Day 66 Mile 920

Oh boy! What sights we saw today. The road leading East out of Yellowstone is every bit if not more spectacular than the park itself. We went through the Shoshone Canyon and along the Shoshone river. I walked for a good part of the morning and dipped my feet in the river. We rode on into Buffalo Bill Cody Country! The Buffalo Bill State Park lines the north end of the Buffalo Bill Reservoir and there are many campgrounds and trails off the road. We stopped at the Buffalo Bill 
Cody Dam and tried not to look down. This dam was the highest ever built when first constructed in 1905. Nine men lost their lives in the construction. The reservoir provides electricity, irrigation and drinking water, and recreational facilities. Speaking with the folks there in the gift shop we learned that Wyoming ran a $900 million dollar budget surplus for the year and thus were giving state maps away for free! ;-) Wyoming is in a boom right now with oil and natural gas refining, coal mining and steel. We drove on through the tunnel that led us into Cody. Cody must be the most patriotic Red White and Blue Cowboy town in the Country and we were here at precisely the right time! It’s the 3rd. of July and the whole town is preparing for Independence Day. We get into town and go over to the motel where we had reserved a room the night before because we knew it would be tough find one near the 4th. Then back down to main street where we explore the festival tent merchants. We plan on going river rafting tomorrow so mom stops in at a local sporting shop to buy some river clothes. We head over the the Buffalo Bill Museum and sign up for a tour of cody and get a pass to see the museum tomorrow. We have just enough time to get some dinner before the tour bus leaves so we walk down the street to the Geyser Grill and I get a great veggie pizza with artichoke hearts and spinach and mom has a a wonderful trout with mango salsa on mashed potatoes! We get back to the museum and hop on the shuttle that takes us downtown to where some street theater gunfights are going on and where our tour bus awaits. They drive us all around Cody showing us the historical sites and talking about the quality of living and the low cost of home ownership and taxes. The guide is dressed up as Annie Oakley and she tells great stories and jokes. We turn in at our hotel for the night and I call around to set up a river rafting trip for tomorrow.