9-26-19 to 9-29-19 found me in South Jacksonville, Illinois for the Prairieland Festival. Friday night started out hot and a little muggy so the tarp was set up wide and open to let as much air through as possible. Around mid-night a cool breeze finally started and the dance of lightning could be seen off in the distance. As the winds grew stronger and the lightning got closer I decided I'd better reset the tarp for the coming storm.
5 minutes too late. The winds had substantially kicked up and the tarp now became a 10' sail in 20-30mph winds. It took 10 minutes to wrestle the tarp and stand into position. Part of the struggle was without me in the hammock, and a strong side wind broadsiding the tarp the whole thing wanted to blow away and kept lifting and shifting. Staking the trap guylines around the legs significantly helped this problem. Anyhow after a 10 min struggle to stake the tarp and reset the stand, I finally climbed back into the tight cocoon as the tempest roared. I was high and dry as the heavens opened up with sheets of rain... then pow.... pa-pow- pow... hail started pounding this little exposed hammock in the sea of RV's. Pea sized to 1/2" hail, shot like a hunter going after his quarry, carried on 60 mph gusts of wind, tried to bring down this pencil thin structure of EMT and fabric. But to no avail, I snuggled in deeper in my down quilts and drifted comfortably off to sleep as the storm gods waged their war upon the earth.
Three times that night storms blew through the area and the Tensa stand once again came out victorious.
I do pray this will be my last field report submission for Tensa stand, after surviving a Hurricane, high winds, thunderstorms and now hail.... I fear the only thing left to test is a Tornado.
And I don't want to do that!.
I'll let the California folks write about how the Tensa holds up during an earthquake.
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