Hi fellow Travelers,
Today I wanted to share some photos from what would normally be just a regular old store! Lol
Outdoorsman’s Amusement Park: Bass Pro
If you're living in North America, and enjoy the outdoors you've likely shopped or looked at buying things from places like Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's, which are two of the top outdoor outfitting companies in the country, and potentially the world. They have such a wide array of goods and things for the people who love to do anything outdoors, be it fishing, camping, hiking, hunting and many other things that can be considered an outdoor activity.
We've been to a few of them but recently when we were driving on our vacation, we happened to look over and saw that we were driving right by a really big store when we were in Virginia. We knew we had to stop and check it out! Our son was going a little stir crazy in the car anyways so we used it as a perfect excuse to get out of the car. Damn were we glad that we did! Lol. The place was awesome!
One of the coolest things for me was the massive display right in the center of the store. It was a gigantic fish tank but all around the fish tank were these massive and really crazy looking taxidermized animal displays! All of the animals here were certainly living and breathing animals at one point but through hunting, or defense, they ended up getting killed in one way or another which made it possible to turn them into display items here for the store.
The people who invested the time and money in the store definitely went above and beyond for it! I was so impressed with how detailed and huge the display was! I could have spent at least an hour or two looking at the different parts of the display lol maybe I'm a nerd like that but I love these types of things. They make it surreal for sure!
The place also has all kinds of activities and fun things for the kids and even for the really big kids (aka me, the adult :D) to do! There was an indoor shooting range that was fun and we played it a few times. The little man got a few shots in successfully and didn't have as much fun as I was hoping he would but the guns were pretty heavy so he couldn't successfully hold them. I kind of wish they included some pistols so that the kiddos could have a chance at it and hit something. In any case though, it was a cool display and I was loving the old western theme of it lol
There were so many different elements of the display, it was crazy! I like looking back at the pictures of it now while writing the post. It definitely feels more like a bunch of artwork than anything. I think the giant stores and displays like this are what I would consider passion for a craft. I don't know of many stores that would be built, even perhaps by this same company, that would go into such detail and have so many different elements to it. These days people are looking more for the cheapest crap and not quality so they perhaps wouldn't pay the money to have such a display made again. You never know though, people like me really appreciate these types of things so it could occur again!
The display is pretty damn dramatic to see from below! When we were walking up to it, it felt like it was going on forever lol seeing the mountain lion there was wild! I love the stalactites as well, I think that was a pretty cool touch to it all. What's remarkable was this was all built around a giant fish tank! You will see that in another post of mine but the fish tank had all kinds of cool fish in it but it was definitely one of the biggest fish tanks I've ever seen in one of these stores!
We've been to two more of them I think and this one here in Virginia has got to be the biggest one!
Just walking around the store, it definitely feels like an amusement park for the outdoorsmen out there! There is a lot of art everywhere, giant ceilings, timber beams and all kinds of stuff that make it an interesting place to visit and explore. I'm hoping that buying things from these stores certainly helps keep the business going, as it would be a huge shame if some place like this closed! I know the expenses of the store must be pretty substantial but I think they get enough business from people like me to sustain themselves even in challenging economic times.
As you can see, my son is clearly quite excited to be running into the store! Lol Part of it was being in the car for so long but also the other part is all love these stores. They have so many cool things in them and lots of fishing gear, which is right up the little man's alley. We ended up getting him a new fishing pole, thankfully on the way back so we didn't have to carry the darn thing around in the car the whole time while we were on vacation but it was a great time. We also were able to snag a really well priced blanket! Being in Virginia and it being spring, we grabbed a warmer blanket that was on sale since the winter and colder temperatures were ending for them. Back home the blanket was still 100$! We certainly scored one there!
-CmplXty. Real human written content, never AI.
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