleeping capacity by 2, for Bonnaroo I recommend dividing it by 3.  And then rounding down.  So for one person, a 5-person tent is perfect.

I first tried setting up my tent in my living room.  Can you say FAIL?  Technically, my living room is big enough to fit this tent, but that doesn't account for having to lay the poles out before bending them to fit the dome. 

So I folded and rolled it back up and put it away until it warmed up and I could set it up outside.  But then it rained weekend after weekend.  Finally there was some sunshine in Maryland on a Saturday so my brother-in-law came over to help me set it up.

It went up in no time - only two poles and free-standing makes things super easy

I also brought out my cot just to be 100% sure it would fit inside.  And it's perfect.

This angle also shows how two people would be a tight squeeze in there.  We'd have to step over each other to get to anything.  With just me, there's plenty of room for my gigantic cot, all my stuff and room to move around while getting dressed or reorganizing all my crap.  Because you need a LOT of crap to be comfortable at Bonnaroo.  And this year, I have enough room for it all!