Day 7: A Day in Cody, and then on to Yellowstone!

Today started off pretty slow in Cody, Wyoming, as we rolled out of bed late and treated ourselves to a big pancake (er, I mean, flapjack) breakfast – complete with all the trimmings and an overactive smoke detector. Ah… the great outdoors! Ha. We also decided to take advantage of the large bank of washers and dryers that were at our disposal at the Cody KOA, so we threw in a week’s worth of clothes for 7 in almost as many machines at the same time. We also seized upon the opportunity to join all the kids who were jumping on the outrageously-sized, in-ground “air pillow”…you know, between wash/dry cycles and re-packing the RV. Although, truth be told, Grandma did the lion's share of the laundry, partly because she is sooooo nice, and partly because it afforded her the opportunity to yap on her cell phone for a long time (probably to beg whoever would listen to get her out of this mess? Ha).

It was mid-day by the time we finally rolled into downtown Cody, and we really just meandered through the shops and took in the Old West ambience – all in our cowboy hats, of course, a little bit of whistlin’ (we are just making Roy Rogers more and more proud by the day, I tell ya). Our favorite store was “The Custom Cowboy Shop.” You know, because we’re not going to regret walking around dressed in full cowboy gear when we get back to Ohio AT ALL! No, no… just kidding… we resisted all that business this time around. We just ended up with a few odds and ends to bring home as souvenirs…. but just the old stand-bys, like the new set of steak knives with branded handles and the western-themed wine charms (clearly no REAL cowboy is gonna take to the range without his trusty wine glass charms…?).

We had an early Prime Rib dinner at “The Irma”, the historica and famous restaurant / hotel founded by Buffalo Bill Cody and named after his daughter. It was something of a Back-to-the-Future moment, as we found ourselves being in the distinct minority with our modern-day style of dress… there were absolutely dozens of people walking around The Irma’s front porch and inside the restaurant dressed like they had just walked out of a movie starring Buffalo Bill himself. I knew I had to act fast to find out what was going on before Clark Griswold – not to be outdone - got it into his head to run us all back to that Custom Cowboy Shop to suit all of us up too.

So what WAS going on? There is an outdoor production of a legendary gunfight scene on the streets of Cody right outside of The Irma on most evenings during the summer, and we just happened to arrive on the scene just about 90 minutes before show time. This show is put on by volunteers from the Cody community to raise money for various charities, and they have also incorporated a segment at the beginning to teach children about the danger of firearms. At this point in my Cody experience, I was fairly certain that this “safety segment” was most likely inserted to appease those blasted worry-wart, east-of-the-Mississippi mothers who hold similarly over-reactive views to my own… you know those people who would prefer having a little warning before someone starts firing weaponry or unleashing livestock on their grade school children? It must be a pain catering to the pansy tourists in order to turn an honest buck…

After the show, we met with the cast for a bit, and then rolled out of town to begin our 90-mile trip to Yellowstone National Park. The entire drive was GORGEOUS, but sometimes mildly nerve-wracking in a very large, lumbering RV. Seatbelts or no seatbelts, there were just too many road signs indicating that the next curve in the road was in the shape of a “U”, where missing the turn meant rolling down a rocky incline to a certain death on or before the 25th full rotation of the RV. But, in spite of it all, everyone (but our driver, at some points) enjoyed the spectacular landscape – snow-capped mountains, rushing rivers, and driving down into the beautiful valley floors. We also saw some amazing ranches and the occasional teepee along the way, as well as a winery in TenSpoons, Wyoming – an interesting little town with a posted population of 304 which is also home to the TenSpoons Emporium, a fine institution which bragged by way of tattered wooden storefront sign that they were the fine purveyors of “More Odds than Ends.” And there we were with no time to shop…

One really convenient thing about searching for wildlife while you make your way through Wyoming is that all you really have to look for is the cluster of cars pulled off from the road. You won’t see another car for miles and miles, and then all of the sudden you’ll see 3 or 4 and you just know that there’s probably something fairly close by that could rip your face off or something. And that’s exactly how we knew to pull off at one point, and get all the kids out of the RV to get a better look at whatever it was! LOL. What we had happened upon was a jet black, full grown moose (yes, a black one!) drinking from the other side of the stream. He was so beautiful! I don’t think anyone said a word for a full five minutes… we were just awe struck. Or at least we thought we were…

When we finally reached Yellowstone -- the destination we’ve been most anticipating since we began planning for this trip many years ago -- we learned just what awe struck means. More to come about that…