Today is the day! We are heading out to Bankhead National Forest to test drive our roof top tent and decide if it was really worth what we paid.

If you’ve been following us on our journey you may have noticed a theme with National Forests. It’s because military members and their dependents are eligible for a free America the Beautiful pass. This pass entitles the bearer to free or reduced entry to National Parks and Forests as well as discounts on extras like camping and day use fees.

So we woke up this morning in our cushy hotel to look out and see… rain. Yep, it’s raining. And then while I ate breakfast I saw on the news there is a hurricane headed for Florida and it will likely curve up through Georgia. Huh, well it looks like there might be a lot of rain in our future.

We hit the road in a downpour, and did I mention before the Defender leaks water inside like a sieve? It does. There’s a gap between the windshield and the roof where water comes in and somewhere behind the dash and the bottom of the rear doors. It would have been sensible to have those things fixed prior to leaving England, but with everything else I had going on it was low on my priority list and well, now, let’s just say it was a damp drive to Bankhead.

But we made it with almost no complaining from the Night squad. I call them that because when we first got walkie talkies they all came up with code names starting with Night.

Once we arrived we headed for the Campground host’s site – best idea ever! I hadn’t been able to book online because I waited too long to book online and the sites were first come, first serve (have you noticed a theme of me waiting too late to book things?).
The hosts were great and helped me figure out a level site to set up camp.

Guess what happened next? It was still raining. The forecast said maybe it would let up around six, but it was only four. Should I sit in the car with the kids for the next two hours and wait for it to let up or get them out of the car to help me set up camp in the rain?

I went with Option C and put up the tent in the rain by myself while the children sat in the truck watching a movie. I figured this was the best option because I couldn’t really direct the kids with what to do when I didn’t even know what to do. I forgot to mention in my last post, the tent came with zero instructions and the ones found online are severely lacking and missing crucial details.

So like with most things, I just winged it and in 6 minutes and 23 seconds the tent was up. That’s right I timed myself. Then I went to put in the window poles. Wait a minute, moment of panic, where the heck are the poles? The last I saw them they were on the floor at the garage who installed the tent. Did they get left behind?

I didn’t have cell service to call, and it’s still raining so I just stood under the tent overhang for a bit and watched the rain. After enjoying the few minutes of rain pitter patter and solitude, it was back to work . The rain showed no signs of stopping so I figured I might as well cook dinner while putting off attaching the annex.

After dinner, the kids went up in the tent to check it out and tadaa! Window poles. It took a little over a minute to put in each pole. Due to the height of the truck and location of roof rack bars, some of them required a bit of finagling.

The annex was a bit trickier to set up than its tent counterpart. Again having no directions and no cell service to look them up I reverted to winging it. The difficult part was figuring out how to orient the annex, the extension, and floor in relation to the tent so it could be zipped in. This took a little more than 5 minutes. It then took 8 more minutes to zip everything and reorient the floor because I had it the wrong way round. So, about 15 minutes in total and the annex was attached and good to go.

It probably would have taken less time had I not been dealing with a screaming, tired toddler who just wanted some milk and to sleep. I put off staking the annex and attaching the guy lines in order to get little one to bed, which is just about the time it started raining again.

That was a mistake friends. Forget the screaming toddler or kids or whatever it is trying to keep you from finishing the job. Always, always, always stake the thing out. My lack of staking flooded the annex. See, zippers aren’t waterproof and since the annex to floor zippers were exposed from my lack of staking, water just poured right in. Thankfully, I was able to adjust the annex walls to bring the zippers up a bit and water stopped coming in, but the floor was still flooded, not completely thank goodness, but still enough to be a bother.

See, Little One sleeps on a mat on the floor next to my air mattress, but now she would have to sleep in my bed instead. Normally no big deal, but guess what air mattress I had rushed to blow up before the rain started up again. The twin? The double? Either of those would have been okay. But no, I blew up the British twin, which is about 12” narrower than an American twin. It barely fits a sleeping bag let alone an adult plus a toddler.

We made it work for a couple of hours until I woke up at midnight, so uncomfortable I couldn’t go back to sleep. It was then I heard Miss Drama complaining about the boys being in her space. I climbed the ladder to see what was going on and found her thrashing against her sleeping bag talking in her sleep.

This commotion worked in my favor as I realized just how much room there was up there in the tent with the other three. I moved the kid closest to the door towards the middle and there was room enough for Little One and me to squeeze in. Now all I had to do was climb up with her and the sleeping bag. We did make it up and promptly both fell right back to sleep. Good to know for future reference in case there’s ever a time I don’t want to attach the annex and we all need to sleep in the tent.

First night in the rooftop tent was mostly a success. User error and water ingress aside it actually lived up to the hype in my head. One night down, many, many more to go. Let’s hope break down goes smoothly and just as quick.