Cabela's, Tualatin, Oregon

Jack and I went to Cabela's after lunch today. Jack needed some reloading supplies, and while I had heard of this wonderful place, I had never been there, so let's go take a look. It's new, it's big, it's easy get to and it's full of outdoor gear, much like G.I. Joe's, but bigger, better and fancier. In the center of the store they have a huge diorama loaded with critters. Underneath is a tunnel with giant fish tanks and a cave with a skeleton of some prehistoric beasty. If you only have a small craving for camping in the great outdoors, just a visit to this store might satisfy you.

    The 'Gun Library' provided some entertainment. All kinds of fancy guns, old guns, engraved guns, expensive guns and even a really expensive gun. I used to be enamored of this kind of thing, but nowadays I am happy with the guns that I have. I know how to operate them and they are reasonably reliable. Sometimes I can even hit what I am shooting at.

Since we've gone to the trouble to drive all the way out here (five miles anyway) , we should make the most of it. Is there anything I need? Well, I can always use some more ammo. Let's see how things look. Not to worry, they are fully loaded with everything I need. I pick up a dozen boxes of this and that and we head to the check out stand. Where we wait. And wait. And wait. Here we have this big fancy store, a zillion dollars in merchandise, a dozen people waiting to check out and two clerks who don't seem to be able get anything done. I give up and go wander around until Jack gets his chance to fork over the moola.
     Time to go. Don't want to drive by the front of the store, there is a confused mess of cars there. Let's go back the way we came, that should work, except it doesn't. It's one of these one way bear traps. The only way out is via the drive along the front of the stores, so we queue up and inch our way along.
     So it's big, fancy, impressive and even entertaining, but they don't have anything I need that I can't get somewhere else, somewhere else where I don't have to wait an eternity to check out. I doubt I'll go back.

The photo's are not necessarily from this store. Cabela's seems to have done something similar in a bunch of stores all across the USA. These photos are certainly representative.