I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been to a Walmart in the six years since we’ve lived in the US. Yet when you’re in a campervan, a Walmart car park becomes a thing of respite. A safe haven where you can park your camper when all else fails. Obviously it also helps if it’s close to a brewery.
So the first two nights were spent amidst the glamour that is the Walmart car park. What IS handy about staying at Walmart is picking up a few random items that you forgot to pack/didn’t realize you needed/broke already. Top of that list was a hot water bottle to replace the one I brought to the US with me from the UK and have used intermittently over the last few years, only for it to choose the Alaska road trip as the time to start leaking and end its life. That’s timing for you! After randomly trawling the bedroom aisles in the home-store, I resorted to asking a girl in a Walmart uniform who I thought it was reasonable to assume worked there – only to be greeted with a blank stare. Little did she know that with my body heat at stake, I don’t give up that easily. My search continued. Imagine my joy when I was thrown a hot water bottle lifeline in the pharmacy aisles. Don’t think we’ll be needing the enema tubes it came with though.
You’d think a Walmart superstore would be easy to find – but I have to disagree there. Distinctive blue sign, large letters, huge building, check. But seeing it and getting to it are two different things. Maybe three different things if you count the TomTom satnav calmly telling you to “Turn around when possible”, competing with Googlemaps on my phone which thought it knew better, not to mention me tossing in the odd helpful comment like “You should have turned off back there”. At least I’ll have plenty of time to work on my navigational skills on this trip.