Day 5, Cody.

The primary purpose of this trip was to see the scenery, but I had hoped to see something of the old western architecture. We walked down the main street and were again disappointed. We went into the Buffalo Bill Museum, but they wanted $13 for entry. We really are not into Indians, horses and western stuff, so we passed.

Jan read that there is a Rodeo, but we could not get tickets until after 3:00pm. We were told that a bus would pick us up at the hotel and take us to the rodeo.

We had hoped to take a trolley ride, which is a conducted tour, but being Sunday only two departures were planned and the timing did not suit us. A new service is a local bus which runs around town. You can get on and off for 50 cents all day, so we took that. We were the only people on board and soon struck up a conversation with the driver. We asked about transport to the Rodeo, and to our surprise he said “I drive it. I pick up at the Comfort Inn at five to eight.”

He asked what other plans we had.  I replied “The two loops of Yellowstone.” “You can’t do all that in one day.” “I know. Jan and I plan to do the upper first, and the lower the next day.” “You should leave Cody via Cooke City and go in through the North East Gate. I will get you a map.” So he stopped the bus, went to a motel, came back with a map, and explained the route. We were most grateful. However back at the hotel they tell us that it is a three hour difficult drive, and we should plan to enter at the East Gate. The hotel had placed a cuddly buffalo on the bed, for sale in the gift shop. “That’s not fair to parents coming into the room with young children. It makes it hard to say no, you can’t have one.”