JonandJas: 2010

Our Beach

Wow. When we made our first trip up to Hermit Island and pitched the tent on our site, I was wondering what all the fuss was about. Big deal. Camping on an island, whatever. Man was I wrong. As we were leaving, Jas asked if there were any openings and it seems as if someone just dropped out of a BEACHFRONT PRIME site. She took it without asking me. Good for us she did. This is the prime lot on the island. Lots of deer on the island. Late night we hear some cracking in the trees, so I tell the kids to quit screwing around and go back to their campsite. Jas has a better idea, she's going to use her camera and snap a flash of them... this is what she got.

Late night visitor.

Cilantro Lime Chicken and local corn at peak...mmmm

On the cliffs watching the sunset

The walk to our campfire site.

In the canopy

Camping on the Rooftop. Elevated camping in the Honda Element.

Our first trip in the new camping rig was up the coast of Maine. When we first looked at the car top tent, http://www.top-tent.com/index.html, I was skeptical it would work. Any number of problems could have ruined our trip.

I was sure that the tent would,
A. Fly off the top of my car on the highway.
B. Rip off the roof-rack.
C. Collapse on both of us as I climbed into it.
D. Inflate and fly away with a small gust of wind.

Happily, none of those things happened. It was secured down really tight and I didn't even notice driving around with it after a couple of days. As far as collapsing, I was way off. This thing is secure. Of course it is on your car, so if you start rocking side to side, you can see how the thing is going to move.

Here is the way the tent looks when it is packed up on top of the car. It looks just like those cargo boxes made for large SUV's. It doesn't weigh that much, about 130lbs.

When it is time to open up, all you have to do is undo the straps that hold down the vinyl cover and unzip it. Grab the ladder and pull down. Done. Check this out.

Once it is up all you have to do is put in the steel spring rods to extend the awnings. It can be tricky at first, but the great thing about the Element is that you can kind of climb all over it and put footmarks anywhere.

You can see there is plenty of room under the overhang for space to keep things dry if it starts raining. Maybe the additional tent might be added later.

After sleeping in it for multiple nights, we both feel it was almost as comfortable as our futon at home, and we could stay on the road for much longer than we could sleeping inside the E, or on the ground in a tent.

We just used a down comforter as a sheet, and it was just like sleeping at home. I promise more interior pics next trip.

This tent changes the way we are going to camp. We can set up in 5 minutes tops, and break down in less time. We always have everything we need with us inside the car, and we can just pick up and go wherever and whenever we want. No trailer, no tents, it is so easy. All we had to do was relax and enjoy Maine.