Day 24 - Driving to Cody Wyoming

---

Well what an experience to have stayed in this Hotel. The creaking of the floorboards as you walked around the rooms felt like the Hotel was talking to you about it’s old stories. I had my shower in one of those old bath tabs with the fancy legs and curtains hanging around the outside. If felt weird as I had no wall around me but why weird as I don’t usually fall into the walls by habit !

No breakfast included here so we headed next door to the Busy Bee Cafe, which barely had room for us. They took ages to take our order and even longer to serve the meals (how long does it take to cook eggs and hash browns ?) I think it took nearly an hour. I was getting frustrated for two reasons. First I wanted to hit the road as we had to be at our destination by 3pm for a pre-arranged tour, and secondly I had somehow misplaced my battery charger for my SLR camera and I was worried about how I was going to take decent pictures without it.

Anyway they eventually fed us and we were on our way about 10.30am about 1 hour later that I would have liked. Since we had no wi-fi access I was unable to get the maps loaded on my IPAD so had to rely on Mr Tom Tom today. I was a bit worried as there were two distinct routes to choose and I have not been able to master how to programme Mr Tom Tom yet and he was saying we would not get to our destination of Cody until 3.30pm (too late !).

The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny around 28 degrees when we left and or first challenge was to cross the mighty Bighorn Mountains. These are a sight to behold and we took route 16 which was one of the most spectacular driving experiences I have ever had, The landscaped changed from barren to trees to snow capped peaks, to canyons, to rocky outcrops and rapid creeks. There was some roadworks on the way down where there looked to have been a massive landslide. When we went passed this I saw round granite boulders perched on the side on what looked to be loose soil and not balanced very well and some of these were about 6 feet wide and I was terrified they were going to fall down the hillside (there must have 40-50 of these rocks).

When we got down to the other side of the mountains we stopped at a place called 10 Steps for a break and some drinks. The landscape changed to a barren place again. Next we went through Worland and Mr Tom Tom was now implying we will get to Cody around 3pm so I decided not to go via Thermopolis where thy have Dinosaur centre and head north which is a bit shorter route.

I don’t think I have ever seen such dramatic changes to landscape in one day. It was simply breathtaking and I say right here and now if there is one road trip you ever do is to drive across Wyoming.

For some reason Mr Tom Tom did not have the right time lines in his memory banks as we actually arrived in Cody at 2pm. This town was built by famous Buffalo Bill Cody. We checked in to the Cody Cowboy Village and then headed to Subway for lunch and in to downtown to the famous Irma Hotel to meet up with our Trolley Tour and the nice hosts.

It was a neat 1 hour tour and the drive along the canyon to the dam was unreal. Would highly recommend this tour to anyone who goes to Cody.

Our accommodation is in a log cabin and the kids were excited as we pulled up.

After the tour we did some souvenir shopping (Licence plates for me and cards for Luke)and the kids had some old time photos taken dressed in wild west garb which was a lot of fun.

We then went to dinner where I convinced Kerry to have a Wyoming steak after last night beauty but whilst she liked it I was disappointed, even the Buffalo Beer branded beer I had was ordinary. However as always the fries were great !

After dinner we went back to get changed as we were off the famous Cody Night Rodeo. It was only a short 5-10 minute walk from our room, but we packed some jackets as it was extremely windy. I was now in a super happy mood as I had found the battery charger and was now able to start using the SLR again.

The rodeo was unreal and the kids were just so excited. We had not told them about this in case it rained and we had to cancel. We sat in Buzzards Roost which is the section behind where they get on the horses and bulls etc. They did all different types of rodeo over 2 hours which went fast.

Afterwards I ventured to Walmart for the first time in search of the 88c Powerade for Luke and some odd and ends as well. It was our first Walmart visit this trip.

---

Comments

[anonymous]

i love these photos but hey Andrew i cant see you on the bucking Bull or horses lol, love you all xxxxxxx