Cabela's is an Attraction?

Getting a hotel was pure genius. There was no way we would've been able to drive home after leaving the penitentiary at 1 AM. It was nice to sleep in, see our first snowfall of 2008 out of the window, get ready at a leisurely place and find a nice place for breakfast. We had missed hotel breakfast and it grossed M out that it was buffet style which meant that people were touching it and sneezing on it from 7:30 to 10 AM. M is very knowledgeable of my eating preferences and although the hotel staff wanted to send us to Perkins, she asked for a non-chain restaurant and they told us about Uncle Pete's.

We had a quick scenic drive into the historic town of Wheeling and Uncle Pete's was perfect. We were seated in the girly room which also had two televisions showing football (oh, everyone in West Virginia wears nothing but Steelers gear - jerseys, pants, earrings, t-shirts). We had great parking, good service, cheap yummy fresh food, it was perfect. I had amazing pancakes that were crispy along the edges - a pancake and waffle in one! The guy behind me had the "Ham Supreme" AND ham and beans soup. And salsa and chips. The man loves his ham.

We had to go back to the hotel because M left her phone on the bed. You have to hear M's impression of the Jimmy Dean service call and all the people we ran into. The woman at the front desk was so cute, "Oh, your phone is so fancy! I tried to call you on it but it was locked of something." Nevermind that she can't call us because she has our phone! And then we headed to the Autozone to get M's favorite wiper blades. The guy was so funny, "Oh, I love the Bosch Ions but they don't make them for my Caprice... I can give you $5 off but that's the best I can do... Oh, you have one of them fancy credit cards with your picture on it...Can I see your I.D.?" He starts tearing off the wrapper and runs out to put it on the car, "sometimes you need to be a rocket scientist to install these things." M brought fancy back to West Virginia.

With smooth quiet wiper blades, we were off. Only to take the next exit to Cabela's. M: "Cabela's is an attraction? I've got to see this." It was insane. I think I might've seen it on the travel channel. It is HUGE. Not only is it a store, it has an awesome aquarium of the types of fish you could kill and fishing stuff for sale at the end of the aquarium. We saw a GIANT 4 foot huge catfish. They have these 3 large displays of taxidermied animals - a 2 story mountain with with deer, moose, polar bear, beavers. They have an African safari with a 6 foot crocodile, warthogs, elephant, lions and wildebeast. Then, there's Whitetail World - all these deer that people shot! There are little taxidermy displays throughout the store (it reminded me of the science center at Wellesley). Everyone was either dressed in Steeler's paraphernalia or camouflage. Even the little kids were in green or pink camo and shooting pop guns at the taxidermy animals. After you look at all the things you can kill, you can go up to the 2nd floor where there's a shooting gallery. You get some tokens and pick up the rifle and shoot at this scene. Watch out, when you hit the pot, it shoots water back at you. Then, we went to the "restaurant" - really a cafeteria - which was serving Salisbury steak for Sunday dinner and shared a pecan pie. We also went to the general store which sold fudge and M got a variety of sausages and jerky made of game: elk, buffalo, bison, jackalope (rabbit, antelope, beef). Not only did she get her scary vacation, she got to eat different kinds of animals (another one of her favorite things to do).

The hunting section was really gross and had a contraption called "butt out" which was so horrifying and terrible. They even had a gun library with lots and lots of guns for sale. You could get a 25 Barreta for under $100. It was an amazing experience. And in the two days we have been out of the DC area, we have not seen another Asian person. Not one.