Cody

We spent the day in Cody today. This was a town that appealed to us on our last tour in 2010 and we decided that next time we would spend a full day here.

A highlight of the day for me was the visit to the Buffalo Bill Centre of The West  – which is a large sprawling complex with 5 museums that focus on Plains Indian culture, Natural History, Western Art, the life of Buffalo Bill and last (but not least) the most comprehensive firearms museum anywhere. The Cody Firearms museum has over 1500 firearms from every era. I have had a life-long fascination with the history of the Wild West and I found the centre excellent. 

The highlight of the day for Tracee of course was shopping in the main street (and she excelled admirably at this). Without going into detail  it was a good day for her.

The Irma Hotel (apparently Buffalo Bill used to hang out there) not only has a great restaurant, but also puts on a ‘Wild West’ show each evening at 6pm which culminates in a gunfight – very ‘tongue in cheek’ and quite a laugh.

We met a character called ‘Ron’ an employee at the local Walgreens store who had been to New Zealand and was appalled at our strict gun control policy. Ron is a national instructor with the NRA (National Rifle Association,) carries a knife on his hip (he handed it to me to inspect) and proudly told us that he also had a concealed gun. He said that Wyoming had an ‘open’ attitude to firearms and you could carry them in public if you wanted to. When I told him that our police do not even carry guns in public he shook his head in disbelief.

We also visited the ‘Dug Out Gun Museum’ which specialized in relics from the west and civil and Indian wars that had been dug up off farms and old battlefields. The owner was very interesting and had a lot of knowledge about the era. You could also purchase some of the antique firearms, some of which are in working condition. The museum is free entry (but donations welcome). You may think I am a bit of a gun nut reading this – but only in the historical context of the Wild West!

We finished the day looking in a shop at some excellent professional photography of Yellowstone wildlife and purchased a few copies to take home.