Dispatch from Montrose, Colorado

Well, I'm having to re-write this entire post, as the computer here at the hotel managed to delete the entire thing. Grr...

Okay! We're in Montrose, Colorado!

The town is really pretty, and pretty small, too. We have been amazed at how blessed we are in Vancouver to have so much available to us, all within short driving distance. Montrose doesn't have a shopping mall proper, so the only place one can do any kind of shopping is at the Super Wal-Mart on the edge of town.

Now, I already have a kinda contentious relationship with Wal-Mart - the store that impressed me so much with its excellent service in Tennessee leaves much to be desired when translated to the Pacific Northwest. The droogs that work at the Vancouver Wal-Mart seem to give greater depth and meaning to the term "sloth."

But at least the Vancouver Wal-Mart actually stocks things. Current things. Things we want to buy.

Case in point: anyone been out toy shopping in the past, oh, twelve months or so? One of the hottest items out there is the retro-cool Care Bear - the original, old-school Care Bear from back in the '80s. The Vancouver Wal-Mart has at least an entire aisle devoted to Friendship Bear, Good Luck Bear, Fair Trade Balance Bear - the whole pantheon of Care Bearness.

How much space does the Montrose Wal-Mart devote to this hot-selling item?

Let's just say, not as much.

Actually, they only had, brace yourselves, seven Care Bears total in the entire store!!!

Seven!!!

And most of them were the lame-o "electronically enhanced" ones - the ones that start out all nice and only talk when you hold their hands together or whatever, but end up speaking all by themselves from the toybox...Billy...let me out of this toybox, Billy...you've not been very nice to me...you shouldn't be mean to a Care Bear, Billy, that's not very...caring...

No, we just wanted three plain ol' stuffed animal Care Bears to give to the girls.

Not too much to ask, I figure.

Too much for the Montrose Wal-Mart, though.

And, the thing is, in Vancouver, if the Wal-Mart didn't stock something we wanted, we could just go to Target or to K-Mart or to the Mall, for crying out loud.

Montrose doesn't have a mall.

They do have a Sears.

It's the size of a 7-11, I kid you not.

They sell "appliances, electronics, and yard equipment." Period.

More tomorrow...we meet the girls at about noon.

BTW, I'm able to upload photos, so I'll be uploading more shortly.