In Which Our Agents Take Delivery of New Shoes!

So my husband was scrolling on the Internet last weekend, and he discovered that REI was having a great sale on some shoes and boots. I have lots of footwear, and I walk everywhere, all the time. I have glued more pairs of shoes and boots than you could shake a stick at (as we say here). And as my husband might point out, I am living hell on footwear, to put it bluntly.

A hiking boot is different than a backpacking boot. A hiking boot will support you as you walk over hill and dale. A backpacking boot is made of tougher stuff; it will carry you AND your 40 to 50 pounds of stuff into the wilderness, and back. I currently have one pair of Vasque backpacking boots that I've owned for many years. I have no back-up, which worries me. Well, guess what. We settled THAT one for sure!

My husband pointed out that Backpacker Magazine's number-one best-fitting woman's backpacking boot was on half-price sale. It was available in reasonable colors. It looked amazing. He also had his eye on a pair of trail-running shoes (and his birthday is coming up in June). Go ahead, I said; place the order and put it on my card. And so he did!

And on this day, the postal lady stopped in our driveway and hopped out and handed my husband a big box. A big box of SHOES! Of course, as soon as we got them inside, our agents went to work, inspecting the new merchandise. You may see them in action in this photo.

On the left, the Moose is examining my new Alterra women's Gore-Tex boot, U.S. women's size 8. It is hand-made. On the right, Tiny Tiger is trying on my husband's new Columbia Montrail Trinity MX trail-running shoe, in an amazing shade of blue.

I suspect the Moose has a better chance of fitting into my boots than Tiny Tiger has of fitting into my husband's new trail-running shoes. After this, my husband and I actually tried on our new footwear, and pronounced the fit satisfactory. I'll be sure to update you on my thoughts about this new boot once I've taken it out for a spin, or two.

One of the great things about my new boot is that it is Gore-Tex's Guaranteed To Keep You Dry. That's as good a promise as it gets from them. But I admit that I did have a giggle or two when I saw it. "Yeah, I guess we'll see about that," I might have said with a smile.   :-)

My soundtrack has to be a favorite song about shoes, and here is one of my top two or three in that category: Dolly Parton, with Red Shoes.

P.S. Two other notable events on this day: I got a tick bite, and removed the tick to send it to a Tick Lab for analysis. Probably picked it up at Black Moshannon the day before. And we put the air conditioner into the bedroom window, hooray! I am Grammy Carvell's girl (she loved her air conditioning, though my mother did NOT), and I like to keep things CHILLY!