Day 33: The Wild Wild West

I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that Cody, WY, is named after Buffalo Bill Cody, but it is, and it’s awesome.

The original plan was to stay in Cody one night, then move along, but as we were pulling into town Thursday night, Earl saw what she has been looking for this entire trip: RODEO EVERY NIGHT.

So we extended our stay a night and snagged a pair of tickets to the Friday night rodeo.

That gave us Friday day to kill. The girl behind the hotel counter (and everything else I read about Cody) suggested the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, so the choice was easy.

I had no idea this place was part of the Smithsonian. It’s also five museums in one: Buffalo Bill Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, Cody Firearms Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, and Plains Indian Museum.

That’s a lot of museumming under one roof!

Cody Firearms Museum was first up as we went in. Earl has a strong aversion to anything firearm-related, so she worked on an art project in Whitney while I made a quick pass through.

Oh, the guns.

I’m almost positive that they have one of every Winchester ever made.

They have a slew from other manufacturers as well.

They even had one of Audie Murphy’s Colts.

One of the coolest things to me, though, was the cabin in the museum where they had some of Teddy Roosevelt’s guns, his old carved grandfather clock, and his saddle.

And there was a grizzly bear outside the cabin!

The Western Art museum was next. It ran the gamut from traditional Western art to more pop-folk art.

Going in order, the Plains Indians Museum was next, but Earl has a thing about dark places and mannequins and loud, unpredictable sounds. Two minutes in, some animal bellowed from an unseen corner, Earl rammed her fingers in her ears, and she announced her desire to leave right then.

There’s no need to scare her, no matter how much I’d have liked to have explored, so we headed out to the garden with its partly cloudy skies and amazing sculptures.

I even found Sacajawea!!

I’ve seen that statue on video while working on The Spirit of Sacajawea (buy it! support it! it’s excellent!), but never in person. I can’t describe the feeling I had walking into that garden and seeing her standing there, completely unexpected. It was a bit overwhelming, I’ll admit. I spent a lot of time with that lady during that project, have seen heaps of reminders of her throughout the northwest, but this was the first time I’d seen a statue.

I had a moment.

Then it was back inside to the Buffalo Bill Museum where the “man himself” greets you in a whisp of smoke.

It makes for an otherworldly effect when someone walks through it.

From there, we took a journey through time and Bill Cody’s life; the formation of a man from scout to hero to entertainment sensation. There were plenty of relics and mementos to go along, of course.

And of course, Earl made friends playing a well-protected version of a Buffalo Bill board game.

The most impressive museum in the place, though, was the Draper Natural History Museum. Earl and I went through it backwards, starting downstairs as we came out of McCracken Research Library under the Buffalo Bill Museum.

We were greeted by a roadblock mullet.

Bison on one side and a skeleton on the other. See? Mullet.

Ha ha ha.

The Draper talked about everything from archaeology and the fossils to the animals that live in each altitude of the area to how wildfires replenish as much as, if not more than, they destroy. It was three levels of all kinds of great information, fantastic taxidermy, and a most impressive taxidermy/carving/sculpture hybrid.

Declaring the Buffalo Bill Center of the West a resounding success, we went across the street for a quick round of putt-putt.

By the time she beat me, it was time for dinner and the day’s main event: The Rodeo!!

Earl got to ride a bull!

It was everything you expect from a rodeo. From the clowns to the bareback bronc riders.

To the barrel racers and the calf ropers.

Midway through, they called all the kids down into the arena and turned a calf loose for them to chase. I have video of the whole shebang, including when the clown told them all that, as part of their warm-up before the calves were loosed, they had to lay down in the dirt and roll.

My child, she laid down, but my child, she is smart enough not to roll. She also didn’t stuff two handfuls of dirt in her pockets, something the clown said was a free souvenir from the rodeo.

I love my kid.

I love her enough that I bought her a lasso rope in the gift shop.

Yes, I am a sucker. Someone wanna teach her how to lasso now? Because I’m clueless.

We got to meet all the clowns afterwards. Earl got their autograph, despite all the wind’s attempt to blow the poster away. It was gusty, which is part of why this photo is so creepy. The rest is, well….

Clowns and redeye. Eek.