This is the story of two intrepid travelers spanning the continent on a supposedly inadequate motorbike: Our story begins in Seattle, where we live and travel and camp when we aren't traveling across the country. We spend our spring, summer, and fall weekends riding our motorcycle to various campsites in the Pacific Northwest, our favorite areas being the North Cascades, and Olympic Peninsula, and the Washington coast, and . . . well, you get the picture. We are so lucky to live in a region with almost unlimited outdoor recreation options, and rather than start our hibernation period in October, when the weather makes motorcycling and camping somewhat uncomfortable, we decided to go on a tour across the southern United States. We travel close to the ground, and what I mean is we camp whenever it is possible. Traveling on a motorcycle can make camping difficult, especially when the weather has already made us miserable on the motorcycle. Try hoisting your frozen bones off a bike that was going highway speed in near-freezing temperatures, only to have to try starting a fire with your cold-stiffened fingers. Despite the discomfort of daily motorcycling, we always were able to retire to our home sweet home: our 12 year old Sierra Designs tent.

This tent was a graduation gift to me from my mother, who I had informed that once I moved to Washington from Minnesota, I would be spending every moment not studying in the woods glorying in nature delightfully different from the flat farmland I was surrounded by in my hometown. Of course, things change, and my dear tent (which I timed myself setting up in less than a minute) spent its first few years languishing in my closet. Cut to my second move to the Northwest, and near weekly use of the tent. It's safe to say that at this point my husband and I have earned a new tent, but our Meteor Lite just keeps on going, and we like it so much there doesn't seem to be a need for another, so we took it on our 5-week trip across country.

From Washington, we went through cold Utah, and northern Arizona. Through windy New Mexico and Texas, and into the deep south, where we experienced heat and humidity we had forgotten possible since living in the midwest. We camped in blustery lightening storms in New Mexico, and on a cold plateau near the Grand Canyon. Our campsite in Oklahoma was populated with thousands of spiders who made themselves known only by their glittering eyes reflecting the light from our headlamps. In South Carolina we anticipated alligators climbling out of the pond next to which we set up our tent. In Louisiana, we thought it had rained all night, but it turned out the humidity had soaked our tent, and we were able to stay dry. Back in Texas we camped at a fantastic RV park where I was chauffered to our camsite in speedy golf cart after playing with an adorble litter of kittens. In Arizona, we camped in a nearly deserted National Forest, where we were warned to watch out for Bandits and Bears. With no other campers in sight, since the roads were impassable except to off-road vehicles; I'll admit I did not sleep a wink. In Death Valley we camped below sea level, and on coastal Big Sur the sound of the ocean lulled us to sleep. Our last day of travel was delightfully dry, but with the winter rains, we will need to pack our tent away until March or April, as soon as we can make it over the pass to western Washington.

Our trusty Sierra Designs Meteor Light has been the best investment my mother ever made on my behalf, and were there any reason to replace it I would. Even at an elderly 12 years old, our tent keeps going strong, and for that reason I love it even more as it keeps me warm and dry through the years.

Click here to see how Sierra Designs was used by Alison Danyer and other people in the know.

Check out the size of that cactus

Desert for days