Laura and Kathy Go to Cabela's

Raven said Laura and I need our own reality show. We really do.

Laura had never been to Cabela's. I told her how interesting it is and that we needed to go. Last night we headed over there. She was looking for rain boots and something for her upcoming camping trip, which she is dreading. (THAT would be a great episode of the Laura and Kathy show... where I call Laura from my king-size bed at the Four Seasons to see how she is faring in her sleeping bag in the woods. Writing that in my little notebook...)

The first thing you see when you walk in the Cabela's door is a guy at a podium with a sign that says you are required to check in your firearm. I noted that it is better than a sign that says you are required to check OUT a firearm.

When you're walking around a store that sells six hundred thousand things you've never seen before, whose functions you cannot determine, you start going with your most imaginative assumptions.

There was this-

Buck Rage. Not sure if the little thing attaches to the top of the bigger thing or if it's just a bonus... thing.

Is this a bowling accessory or an egg holder or something for lonely nights on the prairie with four of your closest friends?

Unfortunately, my curiosity drove me to watch a video of the Butt Out process online this morning. (Mad props to the Butt Out company for the pun.) Google has thousands of descriptions and videos of it, and I still don't have a clue why part of the intestine has to be pulled out and tied off. Just reason #423 that I would never hunt.

This prairie dog target looked like I felt, after eating at Cracker Barrel next door. Ooh. Too many carbs.

Cabela's carries all these awesome commercial-quality smokers and jerky/sausage-making machines and such. They carry Transformer-y folding outdoor furniture that starts as a 2-inch cube and morphs into things like a picnic table with drink holders and a table setting for eight. Pouches of dried camping food that, when you add boiling water, become entrees from beef stroganoff to a 22-lb roasted turkey. $900 fishing poles. (Okay, I'm not kidding there.)

The coolest thing about Cabela's is the taxidermied wild animals all over the store, along with an enormous fish tank where you can get up close and personal with some huge (live) fish. Laura said that if Cabela's had been around when the kids were little, we would have been there every weekend, telling them it was the zoo. SO TRUE.