December 2016 I planned a trip to the beach during the winter months, I stayed in a campsite with electric and water in a campground in between the intercoastal and the Atlantic near St. Augustine.

The week before had been a very stressful week so the downtime was very much needed. I had purchased the SUV tent and was anxious to try it out. I used a blow up mattress for sleeping. There wasn’t any tinting for the windows and I had not yet made window covering so I purchased some “DIY” tint and hastily put it on the back windows. Needless to say it was very janky (super bubbly) BUT it did the trick. I ran a bunny cord from one side the other and hung a curtain to block the front windows. It worked well.

The tent was very easy to put on the CR-V. The lower bungee was attached to wheel well. I had read in the reviews of the tent to place magnets on the top to guard against wind and rain. I used regular refrigerator magnets.

 

The twin blow up mattress pretty much took up the entire back of the car and I let some of the air out so that it would fit better. When Daisy and I were laying down and I moved poor Daisy was almost sailed across the car! I addition due to the slant of the back of the car with the seats down my head was higher than my feet so it was a bit weird.

Small orange folding table was great and easy to store. It would be nice to have a screen room in the event it is buggy I can be outside the car with getting bitten. Something like this-

https://www.amazon.com/Frikon-Pop-Up-Screen-Room/dp/B0053D6PBW/ref=pd_sbs_468_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0053D6PBW&pd_rd_r=3G44Z1J6229FDV0CGBTX&pd_rd_w=VcvUd&pd_rd_wg=6nXQR&psc=1&refRID=3G44Z1J6229FDV0CGBTX

 

Since I had electric and water I used an electric pitcher to heat water for coffee etc. Of course this will not always be possible. My cooler was adequate for this trip but the weather was cool. I suspect it would not be adequate in warmer weather.

 

I used a decorative iron flag pole to hold my paper towels and it seemed to work well. I went for a walk and when I returned the entire paper towel roll had unrolled!

 

Yikes!

Packing cloths in a satchel doesn’t seem to work too well. They get all jumbled up and you are constantly rifling through them to find to find items.

 

Overall the trip was a success.

 

Lessons learned:

• Get professional window tint

• Use stronger magnets

• Buy a narrow memory foam mattress

• Secure your paper towels

• Need a better way to store clothes

• Need more storage

• Need to build a platform for the bed so it is even (take seats out?)

• Tent worked great

• Buy a cargo hitch?

• Need better cooler