We get up in the barely-morning and immediately decide to stay in Dillon another night -- rather than pack up our stuff and check out by 11am. We set out on the town! A coffee shop provides pretty food and great people-watching (a teenage dude wears a "tank-top" that's just the middle strip of a shirt, and obviously checks himself out in the window before coming inside; two women wear gowns and a man wears a suit, and many people in street clothes congratulate them repeatedly; there are lesbians!).
12:00pm
We wander into the Patagonia Outlet and spend an hour sorting through bins! Nat procures some emotionally-fraught boxers (they're his favorite kind and 75% off but they only have SMALLS and he will only wear a MEDIUM. In the end, it amazingly turns out to not matter one tiny bit. We are all glad.) and a shirt, I procure a sweet green corduroy jacket. Next we find ourselves at the Dillon Museum, where we pay $6 and a lady is very enthusiastic about Astoria to us. SHe is later heard exclaiming poignantly about the new Safeway -- with a STARBUCKS INSIDE -- in town! A Starbucks in DILLON MONTANA! We learn all about the west: gold rushing, murdering in saloons, saddle-making, baby-having, clothes-washing, old flutes, old
guns, old jail cell doors, and a 190lb Great Dane who was a bellboy for the Dillon Hotel. Also, in the 18th century, 8 year olds could embroider things so complicated that now only computers can recreate them! (This is an educated guess, but oh I was impressed. And a little egotistically deflated.) Then, of course, was the biiiiird exhibit, wherein many a dead bird was stuffed and preserved in an active pose. A Canada Goose was preserved as it was found, with a plastic six-pack ring stuck under its tongue and around its throat. Do you feel bad now? I hope so; you're a horrible person. However, there was also a bird called a bufflehead, which made me forget all my woes as I reveled in its fluffy (dead) cuteness. Pictured: we discovered that the front of our car was littered with the tiny smashed bodies of suicidal bugs. I hope they had a good ride.
3:00pm
We scamper off to the HAT STORE, where Tash buys the sweetest hat a girl has ever hatted. Pictured: not the hat I ended up buying. But there was no mirror in Hat Store, so I had to take pictures in order to see what they looked like, and this is the only one that managed to not get deleted.
3:50pm
We fancily attend the Dillon premier of BATMAN! It's $5.50 and the popcorn and Sour Patch Kids are oh-so-fresh. We are quite early, and have to watch the same 7 ads cycle through over and over -- we learned all about the specials at the car wash (3 no-touch slots!), the Longhorn Saloon (horrible washed-out photos of bland food), and a realty company that said "Montana sells itself; we just make it easy" and "We have a habit of turning clients [dramatic pause] into friends." The movie is GREAT (seriously, this is a great movie. I will not review it here. But it is a great movie.), but it stops for a few minutes near the beginning and we all wait anxiously as a lady goes up to the old-timey machine upstairs and jiggers it. Then, near the end, at the MOST TENSE MOMENT POSSIBLE, the reel stops again --
only this time it gets stuck, and we all watch in horror as the frame starts to blacken, then melt completely, then burn, until all we see is a whitebackground bordered in burn marks! Fortunately, due to the power of magic and other things, we eventually pick up just seconds after we left off, and watch the rest of the (great) movie without incident. Okay job, Dillon. Better luck next time.7:00pm
We pack our bags for our trip into the Wind River Range, and head out to Sparky's Garage Restaurant (Sparky's garage is also in town) for dinner. One of these activities is much more pleasant than the other. Bellies full of BBQ and packs full of goodies (very, very full), we have Family Reading Time and then goooo to bed.
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