October 3, 2018 - Two Big Events at the Lake.

October 3, 2018 - Two Big Events at the Lake.  It doesn't get much more exciting than two Big Events on consecutive days at the lake.  There may be people on the Lake on jet skis, pontoon boats and bass boats.  There are probably people hiking the trails at Ha Ha Tonka.  There are likely people swimming in heated pools at condos and hotels all around the lake.  But, not us.  No sireee, we had two Big Events the last two days, both displayed in the pictures above.  We went to Walmart yesterday and to the Outlet Mall today.  Where do you think we spent more money?

Yesterday began with a nice sunrise over the boat docks below our bedroom and deck.  We had lunch at Panera Bread, one of Annie's favorites - not mine, but we make sacrifices in relationships, don't we.  We spent the next hour pushing a progressively heavier shopping cart.  It wasn't too bad until we added the 36 bottles of water and the 16 liters of Diet Pepsi.  Of course, there was no room in the cart except in the front.  A front-loaded shopping cart is hard to steer.  I learned that the hard way by pushing the loaded cart into the end-cap of the pickle aisle.

Today, we drove back to Osage Beach to the Outlet Mall.  We walked nearly two miles and saw seven other shoppers.  Many of the store spaces are vacant.  There were cars in the parking lot, but they had to belong to the sales people in the stores.  There are still a lot of open stores, but no one was shopping.  

That is a common occurrence at brick and mortar sales outlets in this era of Internet shopping.  The store manager at Ralph Lauren's store said they were expecting a large crowd of shoppers this weekend.  She said people will be storing their boats for the winter and it is a holiday weekend.  The lake will be busy.  Good.  We'll stay off the streets.  

And, that is the plan for tomorrow as well.  We will sleep til past the sunrise, then sit on the deck and read.  Sounds good, doesn't it.  

Walmart, $233.00.  Outlet Mall, $0.  Were you right?

Goodnight.