Cody, Wyoming

23rd July 2012 - Cody, Wyoming

Cody - named after William F. Cody aka Buffalo Bill Cody. Elevation: 5,016ft. Built in 1895. Weather: hot, hot, hot. These tee pees graced the entrance of one of the RV Parks.

The Royal Palace Restaurant - a quaint little place with lots of memorabilia. We went there for breakfast, service rather slow and no, they do not do omelettes for breakfast (figure that out). Ordered extra crispy bacon but they were still doing the hula hula on my plate.

Inside of the Royal Palace Restaurant - guess they are a fan of  Clint - he would have known not to order an omelette w/extra crispy bacon..

There were some really lovely Coke advertising posters from years gone by on the wall.

Old Trail Town Cody...these buildings were relocated from other parts of the USA to Cody. They included a shack used by Butch Cassidy. There is an admission charge.

We saw this cute truck outside a motel - precursor to the modern RV perhaps?

It is worth a visit to the Buffalo Bill Historical Centre-admission is $16 and you can return for a second visit if you are not able to take in all the exhibits on your first day.
The gun exhibit is very impressive but my favourite was the Art Gallery where there are some fabulous paintings. The one above depicts Buffalo Bill rescuing early settlers from rampaging Native Indians. To be fair, it was Native land and the Indians were trying to protect it.

No sir - this is not a poster, its an actual painting.

A sculpture of Crazy Horse- one of iconic Native American Chiefs. I believe the Lakota tribe is also known as the Sioux. More info on Crazy Horse below.

Crazy Horse (Lakota: Tȟašúŋke Witkó in Standard Lakota Orthography^[2]), literally "His-Horse-Is-Crazy" or "His-Horse-Is-Spirited";^[3] ca. 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S. Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party to victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876.

Tom outside the BBHC. Bill Cody was born in 1846 in Scott County,Iowa. He was a pioneer and a entrepreneuner. 

Beginning in the 1870's, Cody embarked on a career as producer and star in Western melodramas. By 1873, he had planted the seeds of the Wild West Show that made him famous. Buffalo Bill was a showman extraordinaire. His show went to Europe and all over the USA. Bill Cody made the cowboy famous. Cody's show featured Annie Oakley and Miss Lillian Smith (sharpshooters); Johnny Baker, the Cowboy Kid; Jim Kid, champion roper; a herd of wild buffalo, Indian ponies, mountain elk, Texas steers, Mexican burros, mountain lions, coyotes, deer, antelope, mountain sheep, etc. Stars also included Mexican vaqueros, Russian Cossacks, and Native Americans (including Sitting Bull).

The Irma Hotel -built in 1902 by B.Bill and named after his youngest daughter Irma. Cody married Louise Frederici in 1866 and had 4 children-2 boys and 2 girls. Sadly for him his second son died of scarlett fever at the age of  6 and third daughter wsas 11 when she too sucummbed.

Robie and Sharon outside the Irma Hotel where a wildwest shootout show is on 6 days a week.

Proceeds from this show goes to charity and the chairs are $2 each - there's a lot of shooting, so beware if you are noise sensitive and have young children.

The cast of the Wild West Shoot Out show.

The Dan Miller Show - what a treat. We opted for a dinner and show package available from the Irma Hotel, great value. The buffet dinner is an all you can eat prime rib with salads, hot vegies, desserts. Tom and Robie were in bovine heaven...won't tell you how many steaks the boys had.

Inside the Irma with the lovely cherrywood bar in the background - a wonderfully nostalgic venue.

The Dan Miller show - an hour and a half of great entertainment-the young lass playing the electric mandolin is Hannah, Dan's 14 y.o. daughter.

Lovely sculpture found outside a bank - depicts 2 male elks tussling in a challenge for superiority in the herd.

The Cody Cattle Company also puts on a dinner and show, another great and reasonably priced entertainment. If you are looking for haute cuisine, then this is not the place for you - it is cowboy food....beef and pork, beans, coleslaw, cornbread.

The Trip C Cowboys provided the music the night we were there - they are family friendly and get the kids involved.

A photo op with the band after the show. We enjoyed their music so much we decided to follow them to their next venue.

The guys' next gig was at Cassie's steakhouse so like groupies albeit, geriatric ones we hotfooted down the road.

Wow...don't think we've ever done a pub crawl, if you can call 2 venues a "crawl". Tom and Robie having fun at 8 ball(?) whilst waiting for the band to arrive.

Ryan and Russ tuning up at Cassies. Ryan said they would love to do a gig at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in New South Wales, Australia.

Betty and Russ - check this out for a bit of "omg". When Tom and I were dating in Singapore back in the 70's, we used to go to a restaurant called the 4 Seasons where a Singapore band called Matthew and the Mandarins used to play western music. It was a hotspot for the Americans who used to work the oil rigs off Indonesia when they were on shore leave. Well, Russ said he played with Matthew in the 80's when Matthew got his own venue...how's that for a small world!

Sharon with Russ....no wonder Cher said he dig old guys! He was charming.