Accessorizing

Because of my current location while using my computer today, I’ve decided this post will be about  an accessory we’ve acquired for our campsite.  It’s a typical mid-December afternoon in central Florida, so I’m in a screen room that is extremely spacious by most screen room standards.  Earlier this year we bought a Coleman Instant Screened Canopy: a hexagonal, easy to set up screen room.  I’d seen this room a few times at campgrounds and one of the principle reasons I liked it was it’s over all size - listed as 10’ x 12’.  Photos on the internet show a picnic table inside the footprint of the screen room AND room for people to walk around.  While we don’t have a picnic table in ours, we have had 4 folding chairs, a recliner, 2 small tables AND a dog bed with 5 people and a dog and plenty of room to move about.

Another feature that sold me on this unit was the doorway height.  Chuck stands 6’1” and both of us have had to duck under the canopy of most square screen room / shade covers.  Not here.  If we fully unzip the doorway, we can walk right in, no ducking required.  There are two walls with zipper panels and four with full screens.  Because of the strength of the FL sun and for a bit more privacy, we’ve zip tied an additional screen tarp  to the frame of the room.  The breeze comes right through, but the sun’s intensity is lessened a bit more, making it very comfortable for hanging out. 

The entire unit fits compactly into a travel case for easier transport to where ever it might be needed.  The screens and canopy have well thought out design features; clips into grommet holes on each post of the frame, extra pieces of material for wear points on the canopy, velcro type attachments to hold things snug.  Even the tie downs and spikes worked well on this unit.

The first time I put the screen room up, I did it alone, using ingenuity and a few rocks to help stabilize one leg allowing me to maneuver the diagonal side of the frame to open it to it’s full size.  While it can be done solo, it truly is much easier with a second person.

For added comfort in “my queendom” as we call the screen room (Chuck says I’m holding court when folks come by and visit) we acquired 2 folding rocking seats.  The chairs have flat leg bases allowing you to put them on any surface.  The back leg though has a piston  and the forward part of the leg base is on a pivot, allowing you to “rock”.  They quickly became our favorite seats and we leave the stationary seats for guests.  

While they don’t fold up as much as our other portable chairs do, the rockers do compact a bit for transportation, something very important to our and our lifestyle.