I’m curious if you’ve ever camped in your driveway? We picked up our tent a few weeks ago, and had plans to use our tent last weekend but some parenting had to be done, and unfortunately the tent camping had to be pulled as a consequence of growing up. But, after a really great week, I felt like I should offer it back to Ray as a reward for his good behavior. Since we had an appointment to get the tires rotated and oil changed at our local Toyota dealership at 8 AM, a horse show all day in a neighboring county 45 minutes away, and a Soccer game at noon, we couldn’t venture away from home for a night under the stars.

What do you do when it’s humid, warm, and sunlit until 9 PM, but you still want to sleep in a Roof Top Tent? You open that sucker up in the driveway! And when your neighbor offers to come by at 10:30 PM and make monster noises? You offer to throw a bullet his way (LOL – JK).

Setup was a breeze as expected. If you don’t have a Roof Top Tent, I’ll briefly walk you through the process. After releasing the four straps, and unzipping the cover, it is lifted over the tent and I usually tuck it into the truck bed to keep it off the paint. There are 4 Velcro straps (one on each corner) that are released before grabbing the ladder and using it as leverage to open the tent. Now, all that remains is taking the 8 wire rods to prop open any of the awnings that you’d like open. Done. Seriously. That’s it!

Inside the tent is an anti-condensation mat, and a plush Summit level sleeping mat. The tent is very comfortable, and because of the model we chose, it’s very spacious as well. Inside are storage pockets, 4 vents, and 6 mesh openings which can be sealed in inclement weather. Last night, the temperature ranged from 74* to a low of 66* and we were very comfortable. As we fell asleep, the moon was behind our house, but I did wake up in the middle of the night with the moon beaming in through one of the stargazer panels on the top of the tent – SO cool! I did end up closing this window so that the light wouldn’t keep us from sleeping, and it was a simple process. After a few more hours of listening to nature around us, we woke up at 6 AM to watch the sun slowly rise over the treeline in the distance.

Packing up everything was just as easy as setup. We packed our small assortment in the tent (two sleeping bags, two pillows, his blankets, my laptop since we watched Guardians of the Galaxy until he fell asleep, and a solar lantern). Within minutes, we were ready to exit the tent and pack things up to start our Saturday morning. Closing the tent is super simple as well. Removing the wire rods, and strapping the tent down, is as simple as using the same ladder to leverage the tent closed.

So in closing, while we may not have been able to explore the forest, wake up in view of the ocean, or explore some new and exciting place we did get to explore our very own front yard and to us, that is better than a night in a bedroom any day of the week!