Almost a month ago, my husband began having to work 7 days a week. It was mandatory with absolutely NO VACATION TIME being approved. At the time, it was only for 3 weeks. Now it's "until further notice". Luckily, he got in 2 days of vacation time just before they decided it would last longer than 3 weeks.
Back in September, we made a semi-spontaneous trip to visit the Garden of the Gods in southern Illinois. We had such a good time and it was so absolutely beautiful that I immediately made plans for us to visit again. The time has come!
At the beginning of the Summer, we set up our big tent to let it air out. Mother Nature had other plans and a quick moving afternoon thunderstorm took out our comfortable camping abode. We've made due with our small 4 person tent. While our family does consist of only 4 people, a 4 person tent isn't really big enough for an extending camping stay.
Introducing...
I was searching and searching for an affordable alternative to our small tent. I thought for sure that most stores camping equipment would be going on sale or clearance. It was wishful thinking. Wal-Mart had not a single tent on their shelves! Target, the same. I ventured to Dunham's only to find a suitable tent in a box that looked like it had been run over by a semi about 10 times. I know the damaged box shouldn't have swayed my opinion because I'm sure the tent inside was fine, but the lack of help from the store employees really made my decision for me.
I finally relented and went to Gander Mountain. I'll never use them as a last resort again! Not only were the employees super helpful and nice, I got the above tent for nearly 1/2 off the shelf price! It has two rooms, attachable cup holders, two separate shelving units, a nice Velcro opening for an extension cord (although our camping location has no electricity) and an expendable canopy. Needless to say, I am super excited and proud about my purchase.
Tomorrow is pack up the car day, then we'll be leaving out on Thursday morning for a 4 day mini-vacation camping in the wilderness! Obviously there isn't any internet connections available and I have no plans to do any automatic posting while we're gone. I can't wait to share photos from our adventure when we get back though!
Have a great rest of the week and enjoy your weekend!
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