Well I'm about as recovered from the trip as I'm going to get. First a few general impressions.
I'm not as young as I used to be, on Friday night when I got to Anniston, all I could think was NEVER AGAIN, and how am I going to make it home for work on Monday. But after a solid 8 hours sleep, the world looked better, especially from inside the CMP store. And after shopping and spending the afternoon at the range, I have to admit, I'd do it again..... but with more time at the range, more time to drive, and a second driver, I'd go again.
I did most of my driving in the dark, I quickly found that the sun and glare was brutal on my eyes and driving at night also avoided any traffic when I passed near a city. But I did do some driving in daylight and the scenery was beautiful, kind of like New England, with hills, mountains, and fields, but hugely scaled up... ande less rocky outcroppings. The trees were all brown, not many evergreens, I bet it's awesome in the summer with all the green.
When I was going from the store to the range it really hit me I was in the south when I saw the cotton fields on either side.
Now the big answers.
Yes it is worth going in person, the best stuff sees the store first. And talk with the staff, they were all great, I told my story of coming from NH and they were happy to help me find what I was looking for, and point me to some good selection. I'm terrible with names, but the guy on the right in the picture is one of the armorers, he had been working on the 1917s and pointed me to a few good ones in my budget range, ones he had gone over. But alas the Garand I wanted wasn't there. I wanted an IH, good condition, and as close to original as possible. It's a sentimental thing, I had one I got when I was 18 ($125 back then), but like the rest of my collection it didn't survive my divorce...... so about 15 minutes of him looking in back and magically I got my IH. And it shoots nice too.
The trip was totally worth it, all I need now to complete the collection is a 1903A3, but between the trip and the auction last month I'm way over budget for a little while.
So here are pics from the trip, I'll post more on the rifles as I clean them up.
Garand Man
These are the guys you want to know
indoor range at the store
Armorer 8 is in the pic, a 0+/1+ and a 1+/1+
The whole team
the store is small, but still couldn't get it in one pic, but you get the idea
And one of the range (spoiled me for any other range)
How did this get in there