My trip to the south is the first of many, since my future in-laws live down in Gainesville, Georgia. But as this is my first time here, I had to get all the touristy stuff out of the way, like buying cowboy boots and consuming an unhealthy amount of biscuits, fried chicken, and sweet tea. We had plans to ride horses and shoot a shotgun with our family friends, but the rainy weather isn’t agreeing with us.

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On our way down to Florida, we stopped by a few western wear outlets in Alabama. We stopped at Don Walker’s Western Wear and Bridges Boot Outlet.

Don Walker’s was awesome. They had rows of boots at great prices, and two really nice cowboys handling customer service.

The second place was a total tourist trap. It was way overpriced, and had annoying women that refused to stop talking. It was also Texas themed. Which was weird.

So much cow!

I never looked at cowboy boots up close before. They’re super cool. All of them have pretty much have the same shape, but have different qualities of leather and different designs. (Like roses and flames!)

I think I can rock a cowboy hat.

We were listening to Christmas-themed country music in the store, which Mike’s mom ended up getting. I pictured the singer to be some hunky cowboy. I was disappointed to see the cover of the CD. He’s very Napoleon Dynamite.

This will give me nightmares for the next couple weeks.

I ended up buying my FIRST BOOTS! I actually walked right out of the store with them. Now I need to find line dancing classes…

My boots are Lucchese men’s boots (the men’s boots generally seemed nicer). I went with subtle – the colorful stuff seemed a little too crazy to wear to work in San Francisco. And trust me, I’m wearing them everywhere.

Mike’s cowboy boots are pretty sweet, too.

Mike with his air shotgun. Man, look at that snarl. You better get off his lawn.