We are in Cody, Wy!

You know, when you live in the White Mountains, you really think that you live in the mountains, which is an accurate reflection, until you head out west. Let me start at the beginning of our day, so I can paint the whole picture.

We started the day again in Rapid City, SD, and took part in the daily $1.00/person pancake breakfast, and then hit the road. Bill had the trip all mapped out, and we were off for Devil's Tower. Now of course, on the way to Devil's Tower, I had heard about this fabulous little community of Deadwood - home of 80 casino's, with a maximum bet of $5.00 (until last year, when they increased it to $100), so I suggested a slight detour through Deadwood - only about 20 miles out of our way. In order to facilitate this change to our highly planned route, I was charged with adding the stop to our "route" on the gps system. When I did that, Bill must have hit a bump, so I added two stops to the trip - one on route and through Deadwood, and the other at the end of a couple of dead-end roads. So, we traveled to Deadwood, saw the great Main Street, and then proceeded to follow the GPS directions - to this dead-end road. Bill realized that we were headed in the wrong direction just moments too late, which necessitated a 7 point turn, to turn the RV around on this very narrow, children filled road. I must say, Mr. Perry was not pleased with my gps skills, and as such has banned me from using the gps system without assistance.

We eventually left Deadwood, and continued onto Devils Tower - another amazing natural beauty in these fine mountains. It is a great park, with awesome views, and lots of people. It was well worth the visit. We also got to see prairie dogs, in a prairie dog town. They are tiny, and very cute - I was expecting "dog" size, not "mouse" size when I was promised a sighting of prairie dogs.

From Devil's Tower, and after a gourmet meal that Jenny and I put together while Bill was driving (ham and cheese sandwiches), we were off, and decided that we would push it, to make to to Cody today. Well, to get from Devil's Tower to Cody, one must travel through the Big Horn Mountain Range - all 10,000 feet of it. The entire mountain pass was about 50 miles, with at least 30 uphill - at points, I thought we would have to push the RV up the hills - no point for speed limits here, since it is not possible to really accelerate through this area! The scenery was breathtaking, and we were able to capture some amazing pictures. There is this unbelievable lake in the middle of it - with this beautiful lodge - I would highly recommend a visit to this place if you are looking for some true solitude! Meadowlark Lake - check it out.


Well we drove, and we drove and we drove, until we finally reached the lovely community of Cody, Wy - a town founded and established by Buffalo Bill - in fact, we had dinner at Irma's - a restaurant, saloon and inn built by Buffalo Bill in the early 1900's - they offer a nightly all you can eat prime rib buffet each night - can you say - Chatham Bill was in heaven!

And here we sit, at the Cody KOA - Jen and I just returned from the heated pool, where she swam for about an hour, and we are all getting settled into bed. We will make the final leg of our outgoing journey, and head into Yellowstone in the morning. Everyone is excitedeand looking forward to reaching the park. Now we are "dry camping" in Yellowstone, so I think this will be the last blog entry for a couple of days - I don't think that Yogi and his friends require too much internet access in Yellowstone. We will be staying in the park on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and leaving on Saturday - I think at that point, we will be heading south, toward Jackson Hole, and are considering a new route home - perhaps Route 80.

The RV continues to behave itself, as do the kids. Jenny and I played a bunch of games today, and she beat me about a hundred times at connect 4 - they didn't have connect 4 when I was a kid, so I am definitely at a disadvantage. I did manage to beat her once at cribbage, and then she did the same to me - I knew that I shouldn't have taught her all my tricks! Chris spent a good part of the day as co-pilot, and gps manager. He also took tons and tons of pictures - of course, when we saw that he was photographing the mirrors, we had to discuss proper use of lighting and scenery to him - he's getting better, but we do have a handful of pictures of his feet.


I can't add pictures today, since they have been loaded to the other laptop computer - which doesn't have interest access tonight - so when we leave the park on Saturday, we should have lots and lots of great things to update you all on.

Take care!
Thanks for reading!

Sue