In Texas you just can’t have too many guns or missiles.
One day, or so I figure, it is going to be cool enough for me to go hiking up the road in the Big Thicket National Preserve. However, my hiking options in the Thicket may be somewhat more limited than earlier this year when a friend and I hiked there.
I talked to someone with the National Park Service at the preserve’s visitor center this afternoon who told me that only three trails are open right now because of damage from Hurricane Rita. This park employee told me that an astonishing 2 million trees were knocked down or blown over in the 97,000-acre preserve during the storm. I wonder if she, the park service person, could hear my jaw dropping when she told me that?
But if I don’t hike in the Big Thicket — where three of the nation’s ecosystems converge — I will be hiking elsewhere with the cooler weather. And I will want a drink of water. So I went looking today for a new canteen.
I tried Gander Mountain. They did have some fancy ones (to me at least) but I decided I just want something to keep my water cold rather than fancy. So I visited the GI Surplus store. I hit paydirt there, buying a Swedish Army canteen for less than 6 bucks. Why a Swedish Army canteen? Well, it was a metal canteen. And it was less than 6 bucks.
GI Surplus stores have always fascinated me. You would think I would have long ago been over them after four years in the Navy. But I still like GI Surplus. There is just so much, how can I say this, crap to be found in such stores. Since some of the merchandise is actually GI or military surplus, it is sometimes good crap as opposed to bad crap. But just as with real military issue, you never know what you’ll get.
I very much like the local GI Surplus store on Hwy. 90 in Beaumont because it also has weird surplus crap outside of the store. As you can see in the top photo they are ready for an air attack with a gun and missiles to protect them. And in the very unlikely event that the terrorist bastards try to attack the GI Surplus store by boat — from the highway — then they will run into the big old mine above. No doubt I will sleep soundly tonight knowing I have a good Swedish canteen and that the GI Surplus store is safe from its enemies.