Serendipity
Several years ago, after years of trial and error, Sue found a shoe that worked for her functionally and comfortably. When she put them on they fit, were comfortable, and she could walk all day doing everything but rough trail hiking. The brand is Sketchers and the model is Go Walk. Only that model fits her well. The shoe is not readily available. A couple of times we have sought replacements by going to Sketcher outlets. That in itself is pretty daunting. The stores are very large and there are literally hundreds of models on display. And only one model/style will work for her. One visit the store did not have her model in a huge store of Sketcher shoes. Another store had her shoe and one pair in her size. We got it obviously. About a week ago we were talking about how we were going to find a Sketcher store as she was starting to feel like her current shoes would need replacing. We put it on our list of things to watch for on our wanderings. Later that same morning we stopped at Costco to fill the carbus with gas. Sometimes when we gas up we will park and wander the warehouse to see what items are featured in different areas of the country. We did that today. As we walked toward the back, on a whim, I wandered over to see if they had shoes I could wear as I needed a backup pair. Next to the men's sneakers were the current woman’s shoe they were carrying. Sketcher Go Walks! Stacks of them! Two colors! Full range of sizes! She got two pair. I also found comfortable sneakers for my backups.
Yesterday we drove the back roads of Lancaster County, PA in search of a few quilt shops 
. Traveling along one road seemingly in the middle of nowhere when the road became a bit more congested and there was a large parking lot with carnival rides set up presumably as part of July 4th weekend celebration. Behind the large lot was a large building. To the right of that building was an even larger building with a huge parking lot behind it. Beyond that lot was another huge building, this one two stories. The lots were quite full. We pulled in to investigate. The first building was a ‘department’ store but much more. Clothes, fabric, hardware, furniture, appliances, dry goods, home goods, toys, gifts, and much more. Pretty much everything one would to need to live comfortably except food. That was handled by the second building. A HUGE supermarket. With class. In the Sacramento area I guess Nugget Market is the example of an upscale market. The Nuggets I have been in can not hold a candle to this place in size and services. Several butcher and seafood counters with everything fresh packaged or packaged to order. Deli counters, each over 100 feet long, fresh cutting deli meats and cheeses, foreign and domestic. Two active bakeries. All baked goods were fresh – nothing baked off site. Literally acres of canned and packaged goods. To speed check out, there are several stations where produce from a vast varied selection is weighed and marked with the price. I know many markets have personal customer service but I have not seen it to this size or level. The third building, also acres in size, is a smorgasbord/gift shop. The lower level is gifts, toys, cards, trinkets, souvenirs, and on and on. Even a separate quilt store with hand quilted items. Aisles and aisles of each type of item. One could spend hours just wandering that store. The upper level smorgasbord is again huge. The dining area is probably 200’ by 250’. The food line is over 200 feet long. Separate carving station with multiple types of meat. Separate grilled fish station with four or five different types of fish. Separate bread station with ten specialty breads in addition to rolls and buns. It was Friday and one of the added food line items was crab cakes, something Sue has been searching for the whole time we have been on the coast. Deserts included over ten different kinds of pie, multiple types of cheese cake, puddings, fruit, jellos, cakes, cookies, soft serve of different flavors, and more. All of it constantly fully stocked. In two months on the road we had not yet eaten out. We did last night. Will not need to eat at all for a few days.
Never know what you’ll find when you are not looking for it.
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