I got the kids up, went to the office for help but no one was available so I decided to just drive to Wal-mart for a new stove, thinking it was a problem with the gas line. I left the kids with breakfast half-cooked (Wal-Mart was just 2 minutes down the road). At Wal-mart I looked at diagrams and realized my gas canister isn’t supposed to be upside down…but there is no other way to get it to work! I bought a one burner stove just in case and went back. I fiddled around with the arm and canister and finally got it to work by hanging the gas canister off the side of the table. Someone from the campground finally showed up to help and agreed that it was odd but he couldn’t think of any other way it could work and said it shouldn’t be a problem to use it that way. I don't like dealing with gas or other explosives anyway, so this situation was NOT making me happy! But I did finish breakfast, far later than I intended.
We finally were packed and ready to go around 10:40…not my plan. It was then back to Wal-mart to return the stove and look for a battery for our small digital camera (didn’t find it) and then to Old Trail Town.
This is built on the site of the original town of Cody. Some of the original buildings are there, and some were moved in from other places, such as a cabin that Butch Cassidy and his "Hole-In-The-Wall Gang" used to hide out in.
Some of the famous mountain men were reburied here too, the most notable being John Johnston (otherwise known as “Jeremiah Johnson” from the movie of the same name.
Johnson was originally buried in Los Angeles (which seems very strange given the nature of his life) but was reburied at Old Trail Town in the 1970's. Robert Redford, who played Johnson in the movie (which I love), was one of the pallbearers.
Curley's cabin is also at Old Trail Town. Curley was a Crow indian scout who worked for General Gibbon and later for General Custer. There are conflicting accounts, but he claimed to have witnessed the battle and Custer's death even though others claimed he had been sent away by Custer before the battle.
There are many intriguing Indian artifacts, historical items, and a stuffed/mounted two-headed calf ! It really is an interesting place, well worth the stop and the money, if you like the type of dusty, old historical sites that we love.
One more stop at Wal-mart to get a new memory card for my Nikon…it won’t let me delete anything so I discovered at Old Trail Town that all of the pictures I've downloaded to my laptop were still on the memory card and it was full! Really, another problem?
If you need to know where anything is in the Cody Wal-mart, I can probably tell you, I was only there about 8 times in 24 hours.
Then we went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. It’s a nice museum with many different components– we didn’t have all day so focused on the actual history center and then Rosie and I went through the art gallery while the boys went to the gun gallery. One of the Charlie Russell paintings that I wanted to see had been removed for research…I was not happy! They did have another of them:
This was one of Russell's early works. He was employed by a large rancher as a cowboy. The summer of 1885 there was a drought and sparse grass. This was followed by a harsh winter. In late 1885 and early 1886 there was a lot of snow and extremely cold temperatures, and the infamous Montana "chinooks", which blow warm air and melt snow so range cattle can get to the grass, didn't happen much or at all. As a result many ranchers lost 60 to 95% of their livestock. The rancher that Charlie Russell worked for wrote to him asking about the condition of his cattle. Instead of writing a letter in response, Russell did what he did best...he illustrated the situation far better than any words could have. This remains one of Russell's best-known works.
The museum had some nice Bierstadts and Thomas Morans (other western artists).
They had a Russell Chatham too...another modern western artist that we really like. He's a Livingston artist who paints beautiful landscapes. His paintings are on the covers of many Rick Bass books (our friend and a favorite writer).
"Battle of the Greasy Grass" (otherwise known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn)
We watched a rope-making demo and the boys got to participate….very, very cool.
Rosie wants to get the equipment and make rope, cinches (for horses), etc.
Of course there were other interesting Buffalo Bill artifacts, and also some of Sitting Bull's.
Buffalo Bill's Robe
He is seen wearing this in many photographs
Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull
They also had a chuckwagon where we sampled bread, coffee and beans.
We first went to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.
We had seen smaller Belemnites in the Pryors
Cool Dinosaur Fossil
Fossilized Feather
Fossilized Crab
We finally found what looked to be a public bath house (why are there hotels and private pools/spas in a state park?) and the AAA book was wrong…they close at 5:00 every day and we arrived at 4:50 p.m. They only allow you to soak for 20 min. anyway, in the free public bath house hot pools. These are free due to a treaty with Chief Washakie, one of the few treaties that were actually kept…he wanted to make sure there was always a place for people to soak in the hot springs for free. We didn’t feel like paying $10 a person to go to one of the other places for a half hour so we decided to skip it and return to the mini-golf place we had seen. The kids spent a fun 45 min. playing that while I called campgrounds in towns south of there to figure out where we'd stay tonight.
The drive south from Thermopolis to Riverton, our destination, goes through Wind River Canyon. This river of course comes down out of the Wind Rivers...some gorgeus, high, craggy mountains that I have not yet spent time in but Marc loves. We stopped at one spot and the kids attempted to climb a large boulder. Jack fell and got hurt...skinned his back. I was trying to make them get down at a certain spot to avoid a large spiderweb that I was convinced was a black widow's. I didn't notice it until they were already ON the boulder. Thanks to our recent lessons in fossil-hunting, we knew the boulder was the "right" kind of rock and sure enough, we found some similar types of shell fossils. Interesting, as we were now much, much lower in elevation.
We reached Owl Creek Campground just after dusk. As we drove in, my car put itself into 4wd and the "service 4WD" light came in. Really? Another problem? I couldn't believe it. We went ahead and checked in (what other campground gives you candy for the kids at check-in?) and picked a spot. Apparently most summers she is very busy but this year there aren't as many people doing road work so she had a lot of empty sites. Jack was very upset. He had wanted to videotape us setting up the tent, and it was too dark!
We set up and then the kids went to the arcade room to play some video games. Then it was an early night. I was upset about possibly having to take the car in for service in the morning. Marc was still off in the Sierra Nevada's, unreachable. I don't like making car decisions on my own!
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