Do we need this?

Here's what I learned while shopping for The Walk:

1. Everything  is cheaper online. (But try it on in the stores first.) 

2. Cotton is evil.  Personally, I've preserved intact from the 70's the attitude that natural is good.  (Natural means cotton, linen and wool, full stop.) However my son, the in-house gear guru, has outlawed cotton and most especially those (iconic) denim jeans. The magic words are "quick-dry" and "wicking".

       My husband, who is adamant about wearing his same old stuff and not buying new stuff just for the walk, will serve as the control in a test of this quick drying hypothesis.

3. Don't restrict your shopping to the outdoor stores.  "Quick-drying" T-shirts are made in massive quantity for all those people who think this time they are really going to start jogging or going to the gym, and the stuff piles up for cheap at stores like TJ Maxx and Marshals, ( i.e. US stores that sell the stuff that didn't sell elsewhere.) 

4. Women are not created equal in the specialty outdoor gear stores. (You know who I mean.) Only a fraction of their floor space is devoted to stuff for women, and at least half of what hangs there is fashion, not truly meant for the great outdoors.  

     The nice salesman who brought me a stack of boxes full of hiking boots and trail running shoes to try on assured me that any of them would be fine for walking the dog in any weather.  True, I never mentioned that I intend to walk across England, but I never told him I have a dog either. I wonder if he assumes his male customers trying on hiking boots are dog walkers.