The pool is up! Yea! A cause for celebration, not only for being able to use it in the Oklahoma heat, but also because finding pool salt turned into a QUEST of semi-ample proportions.

In addition to graduating to a larger pool this year, we also invested in a much larger pump and a salt water generator, which will allow us to avoid using chlorine in the pool. The salt water generator requires that you add salt to the pool water. Once the salt has been thoroughly dissolved, you turn on the salt water generator and the electricity passing through the salt water creates ‘natural’ chlorine for the pool. There are many advantages to using this system, including the use of fewer additional chemicals to keep the water balanced, no chlorine smell, no more red eyes (a big plus!), and more.

Sounds simple, yes? Definitely. But the search for pool salt proved to be a bit more daunting than we had anticipated. We knew that we wanted Morton Pool Salt and searched online for it. Guess what, it isn’t that readily available; only a few places carry it online, and even fewer in their local stores. Sam’s Club was our best bet. But, not having a Sam’s Club membership, we continued our search, calling and driving to various stores. Home Depot and Lowe’s were both supposed to carry the salt, but in fact did not have a single grain. There was plenty of water softener salt available, but that salt will not work in this system and will eventually ruin the equipment.

We finally gave in and purchased a Sam’s membership so we could get the cotton-pickin’ stuff and go on with our lives.

We hadn’t been to a Sam’s in many years, and had forgotten just how much fun it is to see so much stuff at such discounted prices. Makes you want to buy stuff you really don’t need, just because it’s so cheap! But! No Morton Pool Salt!!! Imagine our frustration at that development! NONE of the Sam’s in town had it, nor did they think they would get any in! Then why was it on their website?! No one knows. It’s just another one of those things that will go unanswered.

We left totally frustrated, but with a trunk full of FOOD, so the trip wasn’t a total loss. And we now have a Sam’s card so of course we’ll now be stopping by there frequently, I would think.

One bummer. The same Intex above ground pool we purchased elsewhere was selling at Sam’s for $100 less than we paid. Trying not to think about that too much. Would have paid for the Sam’s membership plus some of our grocery purchases!!! Bummer. NEXT time we’ll check there first. In person.

Of all things, that very same night Don went to a local Walmart to pick up totally unrelated items and decided to check, just in case, to see if they had Morton Pool Salt. Eureka! He found it! Walmart did not have it listed online as being carried at any of their stores, but they had two pallets of the stuff. WHY didn’t we just go by and look there? Guess we just trust the Internet too much!

We are happy that we finally found the salt we needed! The pool is open for swimming (& floating!), and we enjoyed it very much this past weekend……finally!!!! And, thanks to our Sam’s membership, there is so much more of us to float now……!