Nothing Says M-A-P Quite Like Wal-Mart

I went to Wal-Mart the other night to buy my trusty map, as planned. Of course, half-way home, I realized that I was on auto-pilot and just missed my exit. Doh. So, getting there took a little longer than I planned, but eventually I made my way into the big blue. I decide to stop and get some groceries while I was there, since I walked in on that side of the store.

Now, I have to break here and explain that my friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart is currently in the middle of a huge remodel project. They have these wonderful workers who embarrassingly walk around in these bright yellow vests, trying to be helpful. Every time I've been there, except for Tuesday night, I've been asked a couple of times if I needed assistance. On Tuesday, the only time a saw a trusty yellow-vest clad worker, was during the only 5 minutes that I wasn't lost. Argh. The rest of the time, I literally wandered up and down the food aisles, from the front of the store to the back, three times before I found the items that were normally very easy to find. I even ended up leaving the store still not locating one item that I wanted to purchase. Talk about frustration.

When I finally gave up on my food-item quest, I went in search of the maps. Normally, I've found the directional devices in the section near the cards, books, stationary goods and packing supplies. Not this time. Now the section has been reduced to cards and books and not much else.

Next, I tried looking in the state specific tourist-y section of the store. You know the one up near the registers where all of the Colorado paraphernalia is normally found. This time, all I found was Air Force specific goods. Now, I don't have a problem with our trusty AF, but I didn't want anything in the beautiful blue and white this time around.

Finally, finally I found a map, in the form of an oversized atlas, near some randomly tossed gadgets near one of the registers. In my absolute frustration, at this point, I quickly flipped through the book to see if it indeed contained a full map of the good ole U. S. of A. As I flipped through the pages, I noticed a list, by state, with columns of diamonds and stars, listed next to the name of the city. I thought it was similar to the AAA books that I've seen that list cities with hotels and all that they offer. I decided that I would have to figure out what it really was later. I was in a bit of a rush at this point.

I got home and started dinner... of course with my new atlas open on the counter. It was nearly time to start planning my trip! A while later, I flipped back to the pages in front with the lists of diamonds and stars. It was then that I realized that the list was telling, by city which cities in a particular state had either a Wal-Mart or Sams Club, and what that particular store's offerings were. Seriously. I laughed out loud. I admit, it was the next day when Michelle noticed that the inside cover does say "created especially for Wal-Mart and Rand McNally." Oy.