In honor of John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley: In Search of America, I am keeping my eyes open for clues about America’s gun cultures as Sandy and I travel from our home in North Carolina to Yellowstone National Park and back. My inaugural post on this series can be found here.

Continuing my belated final posts from this past summer’s Travels with Sandy in Search of America’s Gun Cultures, a brief observation from Dickinson, North Dakota on Day 22 after we wrapped up at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

We needed to get our travel trailer cleaned up, so headed to a local home, farm, and outdoor store called Runnings for supplies. I had never heard of this upper midwest-based chain, but they operate 57 stores in 8 states.

I was interested to see right as we walked in what the Manager’s Special was that week: 22LR ammo. Unfortunately, the entire supply was sold out. But the fact that ammunition is so normal as to be a Manager’s Special is noteworthy. I, at least, was surprised to see it.

Those who are deep into defensive gun culture will also find some humor in the other Manager’s Special advertised alongside the 22LR ammo: wasp spray.

Read more about this on Annette Evans’ “On Her Own Life” blog and Kevin Creighton’s School of Guns.

I was too busy looking for cleaning supplies to walk the entire (huge) store, but 35 Runnings stores also sell firearms. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dickinson, North Dakota Runnings sold guns since over half of households in the state own guns, one of the highest percentages in the country.

Thanks for reading beyond the headline. If you appreciate this or some of the other 1000+ posts on this blog, please consider supporting my research and writing on American gun culture by liking and sharing my work.