It's amazing what you can find at the Salvation Army thrift shop... there's one close to home, and I was in there the other day trying to find Halloween-costume stuff, when I spied a big canvas bag with poles sticking out of it. Tent? Tarp? Garbage? the price was $11, so i decided to find out at home.
  It is in fact an old tent, seen here "mocked up" in the loft (can't stake it down, so...). A few rust stains here and there and there are spots where the dye from the darker fabric has bled onto the lighter, but it's complete; no rips or patches; plastic zippers so no problem there... a great deal for eleven bucks.
All of the windows have flaps that zip up to keep out wind and rain, but this is at best a three-season tent. In the winter, you'd need a whole bikini team in there to get all that cubic footage warmed up in less than 24 hours...




It's HUGE- 10'x16', and really not that heavy, considering. There's a rain fly in the front, rolled up for the moment. I don't need one this big, but I usually car-camp (Peg's not the best hiker, so hike-in camping's not much of an option, and I can't not take Peg!), so this'll be perfect for that. Hell, I could probably drive my car into the tent!!


Peg seemed a little uncertain about entering it; when she nearly wiped out on the lip of this "back door", I realized why. Don't worry, girl, when it's staked out, that won't be so high. and there's a divider, so we can each have our own room!
Ah... no more cramming into a 2-man tent with my gear and a wet dog... yes, wet... it always rains when I go camping. Always.




No screen on the "back door", must be for emergencies, like giving bears the slip... Actually, I can see backing the Tracker right up to this and opening the tailgate... ahhh, no more running back and forth between car and tent in the rain... yes, it ALWAYS rains when I go camping...
I'm gonna let it air out a coupla days, then try to clean it a little and Scotchguard the heck out of it. Then... well, the season's pretty much over, but maybe I'll go somewhere before the snow comes.
at the very least, I could live in this thing if i had to...

your end pole aren't set quite correctly.....the base of all poles on each side, should aim at a point just below the base of the centre poles.......I had a tent like that.
This way the ends are self taughtening......

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Ah, yes.. that explains a lot. The directions were actually still in the bag, but very tattered... it wasn't too clear. Thanks.
Now I can open a circus... I've got Peg, and maybe i can borrow my friends' bull terrier; I'll dress them up like clowns and teach them a few tricks...

wow, what a find!