Mammoth the Money Pit

    ...the happiness that buying something provides is derived not from acquiring the item,
                                                 or from the item itself, but from the targeting it, wanting it
                                                                               and anticipating its arrival into your life.
                                                                                           -Peggy Drexler, writing for CNN

Not sure if we'll be able to fit in a trial run before our long-scheduled South Korea trip, but we've been slowly getting her fitted out and ready to roll. Yesterday I had the bright idea of going down to an RV Supply Superstore to purchase the windshield curtain rollers. I'd found them online but didn't want to pay for shipping. I mentioned the shopping idea and Ed was right-on with it...not mentioning until later than he'd already ordered the rollers using his Amazon Prime free shipping.

So off we went, bright and early-ish Saturday morning, to go shopping!  What fun, huh?

First stop was the farmer's market. Second, Walmart. (Toaster oven, laundry basket, drapery hooks, cooking utensils)

Then I told my phone to take me to the RV Supply Superstore, and my phone politely mentioned that it was closed now. Oh, the wonder of hand-held devices. Saving us so much time and energy!

Except, of course, it allowed us to search out other RV supply stores which might not be closed on weekends. It found several. Since we were right by Cabela's, we stopped to look at their RV supplies (paltry) and ventured across the street to Target (flu shots, cooking utensils), then decided to visit the two RV supply stores in Mesquite. Mesquite was 30 miles away...but we were on a quest!

The first store had nothing we needed but we bought a water heater cleaning wand. The second one had something we didn't even know we needed--a 50-amp to 30-amp power converter.  When I'd been searching for a nearby campground for a trial run, I noticed the sites with 30-amp hookups seemed a lot closer to the water than the ones with 50-amp, and there were more of them.  So we needed to be prepared. Also, while at the store, we had a chance to talk with a very knowledgable saleslady who explained that with 30-amp we could run pretty much everything but we'd need to shut off one of our two air conditioners.

Stops 5 and 6 complete, we headed back to our local Walmart to get a few things we'd seen at Target but didn't like. And yes, you heard right--two Walmarts in one day. I'd better cut this short--I'm starting to make myself nauseous. Then the grocery (stop 8) and Spring Creek Barbeque (stop 9) and Chipotle (10).

So, much to my surprise, this Mammoth Thing is not just a massive money-suck, it's a time-suck!  Not sure I like the looks of this....