speaking of great stores

Those of you who have never been to an REI store have never had a truly great shopping experience. That place is to me what Vegas is to a compulsive gambler or the Russian black market is to a jihadist. I could spend hours in there just gazing at all their cool stuff (and I did exactly that today). I haven't yet emerged from there without having spent into triple digits -- and I don't intend to snap that streak anytime soon. I have no doubt at all that, if given a blank check to spend on only "necessary" stuff, I could drop $3,000 and have barely gotten started. When I crunch out my budget for next year REI may be a line item by itself (seriously).

The staff has always been helpful, and today even saved me money by advising that I want until an upcoming clearance sale to buy some expensive stuff. They have product info bulletins on lots of stuff, which I grabbed several of today. In other words, folks like me who have little outdoors experience and know next to nothing about gear can learn quick and educated purchases. They have regular clearance sales with markdowns so good REI has to be right up there with the now-legendary Kohl's for good discounts. And since it's technically a nonprofit co-op, members like yours truly get a kickback on some purchases and a dividend check every year. Not only that, but members get access to special sales -- there's one coming up this Saturday that I may rent a U-Haul to drive up for.

Seriously, REI basically replaces wherever else one would go for outdoor adventure gear. The website (see above) is great, but the store is better because you can gawk at the real stuff and not just pictures. If there's not one close enough to go to regularly, you need to consider relocating.

Come to think of it, with both REI and IKEA being on the same exit off the Beltway I could be making regular trips up that direction. That's good in that it's convenient, but bad in that it could prevent me from saving much money toward a house. But at least my stockpile of outdoors stuff would grow and I'd have good enough furniture that I wouldn't need a massive house to fit it all. (And enter the broken record about Jesse's chances of ever affording a dwelling of any sort out here or pretty much anywhere sans overseas.) A workable tradeoff methinks.