Tent: GP Medium

After borrowing a military tent to host our tea and skeet shoot, Sir Knight and I knew that we wanted a tent of our own.  We host numerous events every year and the military tent seemed to be the perfect venue.  The tent we used for the shoot was a GP (General Purpose) Large.  It was 18 feet wide and 52 feet long.  Although perfect for that event, it was really too big for the majority of our needs.  It was old (read HEAVY) and so cumbersome that it took at least 4 of us to effectively put it up and take it down. 

After returning the tent, Sir Knight and I began to search for a more manageable structure.  What we found was a GP Medium.  It is a much more realistic (for us) size (16″ x 32″) and constructed with rubber coated nylon versus cotton canvas. 

At first, I was concerned that the nylon would be a very light duty, not at all suited to our windy prairie.  My concerns were unwarranted.  The fabric is plenty heavy (although nothing like the heavyweight canvas) and imbued with waterproof rubber.  The fabric, combined with the size, make the GP Medium easily managed by two of us.  Not to mention, it takes up much less space to store when dismantled.

Our tent did have a few holes, two the size of quarters that were chewed by rodents, but most were the size of pin pricks.  Before we even stood the tent up, Sir Knight made patches (using the tent fabric and rubber cement) to patch the tent on the outside.  After we erected the tent, we made identical patches and patched the inside in the tent.  We still have to replace some of the ropes and get a few more stakes, but the tent is now officially in service!

Although we are planning a fall tea and shoot, we put the tent into immediate service to host an upcoming wedding shower.  Miss Serenity is the Maid-of-Honor for her best friend and her soon-to-be husband, and as such, had the joy of hosting her bridal shower.  Our shouse is much too small to host an event of that size so we decided to put the tent into service.  It was perfect!  The tent was just the right size (easily hosting 45 ladies) and the atmosphere lovely.

I forsee many wonderful events in our tent’s future, as well as camping excursions and training exercises.  When all is said and done, I believe our investment in a GP Medium will prove to be money well spent!