Homeward Bound

Sometimes the best part of a vacation is heading back to the familiar – that which you thought that you wanted to escape from. We left Gatlinburg fairly early in the morning and began our 9.5 hour trek back to Festus for another night with the in-laws. Our route took us through the whole of Tennessee, a bit of Kentucky, and into the boot heel of Missouri. If I am not mistaken, I believe that this was the farthest south in the state that I’ve ever been. Somewhere along the way baby Jack developed a fever that stuck with him for several days, which was a bummer. But other than that it was a smooth trip.
I had heard that the new Cabelas in Hazelwood was a sight to see, so I dropped Andrea and Jack off at her parent’s house and headed up to see it. While it was a nice store, it was not all that people have made of it. It seemed roughly the same size as the one in Kansas City, but with fewer mounts. Its staff was what has become typical among the bigger sporting goods retailers – young guys who love to talk about themselves with no clue about the products they are trying to sell. Fortunately I had done my homework before going in, and ended up buying a belated Father’s Day present for myself – a 6ft medium light spinning rod from St. Croix’s new Triumph line. I’ve yet to fish it, but the rod itself is virtually identical to Croix’s Premiere line, but $20 cheaper. While I wasn’t overly impressed by the Cabelas, in Tennessee I did stumble across a growing chain of retailer’s called Ganders mtn. I was impressed by this store. It was fair sized & didn’t have all of the trinkets that many sporting goods stores sell (who needs a "Barry the Bass" mailbox any ways?). Their staff seemed OK and they had a lot of specialty items in stock that are tough to find in a catalog, let alone in a retail store. Of course this chain has a store in every state bordering Missouri, but not Missouri itself, which stinks. So if you’re a Ganders mtn. exec., who stumbled across this site by accident, open a store in Missouri. Preferably one near the Lake of the Ozarks, on the Eldon side.