Cody, Wyoming has no Canadian connection, but it does have character. Eating at the Irma Hotel (named after Buffalo Bill's youngest daughter) was perhaps not the culinary delight we could have hoped for after a hard ride (361 miles or 581 kms). But both the venue and its staff had character. From the mounted buffalo and moose heads hanging over our table to the fiery waitress (only too ready to show her redneck Republican bent by saying "I didn't know there were so many stupid Americans" to the Russian bussers and kitchen staff (the new Mexicans who come each summer to learn English and work extremely hard and appreciatively so they can pay for a full year of their university back home) to the hostess who when I offered to shake her hand started a two step with me. It was, as has been our experience everywhere, unique and memorable.
Add to that the fact that we are staying in cabins built to house Mormon workers brought here by Buffalo William Cody himself to build the town in the late 1800s (updated to serve quite nicely). All this adds to an extraordinary (I am running out of superlatives on this trip) day of seeing great numbers of antelope and deer (some of whom were apparently hitchhiking too close to the traffic and paid the ultimate price), as well as moose and eagles.
We started the day by heading out on near deserted secondary roads towards the clear blue sky horizon where we were told we would find the Devil's Tower (a massive tusk of rock with the pointy end snapped off). It was mesmerizing as it loomed above the landscape. From there we drove across the eastern Wyoming plains until we reached the Bighorn Mountains, the steep side of which were scaled and, despite the snow, crossed (but not before stopping for lunch at Moose Crossing). The view was awe-inspiring (photos do not do these sights justice) as we headed down the sheer sides of the western escarpments by way of switchbacks and cliff-hugging narrow roads we shared with trucks and trailers. Dropping into the desert-like Bighorn Basin we wondered how the farmers survived.
The day warmed to a high of 92 F or 33 C and then cooled quickly to 15 C or 60 F at the top of the Bighorns, but overall the weather was the best we have had for sometime. Looking forward to the continuation of this as we further our mountain adventures.
