When Darrell and I moved out here, some of the few things we missed were Costco and Trader Joes.
Costco is where we did a lot of our bulk buying and in Humboldt it was only a half hour drive in traffic. Not so bad and we always made sure to eat at the food court (Chicken Bakes baby!!!). So we were a little bummed that the closest Costco was in San Angelo which is almost a two hour drive from Abilene. Unfortunately, to far to be worth it to keep our membership up, so we have made do without for the most part. Sometimes we get a family member to buy something and send it our way, but that has only happened once.
The big one for us was Trader Joes. We love TJ’s salsa and were really bummed when we realized that the closest TJ’s was 8 hours away. You read that right. The closest one was in Albuquerque, NM. We weren’t exactly willing to drive 8 hours just for salsa.
So we have been making sure that whenever we are planning a trip by car, we buy some cases and stock up. When we moved out here, we had bought one case. It took us a year to go through that case since we couldn’t find the chips that we absolutely loved to eat with them (Red Hot Blues). By the time the first year was up, my parents were going to be driving out our way with me and the cats, so we went ahead and bought two cases since we weren’t sure when we were going to be in a vehicle driving back. That year also happened to be the year when Natural Grocers went in in Abilene. Guess what chips they sold… Red Hot Blues. So now that we have found the chips, we were going through more salsa.
As we were starting to get low and beginning to ration our salsa while we tried to figure out if it was worth it to have someone ship us a case of Salsa, Darrell was invited to take a class in Phoenix. Yes!!! We drove to Phoenix and were able to restock our supply of Salsa. We overbought this time with 3 cases returning with us.
So now, it is a year after our purchase in Phoenix. We aren’t low on Salsa since with the pregnancy, every little spice became to much for me, so I haven’t been eating as many chips and salsa as I was last year. So we still have a full unopened case.
But, Darrell was just informed he was heading to another class in October in Albuquerque. We are excited because we will be able to get some of the other Trader Joes staples that we get as treats when we are anywhere near a TJ’s.
So, I went online to see exactly where TJ’s was in respect to the Hotel we will be staying at for the class, and low and behold…..
TRADER JOES OPENED A STORE IN FORT WORTH IN JUNE!!!!
That’s right, there is now a TJ’s in Fort Worth. I was curious as to where exactly, so I looked it up. TJ’s is only a 7 minute drive from the Fertility Clinic. How awesome is that? I have to drive the 150 miles to get to the clinic anyways, now I can stop at TJ’s and pick up some stuff. We also drive through the Fort Worth area fairly frequently even when we aren’t cycling, so it is perfect!!
I’m not saying we will go whenever we need groceries, but with it just in Fort Worth, we can do a little more stocking up and will be able to buy perishables as well.
We are excited!! (Can’t you tell by this run on post? :P)
So, tomorrow morning, I head to Fort Worth for a follicle scan. After the appointment, I might go ahead and stop and pick up some goodies that we haven’t had since our trip to California in June.
