Blatant racism... well, I never, LOL. 
My latest tent is an Ozark Trail Hexagonal Sport Dome Tent, and it's actually quite well-made: the seams are well-stitched, while the mesh stargazing panels are adequate but could be improved (I was spoiled by my last tent when it came to stargazing, as it had HUGE mesh panels). Though this model tent employs poles and sleeves/clips in setup, it goes up pretty fast and offers plenty of room for one or two people. The center height is only 4', so it's definitely NOT a tent for tall people, but I'm nearly 6' and I have no problem scrunching down to enter or exit the tent. Sure, I'd like a taller tent, but the price was right on this one: FREE!!! No, I didn't steal the tent off the top shelf at Walmart, it was given to me, LOL. My old tent, which lasted about a decade despite hard use, finally had its door zipper blown out, and the tent had holes in the floor which were patched with duct tape. Good tent for climbers, that old tent, wish I could remember the make and model, but I donated it to some military wife on Craigslist, so her children could have a play tent on the lawn in their back yard, right? Anyway, I've already used this current tent several times, and it has worked quite well for me, though I experienced unexpected problems when removing the poles from the sleeves: the sleeves are fairly small in diameter, and I made the mistake of trying to PULL the poles during extraction, rather than PUSH them. In my old tent, it made no difference either way, as the sleeves were loose and baggy, so to speak, but THESE sleeves kinda gripped the poles when I attempted to pull them out, which led to the pole sections breaking apart and then returning together to pinch the fabric of the sleeve... a mistake which I only made once upon noting the difference in sleeve diameter. Now I gently PUSH the poles in whatever direction to extract them, 10-4?
Having said this, let me tell you about my latest trip to the mountains & desert, which I made last week... I only spent two nights out there, when I usually spend at LEAST three or four nights per trip, but one of my seven brothers was visiting from out of state, so I cut my trip short. Spent the first night in the mountains (or high desert, if you prefer) near Boulevard, specifically in Lark Canyon in McCain Valley. Then I dropped down into Anza-Borrego to hit the hot springs at Agua Caliente, as well as the cold-water pool, since the temp was over 90 on the second day of my trip. After enjoying the thermal pools and cold-water pool for about six hours, I drove to the turnoff for Palm Spring, intent upon merely camping for the night and returning to San Diego in the morning to hang with my bro. There's a small cove near Palm Spring where one can easily set up camp, not far from S-2 so one can make a rapid departure the next day. Well, with half a trunkload of firewood still in the Camry, that p.o.s. started to bog down in the soft sand en route to Palm Spring (the Olds used to make it no problem), and I didn't want to get stuck, so I turned around and went to another spot on the advice of an old school desert rat. Wound up pitching my "new" tent in what I call the "Tamarisk Dome"---a dome-shaped Tamarisk tree with a soft carpet of dead needles or foliage in the hollow center. Moonlight filtered through the branches at night and laid an intricate pattern of shadows on the tent fabric and mesh panels, so realistic that the branches appeared to be woven directly into the fabric and mesh panels. Bats flew through the Tamarisk Dome all night, and their little bat shadows added to the pattern. Unreal spot, and the tent was the PERFECT SIZE for the enclosure or hollow center of the Tamarisk Dome. Could've put a larger tent there, in fact, but this one worked just fine... and that site is my favorite new free campsite in Anza-Borrego!!! What can I say, I'm a cheap bastard as well as a long-winded one, LOL.
Anyway, that's the story of my "new" tent, which you can probably Google on the Internet, since I have no photos of it (yet). Not a bad tent at all, it seems well-made for a Chinese tent, or a Mexican tent, or whatever... I haven't even looked at its place of origin yet, I imagine it's Chinese but there are instructions in Spanish on the outer label, a piece of cardboard in a clear sleeve on the tent storage bag. Let's just call it a Chinese Mexican tent, that'll cover all the bases, 10-4??? Or should we call it a Mexican Chinese tent??? Does anyone here have a preference? I know I like Chinese AND Mexican food, and I have a burro-load of Mexican blankets in my room, but I can go either way on this one. All I know is that the seams are stitched well, the zippers work just fine, and the mesh stargazing panels are adequate, though not quite as large or clear (in terms of visibility) as the stargazing panels in my last tent. Gotta have my stargazing panels, I like looking up at the heavens once I've downed my final beer for the evening and crawled into my fartsack to crash. Yesiree, those Chinese-Mexican (or Mexican-Chinese) sweatshop laborers DONE GOOD when they put together this tent, and that ain't no lie. Thing is tight, stands up to powerful gusts of wind no problem when fully staked, and looks heller cool when lit up at night, LOL. Oh, yeah, there are some little stretchy pockets hanging inside, I guess for keys or lighters or perhaps cigarettes for smokers, and those pockets were kinda cheesy... felt as if they'd require two hands to insert small objects such as those mentioned. Enough said, I'm off to crash, ADIOS!!!
My latest tent is an Ozark Trail Hexagonal Sport Dome Tent, and it's actually quite well-made: the seams are well-stitched, while the mesh stargazing panels are adequate but could be improved (I was spoiled by my last tent when it came to stargazing, as it had HUGE mesh panels). Though this model tent employs poles and sleeves/clips in setup, it goes up pretty fast and offers plenty of room for one or two people. The center height is only 4', so it's definitely NOT a tent for tall people, but I'm nearly 6' and I have no problem scrunching down to enter or exit the tent. Sure, I'd like a taller tent, but the price was right on this one: FREE!!! No, I didn't steal the tent off the top shelf at Walmart, it was given to me, LOL. My old tent, which lasted about a decade despite hard use, finally had its door zipper blown out, and the tent had holes in the floor which were patched with duct tape. Good tent for climbers, that old tent, wish I could remember the make and model, but I donated it to some military wife on Craigslist, so her children could have a play tent on the lawn in their back yard, right? Anyway, I've already used this current tent several times, and it has worked quite well for me, though I experienced unexpected problems when removing the poles from the sleeves: the sleeves are fairly small in diameter, and I made the mistake of trying to PULL the poles during extraction, rather than PUSH them. In my old tent, it made no difference either way, as the sleeves were loose and baggy, so to speak, but THESE sleeves kinda gripped the poles when I attempted to pull them out, which led to the pole sections breaking apart and then returning together to pinch the fabric of the sleeve... a mistake which I only made once upon noting the difference in sleeve diameter. Now I gently PUSH the poles in whatever direction to extract them, 10-4?Having said this, let me tell you about my latest trip to the mountains & desert, which I made last week... I only spent two nights out there, when I usually spend at LEAST three or four nights per trip, but one of my seven brothers was visiting from out of state, so I cut my trip short. Spent the first night in the mountains (or high desert, if you prefer) near Boulevard, specifically in Lark Canyon in McCain Valley. Then I dropped down into Anza-Borrego to hit the hot springs at Agua Caliente, as well as the cold-water pool, since the temp was over 90 on the second day of my trip. After enjoying the thermal pools and cold-water pool for about six hours, I drove to the turnoff for Palm Spring, intent upon merely camping for the night and returning to San Diego in the morning to hang with my bro. There's a small cove near Palm Spring where one can easily set up camp, not far from S-2 so one can make a rapid departure the next day. Well, with half a trunkload of firewood still in the Camry, that p.o.s. started to bog down in the soft sand en route to Palm Spring (the Olds used to make it no problem), and I didn't want to get stuck, so I turned around and went to another spot on the advice of an old school desert rat. Wound up pitching my "new" tent in what I call the "Tamarisk Dome"---a dome-shaped Tamarisk tree with a soft carpet of dead needles or foliage in the hollow center. Moonlight filtered through the branches at night and laid an intricate pattern of shadows on the tent fabric and mesh panels, so realistic that the branches appeared to be woven directly into the fabric and mesh panels. Bats flew through the Tamarisk Dome all night, and their little bat shadows added to the pattern. Unreal spot, and the tent was the PERFECT SIZE for the enclosure or hollow center of the Tamarisk Dome. Could've put a larger tent there, in fact, but this one worked just fine... and that site is my favorite new free campsite in Anza-Borrego!!! What can I say, I'm a cheap bastard as well as a long-winded one, LOL.
Anyway, that's the story of my "new" tent, which you can probably Google on the Internet, since I have no photos of it (yet). Not a bad tent at all, it seems well-made for a Chinese tent, or a Mexican tent, or whatever... I haven't even looked at its place of origin yet, I imagine it's Chinese but there are instructions in Spanish on the outer label, a piece of cardboard in a clear sleeve on the tent storage bag. Let's just call it a Chinese Mexican tent, that'll cover all the bases, 10-4??? Or should we call it a Mexican Chinese tent??? Does anyone here have a preference? I know I like Chinese AND Mexican food, and I have a burro-load of Mexican blankets in my room, but I can go either way on this one. All I know is that the seams are stitched well, the zippers work just fine, and the mesh stargazing panels are adequate, though not quite as large or clear (in terms of visibility) as the stargazing panels in my last tent. Gotta have my stargazing panels, I like looking up at the heavens once I've downed my final beer for the evening and crawled into my fartsack to crash. Yesiree, those Chinese-Mexican (or Mexican-Chinese) sweatshop laborers DONE GOOD when they put together this tent, and that ain't no lie. Thing is tight, stands up to powerful gusts of wind no problem when fully staked, and looks heller cool when lit up at night, LOL. Oh, yeah, there are some little stretchy pockets hanging inside, I guess for keys or lighters or perhaps cigarettes for smokers, and those pockets were kinda cheesy... felt as if they'd require two hands to insert small objects such as those mentioned. Enough said, I'm off to crash, ADIOS!!!
