Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to show up. It’s finally Friday and the workweek is about to wrap up for us 9 to 5’ers.
I’m usually not a fan of living for the weekends but, Geeze Louise, I’ll be glad for a little rest.
But first, we must push through today and see what all we can accomplish! Friends, go forth and conquer this day and enjoy whatever will make your heart happy!
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.
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.
Good morning, friends. I haven’t had the mental bandwidth since returning to write anything or even consider what stories about this trip might interest you. Today isn’t likely to be better as I have work, an evening appointment, and cannot seem to catch up on my rest.
So instead, I give you a pretty picture.
Happy whatever day this is, friends. I’ll get it together soon!
Today is my first day back after a being gone for a week of adventure out west. I flew to Casper, Wyoming and got in my friend’s Jeep so we could head up to the Cody/Yellowstone area.
Yes. In the middle of a government shutdown, I thought it was a good idea to fly AND go to a national park.
The security line in Columbus was long at 6:15 a.m. last Wednesday. TSA seemed to be running with a skeleton crew and then I slowed things down even more with the two metal pieces in my knee brace. My leg got scanned and patted down and my hands even got scanned for residue but they evidently decided I wasn’t a risk and let me go. Ha!
Johnna and I explored museums and thrift stores, went Jeeping in the back country, saw some wildlife, and had a wonderful time wandering around. I had an especially lovely gloomy afternoon in a wonderful bookstore.
I ate badly, didn’t get enough rest, and needed far stronger moisturizer than I had packed. Holy cow. My skin wasn’t prepared for the dry air and winds that are trademark of Wyoming. The 60 mph wind we drove through Sunday is what locals call “a breeze.”
Travel scares a lot of people but I find it exhilarating and fascinating. The more time you spend in places where you encounter people who look, sound, and think differently than you, the more clear it becomes that the world isn’t so scary at all. Leaving your comfort zone and exploring this big world of ours is one of the most amazing things you can do for yourself and for your understanding of your place in the world.
I learned a lot this trip and have much to think about in the near future and I’m grateful for this opportunity. Stay tuned. I have lots to share and a few stories that may take me a while to mentally unpack. We’ll get there.
Meanwhile, if you need me, I’ll be here with my industrial strength moisturizer, trying to coax my skin back to life.