Cody, Wyoming

Named after William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, this small town reminded me of a hippie town where people came and did not go home. It is small, so a one or two day trip is all I needed to see its sights. While there, we lunched at the Irma Hotel and could have dined on a buffalo burger. Irma was Buffalo Bill's daughter and he built it for her to run. I don't think they have done any remodeling since it was first built -- it was dark and dank, but the history was worth the stop. The food was good, but the best part was watching a dog wearing a bandanna fetch a Frisbee. Everyone watching knew he was a regular at the outside porch eatery.

Since I do not live "out west", my friend thought I should go to a "real" rodeo. People were dressed as cowboys and cowgirls with their boots with spurs and hats and western garb. These people are really into the rodeo, really into it. It was different to watch, but definitely not a show I would see a second or third time. It started with men on horses riding in carrying the American flag.

This Cody Stampede was the eliminations
readying for the national rodeo in Las Vegas that was going to be held in a few weeks from then.

Basically, the rodeo simply has men and women on horseback rounding up cows or calfs, and then having so many minutes to get the rope around the animal and then jump off their horse and tie the legs of the animal. Then, of course, they let the animal go, and the animal is led back to its stall. Different from what I am used to.






Where we were sitting, we could see a cowboy ready his horse to compete in a bucking horse competition (that is probably not the right term, but he was to get on the horse and try to stay on for as long as possible,) He went to a lot of trouble making sure that his saddle was prepared correctly and the horse was ready. I could tell that the horse did not like the idea of anyone fooling around with him, and when the time came for him to compete, he did not even make it out of the stall. The cowboy attempted to get on the horse, and before he was on, the horse threw him, and the cowboy was hurt. Needless to say, he was not able to try for the nationals.

 The other part of visiting Cody was going to the Buffalo Bill Museum. That was more my style.  Really enjoyed the time there and we stayed the major part of the day.

These show three of the bronzes on the museum's grounds. There were many people sitting over the grounds sketching these bronzes as well as the other art pieces that were displayed outside. The weather was perfect, so it was a great day to spend all day. Also, on the inside in the art gallery, there were spots where artists could sit and sketch the first bronze pictured above. It was fun to watch an artist at work.

Inside there was a gun collection borrowed from the Smithsonian where guns across time were displayed. Along with the gun collection, Indian jewelry was encased and for art lovers, many of Remington's paintings as well as other Western artists were displayed.

They had a section devoted to animals but we did not have time to go through this section. We spent a lot of time looking at the guns and reading which type of gun was used for what time period. Interesting. We have come a long way with these destruction devices.

All in all, this was another memorable stop along the road. We were going to go to Jackson, Wyoming, but time ran out, and we had to drive back to Montana for me to catch my plane.

Thanks for sharing these memories with me. And if you like animals and nature, Yellowstone is one of the places to go. Shoot, you just might as well stop by Cody, too, and have a buffalo burger at Irma's. 

Until next week...have a couple of great days!