July 9, 2012

July 9, 2012

This morning we drove to Cody, WY, eastern gateway to Yellowstone National Park.  The town is named after William Cody or more familiarly Buffalo Bill.  Our first stop is the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.  This attraction is a five-fer.  Five museums in one.  Our ticket is good for two days, so we decide upfront to take it slow and spread it out.  All day in a museum even for me can be too much.  We start with the Natural History section.  It has lots of stuffed wild animals and tidbits of info about the greater Yellowstone area.  Aimee enjoys it.  We then stroll thru the Western Art wing.  The museum has a wide variety of paintings and sculpture of famous artists.  One of the exhibits is Remington’s actual studio/den.  The third section is the Gun Museum.  It is massive, easily the largest private collection in the world.  I am not a gun fanatic but I enjoy the history of gun technology.  Unfortunately there was little of that.  It was mostly a listing of the guns on display.

After lunch, we went across the street to the Sierra Trading Post outlet.  It didn’t seem to be as big as the catalog nor were there many good sales.  Disappointed we next walked down the main drag.  Cody is definitely a western themed town.

Now that Aimee is rejuvenated we head back to the museum and go through the William Cody section.  Cody’s early life is hard to pin down.  Much is legend, exaggerated to support his rise to stardom as the head of Wild West show.  This Bill was paid to hunt buffalo to feed railroad crews and he later was a renowned military scout.  Buffalo Bill was already a popular character of western literature when Cody began portraying that fictional persona in a touring company.  He soon put together an outdoor Wild West circus show that became wildly successful playing in towns all across America and Europe.  The show even came through my hometown of Alton, Illinois.  Sadly though the constant traveling didn’t make for a good life.  He ended up divorced and penniless at his death.

Well before closing Aimee and I are both museumed out.  Disappointingly all the RV parks in town are full.  We leave town hoping to find an open spot (with electricity) at the state park ten miles to the west.  On the edge of town Aimee notices a small RV park not on our radar.  On a lark we stop and my lucky charm comes through again; we get a spot.  The owner hangs the full sign on the door as we leave.