Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013 - Long Runaround Day in Dickinson

Had a bunch of errands to run in Dickinson, but the first thing I decided to do was to backtrack the last 10-15 miles on the highway looking for our rubber Welcome mat, which had fallen off my truck, but Hubby neglected to mention it to me until we were at the campsite yesterday. I had found that mat in an old country hardware store, and it had taken me years to find it, and I was pretty upset when I realized it had gone missing. So rather than give up on it, I headed east 3 exits, which turned out to be about 22 miles, before exiting and turning around. Just as I was coming up the entrance ramp on the other side, I saw one of those DOT trucks running slowly along the shoulder, so I flagged them down to ask if they had seen the mat along the way, and much to my amazement, they said Yes, it was in the back of the truck! Stunned, I looked in back and sure enough, there it was, but it was in really bad shape. Obviously it had been run over numerous times by something much to big to not damage it, so as a result, it was pretty much unusable. Well, at least I wouldn't have to worry about where it was or whether I had missed it on the way back! Once that was settled, I headed back west to Dickinson to start my REAL errands, beginning with picking up our new Dish receiver, which I had sent directly to the Customer Care Center, erroneously believing that would be the most convenient place to pick it up. Boy, was I wrong! Turns out Customer Care only happen only happens from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm! Having arrived at 11:30 a.m., and not wanting to waste even MORE gas driving around I had very little choice but to hang out for the afternoon and wait until they opened. What the heck, I can kill an afternoon as well as anyone, starting with trying to find a new rubber mat! I went to Ace Hardware, they didn't have one and couldn't tell me where to find one. I went to practically every store in the Prairie Mall, no luck, asking each time if they knew anyplace to check, and they all said the same thing, Ace Hardware or Wal-mart. I've looked for these in Wal-marts before, and they never had anything even remotely like it, so I wasn't holding out much hope (though that was my last planned stop before going back to UPS. At the last store in the mall, a boot store, a customer told me to try a place called Runnings, which turned out to be a big farm and fleet store, which I couldn't believe no one else had suggested previously. So I went there, but they too, had no mats, and no suggestions. At last I headed to Wal-mart, but just as I was heading up their driveway, I saw a big sign just behind them saying "Mac's-Not just another hardware store." Not one to give up easily (just in case you hadn't noticed), I headed back out the parking lot and up to Mac's. Walked in using the same line I'd been using all along, "I'm looking for a heavy-duty rubber welcome mat, the kind where dirt can fall through," and the cashier pointed and said, "Right down there on the end cap." Just like that! And the stack was so high I had to struggle to get one out. They even had two different sizes! Amazing! Never say die!! Well, after telling the saga of my search and purchasing the mat, I headed back down to Walmart, did the rest of my shopping, headed down to a Chinese restaurant called Kings Buffet for dinner (which was a challenge unto itself, and my server didn't understand hardly a work of English, and even her backup didn't know what I meant by "dark beer", though my surrendipitous order of a Fat Tire rewarded me with a nice amber lager, just what I wanted.) After packing up the leftovers for Hubby and killing enough time, I finally headed back down to UPS, which, although it was only 5:20, had already opened. I asked for the package, but they had considerable (and disconcerting) difficulty in locating it. After nearly 15 minutes, it finally showed up in the hands of one of the workers, and I was finally able to skedaddle out of there. One interesting note, Dickinson is definitely benefiting from the oil boom, new buildings going up everywhere, particularly of the hotel (long-stay in particular) and apartment variety, Help Wanted signs in almost every window in every store I went to. Finally got back to camp to a pretty worried Hubby, who had expected me quite a while ago, but I shared my story and my leftovers Chinese with him, and he was suitably soothed. Settled in for the evening, albeit later than usual, but after a reasonably productive, busy day.