Monthly Archives: November 2025

Buffalo Bill Center Of The West

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A trip to Cody, Wyoming is incomplete without a stop at the Buffalo Bill Center Of The West. This museum is a Smithsonian affiliate and it deserves that credential as it is well done. Here you will find five museums and a research library under one roof. For the price of a single ticket, you have access to the Buffalo Bill Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, Plains Indian Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, Cody Firearms Museum and McCracken Research Library. 

It is large. It is comprehensive. It is impressive. 

I’m guessing you could do the whole thing in a day but we didn’t even try. We started in the Buffalo Bill Museum and then went to the Plains Indian and Natural History museums. I am not all that interested in firearms and my eyes were glossy by the time we talked about going through the art museum. Besides, we needed to hit the road for a long trip back to Casper on a windy day and it seemed ill advised to try it. 

There is a raptor exhibit where you’ll meet a Bald Eagle that was once injured and cannot live in the wild. You’ll also find some beautiful sculptures and Buffalo Bill’s childhood home which was originally located in LeClaire, Iowa but was moved a few times before landing here on permanent display. 

Yes, you can go inside. No, it’s not much to look at unless you have some imagination in which case you might find it kind of exciting. Buffalo Bill walked these floors as a child! 

This place is too much to cover in a single story so I’ll revisit it a few times. Meanwhile, I would like to point out some things. 

It is named for and celebrates Buffalo Bill Cody, a frontiersman and Army scout turned showman who pioneered live entertainment that was the predecessor to the modern day rodeo. His wild west show was performed across this great nation and for royalty across the pond. He shaped a narrative that romanticized the Wild West in ways that we still hold dear today. His actions led to the near decimation of the American Buffalo. 

Depending on who you are and where you stand, he’s either a decent guy or something short of the devil himself. I’m somewhere in between because he did eventually see the damage he had done and became an advocate for the bison, for equal pay and treatment for women, and for Native Americans. 

His legacy is strongly felt in Cody, the town he founded, which has kept his story alive. 

This museum doesn’t celebrate the man without acknowledging that many of the stories are myth or legend. Yes, they embrace the persona and the big picture story but they also remind you of his failings and inconsistencies. I guess what I’m saying is that you don’t have to like the man to appreciate his museum or the collection of other museums that tell stories of the Plains Indians or the natural history of the area. 

I suspect that I’ll be telling you stories from this museum off and on for a while because there are so many cool stories worth mentioning. 

Interesting side note: Buffalo Bill was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Late in life when he applied for the $10 monthly pension allowed to these honorees, he was denied the income. Soon after, the War Department ruled that Cody and several hundred other recipients dating back to the Revolutionary War did not meet the criteria for the Medal and their names were stripped from the list. That was in 1917. Buffalo Bill died not long after. 

If you’re thinking about going to Cody, be sure to allow a day for this place. Find info here and look for more stories soon.

My First Trip To Waffle House

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Waffle House has been an American institution since 1955. That’s when two friends decided to create a restaurant that focused on good food and friendly service available at any time of the day or night. That one restaurant down in Georgia has since grown into 1,900 locations in 25 US States. Somehow, despite the Waffle House being open 24-hours a day, seven days a week for literally my entire lifetime, I had never found the time to step foot inside one. 

That was remedied yesterday. 

We stopped by the Waffle House in Sharonville, Ohio and were delighted by the friendly banter among coworkers and customers. Our waitress was a sweet older lady who took good care of us and our breakfast came to the table almost before we had a chance to order it. We both got scrambled eggs and pecan waffles. 

For some reason, I didn’t think to ask how big the waffles are. 

Rookie mistake. 

Most restaurants bring you a small waffle that’s maybe the size of a compact disc. The double stack of waffles required a dinner platter and had plenty of pecans cooked right into the batter with a sprinkling of more pecans on top.

The eggs were buttery and light. Best of all, they didn’t taste like meat grease –  a  problem I find at many breakfast establishments that don’t think twice about contaminating eggs by cooking them on the griddle with sizzling bacon and sausage. 

It was delicious, fast and reasonably priced. Not to mention, every last bite was served with a side of hospitality and good humor. 

It is commonly known that Waffle House stays open even when times are tough such as during natural disasters. It has been reported that FEMA partially gauges how badly an area is hit by hurricane or tornado using the Waffle House Index. Essentially, if the local Waffle House is closed, the town is in dire straits and needs help ASAP. Code Green means it’s business as usual with a full menu served while Code Yellow indicates a limited menu and that the electricity may be off. Code Red means the place is closed and it’s time to call in the National Guard. 

People laugh at this but I think it’s brilliant. Also, if I had to weather a storm, there’s perhaps no place better to do it.

Want to know more about the Waffle House menu or their history? Find it all at their website. Want to taste those waffles for yourself? Stop on by and see for yourself what the fuss is about! 

Interesting And Full

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This was a good weekend.

We made it a long weekend and went to Cincinnati for art, for a walk in a cemetery that feels like art, for book shopping, and for a stage show by Sean of the South.

I’m headed home today with a trunkload of books and some much needed food for thought after a couple of days of exploration. Going places that are different, meeting new people, reading thoughts different than your own – these things are good for us. These things keep life interesting and full.

That stage show was exactly what I needed and meeting Sean afterward proved that one of my favorite writers is as down-to-earth as I had hoped.

This was a good weekend. I hope you enjoyed yours too.

Silent Sunday: Meeteetse

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Favorite Moment

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Some of my favorite travel memories are odd. For example, as we were headed out of Yellowstone we encountered this big boy at the side of the road. We had seen him on the way in, a memorable sight because you don’t often find bison traveling alone. There’s safety in numbers.

We pulled over at a safe-ish distance to snap a couple of photos and admire his beauty when he started to meander down the road. Toward us.

In case you’ve never seen one, they’re about the size of an Elantra.

And as he meandered and we sat there silently hoping he didn’t notice us, he slowly began moving toward the center of the road and then turned his head so that we could see the red of his eye. And we simultaneously, wordlessly, and with urgent certainty knew that we were in the absolute wrong place at the wrong time.

We are fortunate he did not ram the Jeep and send us both flying like rag dolls off the side of a mountain.

Our saving grace was that an older couple in a Buick interrupted the moment and he kept moving.

Holy cow. What a moment. I will be eternally grateful that this situation was resolved without incident. I told my friend later that my favorite trip memory was when the bison didn’t kill us. I said it as a joke but it’s true.

If you go, keep a safe distance from the wildlife and don’t try to pet the fluffy cows.

At least I got a story out of it.