Since we can't afford a new house

After 5 years of service, our old MEC Wanderer tent has started to show its age. Its also started to show its weight and size on some of our backpacking trips. We're not very big, we don't need a 3 man unless we are treking around with our four legged friend.

So we decided to upgrade, and this summer we will be spending our wilderness nights in the Exped Venus II. Since our lawn is a lot soggy and a little poopy, we did the first set up in our living room just to make sure we'd gotten all the pieces.

Its going to take us a little while, but I'm sure we'll get faster at set up. It will also help when we have a little more space, and the dog is not laying on the tent. We have one piece that we're still not sure where it goes, its supposed to be a gear sling for one of the vestibules, but we haven't figured out how it attaches.

Initial tent review (based on living room set up):

• Set up should be easy since you set the tent and the fly up together
• Lots of room for us, even sitting up
• Two vestibules, a must for Jon
• Lovely yellow color on the inside makes us happy
• Not sure how we feel about the exoskeleton design (poles sleeves are on the outside)
• It looks huge, but that could just be our living room

I'll be re-evaluating how I feel about it once we try it out. If the weather ever improves, perhapps we'll get to use it!