I have been enjoying the new 20 kg kettlebell Valerie got me for my birthday. So much so, that I decided to get another one today. Little did I know I would have one of the funniest, oddest buying experiences in memory.

After finding out that the retail store Val got my gift from was out of the 16 kg bells I wanted, I decided to go direct to the wholesale fitness supply company that imports them. I called the company not really expecting anyone to be there on a Saturday afternoon but a friendly Chinese man answered the phone and confirmed he had what I wanted, at only $1 a pound but that he would be there for only another hour and bring cash. At this point, you probably know we aren’t talking about Dragondoor or Ader bells, but some Chinese import, but what the heck, a buck a pound out the door, no tax. Come on, I gotta check it out, right? So what if it’s not the same as buying one directly from Pavel. Not that he would be selling Russian kettlebells at a $1 per, anyway.

I googled the address and find it is near Disneyland-easy to find. I convince Val to come along by bribing her with a Coffee Bean Ice Blended Mocha.

Here is where it gets good. As we get closer to the warehouse, we find we are in an old, dilapidated industrial warehouse district where many of the companies had left some time ago. Well, we know they must be getting a good lease rate in that run-down location.

We spot the building and know we are there because, well, it had a barbell logo. We get out of the car and approach the front door and find a few old chairs outside with an ashtray on the ground filled with about a dozen cigarette butts. I could hardly wait to find out what was on the other side of the door.

Once inside, the first thing we see is this large, Caucasian woman chowing down on a greasy fast food burger. the place reeked of bad fast food.Actually, she never really stopped eating the entire time we were there. On her very cluttered, messy desk were several packs of no-name cigarettes that are probably recycled from the butts people toss out in the street. Surprisingly, she was quite pleasant between bites of Greazee Burger.

The tall, older and very friendly Chinese gentleman came out to greet us and went back to get my kettlebell. When he came back he held it by the ball in his two cupped hands as if making some sort of offering to the gods. I asked him to give us a demo of the product and he laughed but politely declined and said we could probably do a better job of that.

Val and I exchanged pleasantries with this surprisingly odd and engaging couple and it was the woman who had the best parting shot. She suggested that whatever we have been doing with fitness to “keep doing it” and in the meantime she will “continue to eat junk food and get fatter”.

Val and I laughed and laughed all the way to the Coffee Bean!

I gotta go back there and get a smaller, 18 pounder KB for Val.I wonder if it can be as funny the second time around. (Val wants to go)! I am naming this kettlebell Ron, after the nice man I bought it from.

By the way, drop me an email if you want to get some of these. They really aren’t bad.

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