Sparks, Nevada: Scheels - Sportsman Attraction

The world's only sporting goods store with an indoor ferris wheel and animatronic President dummies. And a fudge shop.

I wasn't mentally prepared for just how creepy animatronic presidents were.

Scheel's was nothing short of mind-blowing. The array of guns, knives, decoys, camo-suits (and camo-nighties for the lady in your life), and meat grinders was entertaining enough for me, but the addition of terrifying animatronic presidents, a ferris wheel, and enough taxidermy to last me the rest of the road trip really makes this a future classic.

Apparently they also have a fudge shop.

A titanic monument to consumer excess, Scheels of Sparks is the largest sports store in the world, containing two floors and 295,000 square feet of merchandise. But if it were just a store it wouldn't be Roadside America-worthy -- Scheels throws in some extra touches that make it worth the slight deviation off the highway:

- 8 lifelike bronze statues (if you were 20 feet tall and your life involved carrying deer antlers on your back)

- A Ferris wheel inside the center of the store

- The Hall of Presidents, various rubber Presidential effigies parroting out quotes in really badly done voices

- Two 16,000 gallon aquariums, one for salt water fish and one for fresh

And, most importantly, hundreds upon hundreds of dead animals. Bear, wolves, deer, elk, bison, moose, foxes, mountain lions, grouse, pheasants, prairie dogs, quail, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, bunnies, badgers... If there is open season on it somewhere in the United States, it has been stuffed and displayed in Scheels. If you're short on time and want the money shot, head upstairs to Taxidermy Mountain, a 35-foot-high Noah's Ark of dead things. It's also worth a quick visit to the Home Decor Shop, featuring paintings of a Thomas-Kinkade-Goes-Hunting quality.