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JPFreek - Index

JPFreek - magazine - Index

Gear Review
SUMMER 2008
46
We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.
-Anne Frank
A $6 tarp and some string would have done the job. Instead, I made this contraption that a few of my friends have mocked by
calling it “a dammed erecter set!” Notice, too, that they were mocking me as we stood under the protection of this awning during
the mid-day sun. So what’s their complaint worth? I like it anyway.
The point of bringing up this custom vehicle-mounted shade awning is my quest for maximum happiness while on some hot back
road far from air conditioning. Shade’s an important thing to me. When lunchtime strikes and we’re surrounded by mere prickly
pear and saguaro cactus, cool shade’s hard to come by. That’s the desert.
Now, some may think that a roof rack is good for strapping down Storm Cases, coolers, gas cans, and big/heavy equipment that
won’t fit inside – that’s actually the worst place for those things. But a rack is perfect for lightweight items, and a foldable awning
fits neatly in that department.
I pieced this awning together with this goal in mind: it must set up without the need for tools, and be adjustable as well as rigid.
So get this: it’s all aluminum construction, aside from the canvas tarp. Two arms swing out and telescope out to a little over 8 feet
long. The tarp is attached to the roof rack, and also to an aluminum tube that slides into a fitting at the end of both of the 8-footlong
arms. A pair of aluminum tube legs also attaches to the arms and are fully adjustable for height differences in the ground. No
pounding stakes into the ground with this sucker. It’s up in just over a minute.
Now, I’ve got water and shade. I’m prepared for the summer.
Wondering what happened to my old Nalgene bottle after I tossed it down
the cliff?
She stayed in one piece, and took on just a handful of gouges. No cracks, no
fissures, nothing of the sort. The legend, as I saw it, was true: Nalgenes are
unbreakable…but they aren’t immortal.
One night I stopped for gas on the way home from work. I remember
clearly that it was at a Circle K not more than two miles from where I sit typing
this tale. When I got home, I walked through the door and went to find a
drink of water.
“What did I do with my bottle? I just had it.” I asked my wife.
“I haven’t seen it.”
“Well, I had it on the way home. Maybe it out in the Jee . . . oh crap.” I knew
what had happened immediately. “I gotta go back to the gas station!”
I left.
At the Circle K, I found nothing. So I checked the street where I did find my
bottle in the gutter. Flattened – or mostly flattened – by a truck tire or
something. The lid split and the mouth of the bottle had been reshaped into
an oval, and the side of the bottle nearly folded over. But not a crack or
fissure anywhere – it’ll still hold water.
Here’s to good gear.
For more information about the Rompalicious Hydra, please visit www.
rompalicious.com http://www.rompalicious.com/