Rules are made to be broken.

When we first heard the news about the new Sam’s Club moving in across the street from us – we weren’t thrilled. We live on a quiet little street in a pretty quiet corner of town and we didn’t think that Sam with all his traffic and liquor licenses was going to be good for our lifestyle. We couldn’t have been more wrong.

We used to have to drive all the way to Springdale to get 2 hot dogs, 2 (huge) slices of (really good) pizza and 2 large drinks for $4. NOW! We only have to drive across the highway! We’ve taken to buying their 16″ Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza for $8 on game days (and any other day, really…) and we like to get a few other things there, too. In fact, if you recall the TV incident — new TV? Sam’s Club.  (Side note: HD is worth every penny!)

So anyway. I’m a Sam’s Club fan.

And they have a gas station! AND you have to be a member to use it. How exclusive – right? Well there was almost an incident a few weeks ago. They have a pretty elaborate system set up where all the lanes go the same way through the gas pumps and there is no deviating from this. None. There are attendants out there whose job it is to ensure that the “one-way” flow is maintained. They are not kidding. It was my first time through there and it was very early in the morning – I was the only car at the pumps. I drove up and didn’t see the 12 million one-way signs everywhere. I whipped around and came back through the pumps so that my gas tank would line up with the pump because I didn’t realize there were pumps on both sides of each lane. Big mistake. The attendant flies out of the booth and starts toward my car. Thankfully, my sweet husband suggested I take the opportunity to self-correct and keep driving so that I could make the loop and come back through pointed the right way. I did. And the attendant chose not to mess with me and went back in his booth. Whew. Jeff laughed at me that day, and reminded me of my track record with Sam’s Club Customer Service and that it’s hard to “go Sarah Martin” on someone when they’re right.

So today. I realized it was getting hard to see out my back window so I decided to go through the car wash. At Sam’s. So I drove through Sam’s Club at lunch today and as I’m sitting there in line behind several people (who had the same genius idea that I did) I witness some poor sap in a HUGE pick-up truck towing a HUGE trailer completely disregard the one-way signs and pull up to the pump the wrong way. Mistake. The attendant comes out and frantically runs up to the huge truck. All I can hear is the poor driver yelling out his window, “But my gas tank is on the other side!”

Side note: The carwash at Sam’s is sub-par. My car is cleaner – but next time, I will be going back to Mr. Suds or whatever that big obnoxious place on College is called.