Saturday, February 19, 2011

My Dirty Little Secret


I love Walmart. Well, maybe love is a bit strong. But as a liveaboard I have learned to appreciate, and sometimes long for, access to a Walmart. Why? Because at Walmart I can find anything I need - food, clothing, household goods of all sorts, even engine oil for the John Deere's.

Note, I said need not want.

At Walmart I may have to settle for a package of Hanes All-cotton rather than sexy Victoria Secret or Folger's coffee rather than one of the gourmet brands. But what I like about the boat is the paring down to what I value most.

There are many things we forgo living onboard due to space limitations and/or access. In exchange, we live aboard our boat. The trade-off seems obvious to me.

3 comments:

Sheila and Bill Corbett said...

Its always fun to try to figure out which of you is the author of a given blog post. For this one I was thinking its Karen, but then I read about a desire for Victoria's Secret undies, and I see the blog title 'My Dirty Little Secret' and now I'm not sure...

MV Red Head said...

And it's still our dirty little secret...

So sue me said...

Yup, this is a great place to shop. However in smaller towns they are rare and they are rarely conveniently located for cruisers without cars in any case.

On the Active Captain interactive guide, the "Local Knowledge" markers allow 2 types of stores: "Walmart" and "Marine Store".

While this is useful, I think that cruisers might like to see at least an "Other" category where one could add Mall, Liquor Store, Hardware Store etc.

For example, my local Canadian Tire mega hardware store has all kinds of basic boating stuff, but I'd not call it a Marine store. It could be useful for a boater in need.

Great blog, btw!