We were out of Cody town by 8:30 a.m. and headed to Shoshoni, WY. It's amazing how many oil wells are drilled and are currently working along this route and throughout Colorado and Wyoming! Who knew there were so many in operation in the middle of farmland, feed lots, etc.--we were surprised to see so many just casually placed and working away!
There were certainly a lot of snow fences and "flashing lights when highway closed" signs...we were very glad that the winds/snow was not a big issue this day to ignite the flashing lights. We did have some wind, but certainly not bad enough to warrant the 'Lorena's super quiet' mode. We thought we might hit Thermopolis about 10:00, but we landed about 11:30 and Jeff wanted breakfast and I wanted lunch, so we both were satisfied at a charming local place where again, everybody knows your name....we were made very welcome by the waitstaff and Jeff had his sausage and eggs and I had.. gasp...a bacon cheeseburger!!!OMG! When was the last time!!
The trick is, no mayo, lots of mustard, pull off most of the bun and enjoy!
We ventured on to state hwy 120 that was just great (you go, Wyoming and Colorado!...New Mexico, Arizona and California--your highways suck!) and we travelled along a "Rand McNally Best of the Road" Wind River Canyon trip route to Cody, Wy. We saw many, many antelope (cute white butts!) and also have seen several herd of wild horses. It's a pretty big deal here to adopt wild horses as it's a problem for them to find adequate food and stay sheltered/warm during the cold winters. Along those same lines, we have seen more horse trailers go by than trucks!
When we got to Cody, we were delighted to have time to take Casey Noodle for a walk, then stroll the 5 blks to the Buffalo Bill Historic Museum. This is a super museum complex with 5 different museums a part of it. It's a Smithsonian Affiliated Program, and very well done. We viewed the Buffalo Bill Museum portion together (this is a very detailed, complete compilation of Buffalo Bill's life, including his boyhood home...moved from Iowa... and many of his and his family's artifacts, honors and photographs. Very interesting. I guess we were always aware of Buffalo Bill and his place in history, but not the IMPORTANCE of his part in the development of the west...The folklore, the friendship he had with Theodore Roosevelt, the "Wild West Show" they took to Europe for several years in the 1800's.
We were taken aback! I also went through the Western Art Museum, heavy on Remington art and bronzes, but very interesting and viewable; and took a VERY quick tour through the firearms museum...not really my thing and I don't know anything about guns, just saw a HUGE stuffed polar bear shot by a woman while in Alaska...and lots and lots of rifles...
I also went through the Natural History portion of the Museum...Jeff calls it 'Natural History Lite.' The part of the museum that was important for me was the sage brush/prairie dog exhibit....the sage grouse is the king of the area...we were worried (I was worried) about who eats/uses the sagebrush that we see for miles and miles as we travel along--it's the prairie dog, sage grouse and the pronghorn antelope when in dire straights.
Off to Yellowstone, where we will camp at Yellowstone Lake for 3 nights....
No comments:
Post a Comment