Consumers Gone Wild

Dear God, what have we done.

I thought that we were more together than this, my husband and I. We already had a very serious discussion in which we fervently agreed on a Money Plan, in which we vowed to forgo all unnecessary luxuries during my time of career change (or whatever this is, this time I'm in).

Then, with all our free time, we went for a Free Camping Getaway, courtesy of Thousand Trails. Our plan (like our Money Plan) was very clear. Scott was to be the No Guy. This was important, as I knew before we left that I would be the Yes Gal. I knew I already wanted to belong to Thousand Trails, so that I could go camping in lots of swell places like Birch Bay and Oceana, and at the last minute, too--not being one to do much advance planning.

So we hauled the pop-up to La Conner and camped for two days and had ourselves one heck of a swell family time. I mean, seriously. This place was full of ferns and nurse logs and curving dirt roads with no one on them; playsets for the kids; a family center with air hockey (which had seen better days, but who's being particular here?); a spa, for God's sake. Camping, with a spa. And ferns and a view of the Skagit Bay. It was just lovely.

We sat through our obligatory speil with a salesman I found rather alarming, so wooden and stiff and out of touch with himself was he. Scott, true to his word, was the No Guy. I apologized for wasting the man's time. (Part of being a Yes Gal is a compulsion to always buy things so that the salesman won't feel bad.)

We got out of there and went on to play miniature golf.

Nearly in the clear, we stopped by the office on our way out, to pick up our free gifts. I sent Scott in (armed with No, a word that comes naturally to him), and we left the van running.

Then he came back, leaned into the driver's seat, and said Maybe.

Well, folks, before you could say pickleball, the Mayberrys were being welcomed into the Thousand Trails family. It was a hell of a deal, etc, etc. Really, it was. My non-employment not withstanding.

Truth be told, though, I'm really pretty psyched. What this means for me is travel, because what it means for Scott is camping with a swimming pool nearby, and what it means for the kids is many trips with the pop-up, which they adore.

So we're all happy here. Maybe a little bit dumb, but happy.