A $95 jacket for only $45

I'm not going to lie to you, I am not exactly an "outdoorsy" kind of guy. I've never really done any hiking or camping (other than at music festivals) before. Because of this, I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to supplies and clothes necessary for this adventure in Peru.

Thankfully, I have friends that have done plenty of camping and hiking in their time, and I've turned to them for suggestions. In looking for a waterproof/windproof jacket, I was talking to my buddy Greg, and he recommended the Columbia Thunderstorm with omni-tech (not omni-shield) waterproof technology. Dick's Sporting Goods had this jacket on sale for $60 (originally $95), but after looking at 4 different Dick's Sporting Good stores, none of them had it in my size. The Dick's website didn't even have the jacket in my size. Being the crafty person that I am, I took to the internet to find the jacket I was determined to get. After a bit of searching, I found an online store that had the jacket in my size, in black, exactly as I wanted. They also had it on sale for $60.


Buying it online, I no longer had to pay tax on it either, which saved me another few bucks. Three days after ordering it, I get an email saying there was an inventory error, and they actually did not have the black jacket in my size. They did, however, have the jacket in my size in either Grout or Bonsai colors, and due to their error, were offering me either color jacket for 25% off.

Not having any idea what colors Grout or Bonsai were, I had to go back to their website to find out these are just fancy terms for gray and green. Although I would prefer to have the jacket in black, for another 25% off (lowering the price to $45 for this $95 jacket), I decided to take them up on their offer and get the Grout jacket.

The jacket arrived on Saturday, and it fits perfectly! I also kind of dig the Grout color more than I thought I would, which is nice.

Only 20 days to go before leaving for Peru!!! I have most of the supplies I need, but still need to find some rain pants, proper bug spray for the area, maybe some sort of hat (though I'm not a hat person at all), and unfortunately I might need to invest in a sturdier duffel bag. The closer I get, and the more I write about it, the more excited I get for this trip. Also, only 20 more days until there might actually be something interesting to read on this blog :)

Until next time,

Ryan