Girl's Trip to Cody

A couple weeks ago Diana and I went on an overnight trip to Cody, Wyoming via Cooke City, Montana.  Our trip took us through Lamar Valley, my favorite area of Yellowstone.  I was driving and Irv accidentally took both my "good" cameras home so all I had was my iPhone to take pictures with.  There were herds of bison and even a huge grizzly bear along our route.  No pictures though and that's okay because sometimes it's good to just take a mental snapshot and enjoy the moment.

First stop was lunch in Cooke City at the Bear Tooth Café.  In this part of the country you always have to have a huckleberry soda.

As we were driving through town Diana pointed out all the snowblowers on the roofs.  I have never even thought about getting snow off roofs.  I'll never live anywhere that a rooftop snowblower is needed.

We stopped by the Range Rider Lodge in Silvergate which was supposedly a favorite hangout of Ernest Hemingway back in the day.  There is a Hemingway museum inside, but it wasn't open yet.

We continued our journey to Cody via the Chief Joseph Highway.  Lots of switchbacks and steep grades to get over the mountains.

There was an overlook at the top so we had to stop for some photos.

Our purpose in going to Cody was to visit the Buffalo Bill Museum  Out front they had an old time chuckwagon set up with a cowboy cooking pinto beans and biscuits over an open fire.

He was giving out free samples and let me tell you, those beans were delicious.  He gave us recipes so we can try it ourselves.  I'm a pretty good Dutch oven cooker so I'm looking forward to trying it.

Next it was time to enter the museum.

We decided we needed a photo of the two of us.

The next thing we know a group of bikers on their way back from Sturgis photo bombed our photo.  They were nice guys and we kept running into them other places in Cody.

The collection of artwork at the museum is amazing.  Here's a Bierstadt.

I loved Mark Everhard's Entertainer. 

Here's a close up of one of the ravens.  Makes me realize how much further I have to go as an artist.

Lots of information about Buffalo Bill.  I especially enjoyed this piece.

A piece by Maynard Dixon.

A painting of the Lower Falls in Yellowstone by Bierstadt.

My mother once did a painting of the Norgaard barn in South Dakota.  This piece reminded me of her painting.

In addition to all the artwork they have natural history exhibits.  I loved this skeleton of a large bird.

And this tiny skull.

Diana spreading her wings.

I thought this nest was really interesting with all the fur and bones and other treasures that hold it together.  Even tiny snakes.

We left in time to head downtown to the nightly gunfight that takes place outside the historic Irma Hotel.  It was supposed to be fun for the whole family.  We weren't there long though because the cast started off making comments about Bud Lite, Make America Great, Biden and Pelosi, etc.  What finally made Diana and I look at each and say "let's go" is when they started the rude comments about trans people and drag queens.  I guess that's what you expect in red neck Wyoming, but that doesn't mean I have to stay there and listen to it.

We went inside the Irma dining room and ordered a delicious dinner.  They have a prime rib buffet, but it looked like too much dinner to me so I went for a rainbow trout which was delicious.  The Irma is named after Buffalo Bill's youngest daughter and has the original bar from when the hotel was built in 1902.  I bet it was quite a fancy place back in the day.

Fun girl's trip!