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I saw this pic on the net somewhere and loved it.  It appealed to my nerdy word game sense of humour.  Puntastic!

This picture is pertinent as I have been tent-shopping.  Specifically, I've been shopping for a tent to take to CQ.  Long-time admirers will recall that I participated in Cycle Queensland last year, and had a terrific time!

This year, we're doing it all again, except for one notable difference.  We did not secure an Easy Campese [PDF] tent.  So we are fending for ourselves this year.  Mum usually declines to participate altogether if she can't get an Easy Campese tent.  But I convinced her it'd be fine, and as a sweetener, I told her I'd do all the tent setup and tear-down.  I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  Time will tell.  Mum basically wanted an Easy Campese tent, but those things are huge, heavy, bulky and I talked sense into her.

Anyway, all of this is to tell you, dear loyal readers, that I have been tent-shopping.  Tent technology has changed a great deal since my Cadet days.  Back then, I used to throw up a hootch, scoot under it, and sleep in the world's warmest sleeping bag.  Water was never a problem, since the hootch was watertight as a fish's arse.  The alternative was to carry a tent, and back then, tents were either a) wonderfully warm, waterproof and exceptionally heavy or b) waterlogged, cold misery, but easy to carry.

I'm not sure if this has changed much, but what I can tell you is that they are now much easier to erect than they were back in the day.  Long story short, we settled upon a Coleman Lakeside 3:

One for each of us.  Yes, you heard that right.  We are each having a 3-person tent to ourselves.  This will give us much more room inside, as well as privacy and basically a place to escape from it all.  You'll note the tent has a vestibule-like area in the front.  Funnily enough, it is a vestibule.  The plan is to stash the bike in here overnight, rather than leave it exposed to the elements (and thieves).  It's also a place to leave grotty shoes and the like so dirt doesn't get traipsed into the sleeping area.

So that is one less thing to think about for CQ.  I plan to take one of the tents out of the box on the weekend and try it out in the back yard.  If I can survive a horrid winter's night in it, without wussing out and running back inside to sit in front of the heater, it'll be fine for CQ.