Better Shop Around

This time, we began the day by driving in the opposite direction eastwards, past historic towns like Lenox and Lee to the Mass Pike highway. There was no traffic anywhere at 10:30 in the morning, no problems on the road. Despite my concerns yesterday, the weather was gorgeous, sunny, bright, breezy, and warm.

We pulled into the Holyoke Mall at Springfield around quarter of noon. Our first stop at the second-largest mall in the New England area was JC Penney. We both ran into some great sales here. I found two pretty blouses, one coral, one dark purple-blue, for $8.98. Lauren is always looking for clothes for her job at a local bank. She picked up a few shirts and a pair of plaid pants and got to model another pair of black-checked pants for me.

Next up was the FYE downstairs. The sale was buy two used, get one for a dollar, but I just couldn't find a third movie I wanted! I ended up with just the movie version of The Fugitive and Rocky Horror Picture Show (the latter to review on Halloween). Lauren found a set of previously unreleased Roddy Piper wrestling matches.

We had lunch at Ruby Tuesday's. I had a 5 dollar off 15 coupon, allowing us to have a nice big meal. She had a chicken fillet sauteed in a sauce and topped with tomatoes, with sour cream and scallion mashed potatoes and zucchini on the side. My buttermilk-battered chicken fingers were salty and crunchy, the cole slaw was nicely sweet, and the slender fries were perfect.

We were in and out of stores for the next few hours. Neither of us found anything at Macy's. I checked out Box Lunch, then joined Lauren at Francesca's, a lovely little boutique that sold clothing and accessories. I couldn't fit into the clothes or afford the accessories, but Lauren bought a vest and two pairs of socks, and the bubbly college girl at the counter was really sweet. Went into Target and Best Buy, but only bought pads at Target. We briefly browsed through Christmas Tree Shoppes. Lauren found a cute Peanuts Christmas-themed baseball hat at Forever 21 while I was at Best Buy.

Dinner was in the basement food court. Surprisingly, despite it being almost 6, they weren't busy down there at all. I had fried food at lunch and went with a turkey-provolone sandwich, baked chips, and a soda from Subway. Lauren had a turkey melt and fries from Charley's Steak Sandwiches. The bread was dry, but otherwise, my dinner wasn't bad at all. I should try those baked chips more often. There aren't that many Subways in my area. I know there's one in Westmont, and I think the Wal Mart behind the Acme has one.

I hadn't been in a Burlington Coat Factory store in years. It's more-or-less the same thing as Marshalls or Ross...but much bigger! It was huge. Despite that, the plus sized selection was really picked over. I ended up just going to the bathroom, but Lauren got a couple of shirts.

That was enough for us. We finally headed home around 7. The rush hour traffic was long gone by that point. We drove home across the Mass Pike, singing along to classic rock, more recent country rock, and the best of Weird Al Yankowitz.

It was almost dark when we rolled into the Millers' driveway. After Lauren drove the trash down the long drive to the street, we went in and showed the Millers our purchases. I watched the end of Jeopardy! with them, then hit the shower.

This time, we actually are going to check out New England's state fair, the Big E, tomorrow. We had a great time there last year and I'm really looking forward to it.