The road down to Cody was perfect as most roads seem to be in the USA. The drive was over rolling hills classed as high desert and it seemed to go forever and ever. Suddenly the road began heading down to the river and bang we were in Cody Wyoming. We often wonder what made the early settlers decide to settle in such a desolate remote place - generally it was water and there certainly is that but we are not sure what else made Buffalo Bill pick this spot to build the famous Irma Hotel. Early photos show it sitting in the middle of absolute nowhere.
One of the first things we did was the trolley bus tour around the town and local area to get some of the history of the place. As always we find this type of tour good fun and very informative.
The Main Street of Cody
Buffalo Bill got his name from the fact that he shot some 4000 buffalo in just over a year to supply the railroads with meat for their workers. Buffalo Bill was just one of many professional shooters at that time - hence the buffalo was almost shot to extinction.
Cody is also home to the Buffalo Bill Historic Centre. The centre is home to 5 different museums - The Plains Indians Museum, The Whitney Gallery of Western Art, The Draper Museum of Natural History and the one that interested me the most, The Cody Firearms Museum. As we entered I glanced at the art but the lure of guns was too hard to resist so I left Rose to her art appreciation agreeing to meet up later!
The Cody Firearms Museum houses the most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world. The collection includes firearms ranging from a 16th Century hand cannon to guns of modern manufacture, and includes guns from almost every significant gun manufacturer in the world. The Winchester Collection, the heart of this museum, was transported from New Haven, Connecticut to Cody in 1976. This museum is filled with racks and racks of just about every gun made.
Rose Checking Out the Guns
I Think She is Loosing Interest?
Yep I Have Lost Her
The number and variety of motor homes and 5th wheelers in the USA is amazing. Our Cody neighbours, James and Carol, had, like many others, sold their home and invested the proceeds into one of the most amazing coaches we have seen. As we soon learnt it was a Newell. Newell only make a certain number of coaches every year and each has its own unique identification number. We were given a tour - wow this was one luxury coach - certainly a very comfortable way to travel!
After sharing a meal of BBQ ribs and a corn bake we all headed to the front gate of the RV park to catch the bus to the rodeo. At a cost of $18 we agreed that this was the best rodeo we had been to with the highlight being the bull riding. We certainly raised our hats to those brave cowboys - the bulls were huge and cranky, one even jumped halfway out of the shute before the gate was even opened!
The Cody Nightly Rodeo
We Were Looking Forward to This
Our Hats We Bought In Mexico Come in Handy
James and Carol (and of course Rose)
Whilst in Cody, Rose had been in contact with our Aussie friends Shaun and Sheree who we met in Las Vegas earlier in the year. These guys have lived in the USA for a little over 5 years now - Shaun builds custom motor bikes and they are currently in the middle of producing a TV show based on that business. Check out their website - www.chopdeville.com. They told us that they were heading to the Sturgis bike rally in South Dakota and as we were heading in a similar direction wondered if we would like to meet up with them there. We weren't sure exactly where we would be at that time but we penciled in a catchup, especially seeing we had a jar of Vegimite that Sheree was keen to get here hands on.
After 3 great days in Cody we hitched up our home and headed off on I90 east - destination unknown!
- Posted by RnR on their IPad
Location:Cody, WY
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