Buffalo Bill

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It could have been the cold, the unnerving traffic of the last two days, or having ridden 5,000km in two weeks, but by the time we got to Cody, a small town in northern Wyoming, I was knackered. We decided to pull in early and got into our hotel room at 2.30pm. By 2.35pm I was sound asleep. I slept for the next three hours and Andrew made the wise call to have a rest day here the following day. We had an extra day to get to Sturgis as he had booked accommodation for the wrong night. The second accommodation kerfuckle in as many weeks. I was about to revoke his travel booking status, but his error turned out to be a blessing.

A rest day! I had packed a skirt for just such an occasion. And a shirt that wasn't black. I had a great sleep-in, wandered around town, had a late brekkie, uploaded a new book for my kindle, did some writing, had some more coffee and got some feathers in my hair. Andrew did a 300km ride up and over the bad-ass Beartooth Mountain. And got the t-shirt to prove it. Rest days are all relative I guess.

Andrew was back by lunch time and we wandered off to the Buffalo Bill museum. The town of Cody was founded by, and named after him and the hotel in town still has the original bar which was presented to him by Queen Victoria after he had toured his extravaganza through England. Turns out old Bill was quite the entrepreneur and probably amongst the first to understand the value in managing his brand. They are very proud of their Wild West heritage out this way.

There is a rodeo in town every night and we had been given free tickets, so after dinner we headed out to the rodeo stadium. There were the familiar smells of hay and horses and bullshit (literal and metaphorical) and we bought a couple of beers and settled down to hootin' and hollerin' as calves got roped and bulls got rode. There were a surprising number of Aussie Cowboys in the mix and I was wishing for my Akubra and cowboy boots to really feel part of the scene. Not too many leather jackets in the crowd.

It was a good end to a relaxing day. An early night was needed, because tomorrow: Sturgis.

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Photos

Beartooth Pass
Man on a rest day.