Cabela's & The American Dream

I live in Olympia, north of Olympia is a city called Lacy. Olympia has a coffee shop, tattoo parlor, and book store on every corner. Lacy has a Super Wal-Mart, Sizzlers, and lastly Cabela's.

If you're not familiar Cabela's is the worlds foremost outfitter in hunting, fishing, and outdoor gear. It started as a mail order magazine, and now they are building "showrooms" across the country.

Matt, Riley, Julien, and I a packed in my Volvo. I guys night out in a sense. I'm looking do some sort of American culture experience out of this. Like Hunter S. Thompson in Las Vegas before me. Most people at Evergreen would not understand why I'm so excited for this. As i drive up the parkway the illuminated gold letters of Cabela's rise out of the ground. It is a castle in log cabin formation, gigantic. The parking lot is packed, primarily the stereotypical vehicles that shoppers at Cabela's would own, trucks and SUV's complete with firefighter and Bush decals.

As we enter the doors we are greeted by a mountain display full of every type of animal imagined, all stuffed and placed in epic positions. It is a tribute to anything and everything in North America that can be hunted. Above the mountain is yellow pieper airplane hanging in the air. My eyes dodge around uncontrollable. This is the vortex of the American dream, where do I start? Thats question answered when we ind a tunnel inside the mountain, the tunnel leads us to an aquarium, blue gills and bass on one side, trout on the other!

Matt is quickly swifted into the fishing section while Julien, Riley and I head up stairs and find the guns. And guns we find, a wall of guns. I've never seen anything like this before, so many guns a small war could erupt. I hold a rifle, it makes me feel powerful yes, but badass, not in the least bit. At the end of the gun wall is a shooting gallery. Kids and families take take shots at a howling wolf behind a barrel of whiskey. Little cute killers, how wonderful. I find Riley yelling in the camping section. "Look guys a gas powered blender. Can you believe it?" Oddly I can.

It is easy to make assumptions about these people. Write them off as redneck scum. I'm not here to do that. I'm a beast splashing about in a sea of culture. We all get hung up on how people are supposed to live. This is right, this is wrong and really most of the time we forget that people don't all think the same. It's funny how i can drive 15 minutes and find my self in Evergreen's bizzarro world.

I was thinking about getting some wool socks but it was time to leave. Riley had enough of this place when he saw the stuffed elephant in the Africa display.