The Rodeo Rocks!

Today was a very light travel day (yippee!). I think everyone was pretty wiped out after the drive across Wyoming yesterday.

We grabbed some breakfast at the hotel in Cody and made our way to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center late morning. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center essentially has 5 museums under one roof – one dedicated to Buffalo Bill, one to Indians, a western art gallery, a massive firearms collection, and a natural history museum. You could literally spend days there and not see everything. We took a swing through all of the museums and saved the natural history museum for last. The kids (and adults) really loved the natural history museum. It had lots of great exhibits about the different ecosystems, animals and plants found in the Yellowstone area. We made a quick stop in the gift shop and headed to lunch in downtown Cody early afternoon.

After lunch at Maxwell’s on main street in Cody, we headed back to the hotel so the kids could enjoy some pool time at the indoor pool. I hung with the kids at the pool while Steph tackled a week’s worth of dirty laundry. Laundry for this crew is no easy task, especially when you’re feeding quarters in a way too small machine that can’t seem to get anything dry in a decent amount of time. After the pool, I made a quick run to Wal-Mart to restock drinks and other items.

Around 7:30, we headed out to the Cody Nite Rodeo. The rodeo was a blast. Lots of barrel racing, bull riding, and calf roping. We saw some young girls doing barrel racing – I bet the youngest wasn’t much older than 5. It was really amazing to watch. Bull riding was the last event (they saved the best for last…). Only 2 of the 10 or so riders managed to stay on a bull the required 8 seconds. Several of the bulls were really ornery – a couple of the riders and clowns came close to getting smashed into the fence. Luckily, everyone was fine – but it was great to watch.

We’re back at the hotel now, winding down and getting ready to head into Yellowstone tomorrow. We’re working through our nightly rituals, one of which is making sure all of our portable electronics are charged and ready for another day of action. We’ve got more cords, adapters and charges than I’ve been able to count. We’re probably carrying around more electronics than it took to get the astronauts to the moon. We’ve got 2 laptops, 2 Nintendo DS’s, 3 digital cameras, a camcorder, 4 ipods, and a GPS. I’m sure there’s something else I’ve forgotten. I guess I’ll remember the next time the battery goes dead…

Today’s pics can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/MarionGrayCPA/YellowstoneDay8

Tomorrow night we’ll be staying at Lake Hotel in Yellowstone. We’ll keep the posts coming so long as we can get a little internet.