Road Trip

This is the only elk I seem to be able to get a picture of, the kind that are cast out of bronze and will stand there all day.

Friday was road trip day as we went all the way to Phoenix to shop at Cabela's at their big fall sale. They are about an hour and a half from here.

Cabela's is the ultimate sportsman's toy store, offering everything related to the outdoor sports of hunting, fishing, archery, boating and camping. The stores are a show in themselves as they contain several areas of taxidermy related to the big game fields of the world. You can see everything from a stuffed elephant to a stuffed prairie dog. And purchase anything you might need to bag one with. Pretty much, if you've seen one Cabela's, you've seen them all, although I've never been to the home location in Kearney, Nebraska. It's still always fun to visit and since the nearest one to home is up in Wheeling, West Virginia, I wanted to take a look at this one. Besides, they sent us a sale flier. Who could refuse?

Actually, this was a chance to pick up a rifle I had been wanting. This Ruger 10/22 Takedown, was featured on the front of the sale flier. This rifle came out in March and has been so oversold that the local gun shops are quoting weeks of backorder, if they can get one at all. So I was surprised to see it featured in the flier, but given Cabela's enormous purchasing power, I shouldn't have been. At any rate I got one and I'm very pleased with it. It separates into two pieces a stows in its own nylon carry bag. Just the thing to carry in the motor home.

Diane got a top and a fleece jacket, so momma's happy too.

At that point it was about 1:30 and time for lunch. I had scouted out the area with the aid of Google maps and found that right across the highway was a micro-brewery called Gordon Biersch.

They are a chain featuring German style lagers in an upscale environment. They have branches all the way from Hawaii to Buffalo, NY and Myrtle Beach, SC.They have a very nice selection of beer and a very good menu as well. I had a dark lager called Schwarzbier and we shared an order of Lobster and Shrimp Mac and Cheese. It was delicious and I ate most of it. For dessert we had a warm apple bread pudding with sugared pecans and vanilla ice cream. Diane had most of that.

It was about 105 degrees in Glendale so we scooted back up I17 to Dewey and found rain clouds building. We got home about 4:45 and I went out and fed all the stock and about 5:30 it started to pour. It stormed for about an hour and then rained easy until about midnight. That dropped the temperature down to 66 degrees. All together we got 1.300" of rain, enough to fill the tank at the bottom of the hill about half full. And all the plants got a good watering.

I was looking forward to a good day at it turned out to be every bit as good as I had hoped.