12-31-08 Wednesday (Shopping Extremes)

Happy New Year! By the time you read this entry, the New Year has already rolled in. We're not the resolution types so you won't see me typing in promises to do stuff. I've said Happy New Year, but I'm going to exclude all the other heartfelt phrases others tend to share as this holiday rolls around. Fresh starts, hopes for a better year, quiting this or that, all just not for me.

I find it odd that so many of us, have a need to use a calendar year as a time to do something, share something or feel something. Sheesh, why wait to be a better person, lose weight or whatever else you've put on your plate? Live in the now.

OK, so obviously, I'm sort of anti-New-Year. Oh sure, when I was younger, it was a great excuse to party.

Enough of that. I've found that my newly found California buddies are going to some gigantic, enormous, large annual RV show smack in the middle of the desert in Quartzsite, Arizona. We've been invited to join in the festivities. I had never heard of this event, and so I quickly Googled for the information in hopes of enlightenment.

Every year this town of 4,000 residents swells to 100,000 or more RVers for various shows for a 3 month period. Of course, the main show is the huge RV show. Vendors, manufacturers and the like set up booths for you to conveniently buy their products. I've also seen this referred to the world's largest fleamarket. Many websites also call it a phenomenon that should be experienced at least once.

There are two primary obstacles. The first being no hookups. This takes place in the middle of the desert on BLM land. It's only $30 for 2 weeks! When your sewage tanks are full, you can get it emptied (for a fee) or go to the dump station. For water, you can get a delivery (for a fee) or go to a hose bib. OK, so some possibilities or workarounds exist.

The second obstacle is the timing. It's a little over 2 weeks from now, and it's 1200 miles away. If we made a beeline for it, we'd be skipping a lot of stuff. I suppose we could back track when we're done, but that takes time and fuel. I'm so torn.

I spoke with Scott (who invited us) via email several times and then finally called him on the phone with all of my concerns. At this point, Jim and I have decided we should skip it. That could change....

And now, Jim has decided to add to the blog. Here's his entry:

Hi there everyone. Jim here writing an entry for the blog. Yippie!! For those of you who know me, I can be a real cheap bastard. But then you also know I have a taste for fancy things and designer labels. So imagine my delight when I got a gift coupon for $25 off if I use my Mastercard at Saks. Yes, for those of you who are not so cheap or who make more than minimum wage know where this is going. Well, anyways, as you may or may not have read all ready, we got the jack delivered via FedEx today. So now we were free to go out and about and did have to not sit around waiting on them. We needed to go to Walmart (our favorite place nowadays) to stock up on groceries and etc since we will hit the road Saturday. I remembered I had that Saks coupon and grabbed it. It expired today. Again I am a cheap materialistic bastard, so I could not let $25 dollars go to waste. So we got out the GPS and plotted a course to go to Saks and then Walmart. I know, what a shopping combo. So we get to the vertical mall in downtown Portland and head into Saks. Well, was I ever in for a shock. $300 for a pair of jeans, $300 for a scarf (I do not care if it was cashmere or spun gold it is just a f$%#ing scarf), $300 for a belt (it was Gucci, but who cares) $100 for a t shirt, I could go one but my bill is all ready over 6 figures. I did see a few shirts that I really liked, but of course they were about $300. Now if a zero could fall off and I could have used my coupon, then we would have had a deal. BUT NO!!! So off to the clearance rack I go. 50% off, more my style. Well yes, but STILL not my price. I may not be hip enough to know all of the latest designers, but some of those brands I had never heard of and the original price on a polo shirt was nearly $100. Who buys this shit I wondered. I did find a t-shirt that was originally $62, now 50% off so, $31, less my coupon would now be $6. I thought about it, but again not a label that I could recognize, then I decided that $6 was more than I would normally be willing to pay these days for a t-shirt at Walmart. Once again NO SALE. We wondered about more then left. This Saks store was only men's wear. We went across the street to see the rest of the store. Being Saks ignorant I figured it would have home goods there. But alas only women's clothing and some of the ugliest and most expensive Christmas decorations I have ever seen now 70% off. Now I like labels and stuff, but ugly is still ugly. So back to the men's store we go to check out to see if MAYBE I could afford some socks or underwear. SCORE I can afford to buy underwear at Saks with my coupon. As I am looking for my size, that bitch Garret that insisted on coming on this trip with me asks "are you looking for the size you are now or that you are going to be?" The underwear are 30% off. So I can/have to get 2 pairs in order to exceed the coupon amount. My shoppers head does the math and says we will be OK with one pair of briefs and one pair of boxer briefs. So off to the register we go with my designer 2xist underwear. We made the cut $25.20, no sales tax in Oregon. Give the clerk my coupon and parking validation, and Mastercard to cover the 20 cents. Well, actually Garret had to do it all, since I did not have a Mastercard in my wallet, well, I did but it was his, long story. As we left I swear I heard snickering and the word loser. (Maybe someone had tried on something that was to tight and was laughing about it and saying they needed something looser.) Oh well Mr cheap strikes again. Besides I am so sure these pricey designer underwear will make me look much studlier than the Fruit of the Loom's that I buy at, you guessed it, Walmart. For those of you out there still reading my first blog entry a heart felt thank you. For those you who quit reading and skipped to where Garret wrote, go to hell and all that good stuff you jerks. Besides you will never know I said that you, BUTTHEAD.

After Saks, we went to Wal-Mart. Nothing all that interesting to report. Besides, Jim is typing a really long entry for me to insert so I think this is gonna be long enough.

Jag awaits coffee.

Dasher comforts Clea.

View of the RV park.

Some street side performers in downtown Portland.