Friday, June 19, 2015

Day Three: Horses and Cowboys

Day three was spectacular! The weather has been absolutely perfect. We stayed overnight at Yellowstone Valley Inn. It is located about 20 minutes West of Cody along the Shoeshone River. Here is what we woke up to ...
View from our room
After breakfast (an all-you-can-eat scrumptious buffet included with our room) we drove into Cody. We stopped at the dam ... I mean, the Buffalo Bill Dam (sorry, couldn't resist the immature dam joke). When you think about the effort it took to build that thing back in 1910 it is absolutely amazing. The girls stamped their National Park Passport books (thanks again, Grandma Roz). Paradis and I posed for this photo, thinking of my father who had to stop at every dam during my childhood road trips. 
Paradis and I at Buffalo Bill Dam

Next was McCullough Peaks. McCullough Peaks is a place where wild mustangs roam wild in the west and our goal was to see horses. We started off on a very rough road. I'm confident it was not made for a Chrysler Town & Country mini-van. But after losing Annelies to the back seat where she quickly fell asleep because her anxiety was so high thinking we would get stuck living with wild mustangs the rest of our lives, we turned around and found a better path. 
Annelies hanging out the van at McCullough Peaks

McCullough Peaks

The landscape out here reminds me of the Badlands in South Dakota. 
After spending a few hours in McCullough Peaks 'getting back to nature' we drove into Cody where we had to kill an hour. Scott and I took a nap at a park while Paradis read and Annelies dug out the old DS. We had dinner at The Cody Cattle Company, with another all-you-can-eat buffet that included a Western Show. We all stomped our feet a little, and enjoyed the cowboy dinner (the beans are yummy).
Paradis at Chuck Wagon dinner

Our last stop for the day was the famous Cody Rodeo. Paradis was in heaven smelling all the animal shit while the rest of us simply tolerated it (looking at the cowboys seemed to balance things out for me). Rodeo tip: Sit in the Buzzard's Roost seats near the bucking shoots where you are in the middle of the action. Another tip, wear warm clothes. We went to dinner at 85 degrees, and left the rodeo at 50 degrees. We were wrapped in blankets by the end of the night.
Rodeo
It was a great day in Cody. Tomorrow we are off to Yellowstone!

Day Three: 129 Miles (1,113 total); Gas $42.34 ($119.81 total); Lodging $183.60 ($367.20 total); Souvenirs $13.69 ($71.81 total); Tourist Traps $72 ($72 total); Fights 0 (0 total); Injuries 0 (0 total); Redbox $0 ($11.06 total); Transportation $0 ($278 total)


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