Cody Wyoming (8/2 - 8/5)

CODY WYOMING 8/2/2016 - 8/5/2016

See below for narrative.

South entrance to the museums,

This woman was skyping with a class in Argentina. The topic was US Geography.

Have Gun Will Travel. This is a

the actual weapon worn by Richard Boone in Paladin. The display also had his card.

Weapon below. 4 gauge. 19.5 lbs.

Two man gun?

The Bison contributed a great deal to the history of this part of the country.

Buffalo Bill with one of the Indians in his show.

Courtyard at the museum building.

The doves are pretty large out here. You probably only need two for a decent meal.

I think his name was Jade. This is a juvenile Bald Eagle that had a broken (unrepairable) wing.

Don't cut down that tree put birdhouses on it.

Someone left their hat.

The is Sacagawea or Sakakawea or Sacajawea. The Lemhi Shoshone woman who helped Lewis and Clark on there charting journey across the country.

Indian Art.

Another statue of Sacagawea

No flat screen TV.

Add caption

The new gravesite of Jeremiah Johnson played by Robert Redford 1972 movie.

It's really Jeremiah "Liver Eating" Johnson.

A very interesting man.

The town.

This is a Funeral Wagon.

See below.

Main entrance to the museum.

Lunch at Erma's the Old Cody Hotel that's on the National Register of Historic Places.

On August 2nd we pulled out of Spring Creek and headed to Cody Wyoming. It was another great ride and we pulled into Cody around three in the afternoon. The campground is a tight one right in the town and it was really full because of the Sturgis crowd. The bikers seem to come to the area surrounding Sturgis (within a 200 mile radius) the week before the rally. They cruise the beautiful roads throughout the region and basically do the tourist thing.

We basically got settled the first night, planned the next couple of days then we cooked our rainbow trout from the prior day. There is a museum here that is really five museums in one. The five parts to the museum are: Buffalo Bill, Cody Firearms, Draper Natural History, Whitney Western Arts, Plains Indian.We spent the entire day touring the five sections. It was fantastic.

The Buffalo Bill section told the whole story of his involvement with the town and his escapades in various endeavors throughout the world. A history of his family and other famous people who were associated with his wild west show. He basically died broke. Very interesting

The Cody Firearms  section was unbelievable. Thousands of firearms from the early days all the way to the present. The displays went on and on. It blew me away. I think this museum even has more guns than Brian Daneker. I've never seen anything like it. Awesome. Even Eileen was impressed.

The Draper Natural History section had beautiful displays of the wildlife and plant life in this part of the country and talked about the geology. It was laid out in a way that you walked from the prairie going up in elevation and they displayed the wildlife and fauna that live at each of the altitudes. The displays were drop dead beautiful and very well presented. Fantastic.

The Whitney Western Art section had original paintings, sculptures of the western culture. Very beautiful.

The Plains Indian section showcased the history of the plains Indians in every aspect. We have seen a lot of information about this in a number of places during our trip but his was by far the best presentation we saw. Again I have to say this was a fantastic exhibit.

We of course were exhausted but very satisfied when we left the museum. I highly recommend this place to everyone. It was really awesome.

When we left the museum in the afternoon the sky was full of smoke. There was a wildfire about 15 miles west of Cody that had started on that day. About 3000 acres were burning. The next day we didn't see much smoke but we found out that the fire was still burning and it hadn't been contained and it was up to 6500 acres. This whole area of the country has wildfires this time of year. It's a regular topic on the evening news. We left here on 8/5 and never did find out the status of the fire.

On 8/4 we visited a place called the Old Trail Town. It is located on the western edge of Cody and it is an old western town that has been put together with original buildings from around this area. Some of the building have historical significant and some are just original homestead type buildings. It is laid out like an old western town complete with saloon. They reburied five famous to semi famous people here and the grandson of Wild Bill Cody (see the pictures). This was another interesting place. At the end of the day we had a great meal at the Wyoming Rib & Chop House. This time I devoured a 16oz Buffalo Rib Eye. Yum!

Cody, as expected, was a great stop. If your going to wander around this part of the country. You definitely need to add Cody to the bucket list. You can also use Cody as a stop point on your way to the East Gate of Yellowstone.

Life is Super. Live it now!!!!