Thursday, August 13, 2009

Rest day in Dillon, MT

Dillon is a fairly nondescript western town in Beaverhead County in the wide Beaverhead River valley. The county, river, etc. are named after a nearby rock formation that Lewis and Clark (those guys really got around!) thought looked like a beaver swimming.*

We visited the local history museum which was not great but not bad. They had a lot of stuff on display, but a lot of it wasn't displayed well (no label to identify the item, poor lighting, etc.). The museum did have one stellar area - a section which displayed western birds, including eagles, song birds and water fowl. The birds were all "taken" (i.e., killed) then preserved and presented in their natural setting by a local taxidermist. While we did not particularly like the fact that birds had to die to create the displays, these were so well done that we both felt we were looking at works of art.

We were expecting the Williams family to show up here in Dillon this afternoon on their tandem, but we had heard nothing from them until just moments ago (9 pm). They spent last night at Bannock, MT, a ghost town that is now a state park. They had a great time there and are now in Dillon staying at someone's home. We may not see them again on this trip as we plan to ride to at least Alder tomorrow, farther than Twin Bridges where they will probably stop. But we have invited them to stay with us when they get to Colorado. Here is the link to their website about their tandem adventure:

http://www.tripleontour.blogspot.com/

*You really have to stretch your imagination to see this. I thought it looks more like a large pile of cow manure.
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Cool stone wall pic #2

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Cool stone wall pic #1

Dillon, MT.
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War memorial pic #2

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War memorial pic #3

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Storm clouds

Dillon, MT war memorial.
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Magic bus pic #2

..and you can eat inside or outside!

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Magic bus pic #1

Dillon, MT. Best mexican food we've had in a long time....
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