Oh Roy, oh Roy, is that your hat?

It all started last August when I was hanging out with some of my closest BMW motorcycle friends at the home of Tim and Linda in Alma, Colo.
It was the Indianapolis BMW Club's annual Colorado Chalet Week and we were comfortably ensconced at Tim and Linda's place some 10,600 feet above sea level in the heart of the Rockies.
We were watching a DVD copy of Kevin Costner's classic Western, Open Range, and I opined that Costner's character in the movie had the coolest cowboy hat I'd ever seen.
So a few days later, friends Linda and Webb and Cindy coaxed me into the Colorado Mountain Hat Co. on historic Front Street in Fairplay.
Sherry, who is a consummate hat-seller, dragged out a century-old phrenology device - a relic from the pseudo science of determining one's personality on the basis of the contours of their head. In this case, it was used to make a record of head measurements for a precise hat fit.
These are not cheap hats. They're custom made and come in three grades - felt, felt/beaver blend and pure beaver. Beaver sheds water better and is more appropriate for real cowboys who ride the range in all kinds of foul weather.
They had a considerable variety of hats on display, including a splendidly goofy looking replica of Hopalong Cassidy's tall black hat. They also said they could duplicate the Costner Open Range hat in any color and blend I wanted. I couldn't justify a pricey cowboy hat, so I stuck the punch-card set of my measurements into my motorcycle tank bag and dismissed it.
But Maria got wind of the encounter and decided I'd look smashing in an Open Range chapeau. So she ferreted out the measurements and ordered me a felt/beaver blend charcoal hat with a custom braided leather band for Christmas for $350.
Unfortunately, the folks in Fairplay were seriously backlogged on their orders and my Christmas hat arrived today on Valentine's Day.
I wore it to dinner at the local restaurant this evening and only felt a little self-conscious. After all, this is a rural county and there are lots of horse farms about.
Now I can't wait to get back to Colorado where a hat like this makes a little better fashion sense.