Two weeks ago I found the Surly LHT in a serendipitous moment at the bike swap meet. And that meant my husband and I could think about trying some bike touring, but we only have a large big car-camping style tent.

So this week, I went to the annual REI "garage sale" in hopes of finding a tent that would work for bike-touring. We have been using the REI credit card for some temporary big expenses that we paid back right away, and we had $89 in dividend credit to apply to our purchases.


I got there 20 minutes after they opened and I only found one tent that might work- I looked at it - just a few snags in the mesh on the door and carried it around for a little bit. I put it back because it was a 4 person tent and we just don't need one that large. Apparently, other shoppers also picked up tents and put them back because- Oh look- an REI Half-Dome 2 (same tent but the two person version) with a label that read: "used once, returned because it's too heavy" (5 lbs). That was one of the 3 brand new tents we had been considering - and it was less than the amount of our credit - in essence with the dividend credit - it was FREE!

I also found a good deal on a sleeping bag that is smaller and lighter than any that we already had and will also be better for bike-camping.

So I left feeling pretty lucky.