Going over the Chief Joseph Highway

In front of the Irma Hotel where we saw the dumbest show in the world.


Part of the Old Town of Cody - that we didn't pay to see!

Old Town of Cody

7-1 (Thurs) On our way to breakfast it was hailing and I do mean huge balls of hail. We left for Cody at 8:30 this morning by that time the sun was beginning to come out. We went through Cook City and up over the Chief Joseph Highway. It was a breathtaking drive. We stopped up on a mountain and ate our bag lunch that the EDR fixed for us. The first thing we did after arriving was go to the Visitor’s Center. We found our hotel and checked in. It was a very clean and nice cabin. They only downside was the bedspreads. They were just too busy! When we check in they invited us to have appetizers and soft drinks from 5-8 p.m. We went to the “Old Town” of Cody. The buildings were the original but we didn’t want to pay $8 to see what was inside them so we took pictures and left. We went to the Old West Miniature City and Museum. It was free and darn worth the price. It told the story of the development of the west and was a great Indian museum. When we finished there we walked up and down main street. It was in the high 80’s or low 90’s and the heat almost made us sick. We heard that the Stampede Rodeo was going to be in town for the next four nights. This is when the really big stars come once a year. Cody has a rodeo every night but this one was special. We went to the Rodeo office and managed to get tickets for the evening.
We went back to our hotel because we were starving so we decided to try the free appetizers. The old people (like us) who were “tending bar” couldn’t believe that we were making a meal out of their samples! Their eyes almost bugged out of their heads. Fortunately for them we were going to the “shoot out” and had to be there by 6:00. Well . . . the shoot out was the biggest nothing, the biggest dud I have ever been to. The wind was blowing like crazy and all you could hear in their “mikes” was a whistling sound. The first 20 minutes of the “show” was thanking the advertisers and asking us to spend money with them. Then the show began . . . it was plain stupid and was as if 3rd graders were performing.
We went to dinner then on to the rodeo at 8:00. We enjoyed it but got home way after our curfew. It was midnight before we got in bed!

7-2 (Fri)
We had an A/C in our room and slept so well last night. We watched Good Morning America on TV ! We found out the latest news about the “bachelor” and his girlfriend breaking up. Just what we have been wondering about all summer!
We ate breakfast at “Grannies” before heading off to the Buffalo Bill Museum. On our way we found out that they were having a children’s 4th of July parade so we decided to watch that before going to the museum. We sat down on the curb with our cameras. It was just like the small town parades that you see on TV - really cute. From there we went on to the museum. It was wonderful, just as we had heard. We didn’t leave there until about 2:00. We had lunch at the Irma Hotel which was a hotel that Bill Cody had owned and was named for one of his daughters.
On our way back to Mammoth we stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam. They had the flood gates open and the water was rushing out. By the time we got back to Yellowstone we were cold which was a relief from the way we felt in Cody.
We stopped at the General Store at Fishing Bridge inside the park and tried on an Indian headdress so we could have our picture taken.

More pictures to come . . .