Cody, Wyoming

Cody is what I always visualized a Wyoming cowboy town to be.  As you can see, they say this the Rodeo Capital of the world.  You can stop at the DQ and get a Blizzard AND rodeo tickets (seriously, it said that on their sign).  If I wasn’t staying so far away I would have loved to stay and watch the rodeo at 8PM.  I’ve never been to one and it seems like this would be the perfect place.  May need to come back and do that someday.

Before I got to Cody I passed a truck sitting by the road.  And in case you didn’t know, Yellowstone is almost entirely in Wyoming, so once again I spent most of the day driving down there.  Well this truck was at one of the many watercraft inspection stations I’ve seen this trip as I pop in and out of the state.  State law mandates that all watercraft entering the state MUST stop at these inspection stations run by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission.  So here was this truck, sitting by the road in the frickin desert, waiting for boats or jet-skis to mosey on by.  I though, “how lonely of a task is that, especially when it’s a gazillion degrees?”.  So I turned around to go back and ask how their day was going….

Turns out it was a nice young lady who said she was substituting for someone else.  She had inspected a total of two, count ’em, two watercraft today, and wasn’t really expecting any more.  I told her I hoped she was well paid and she said she was.  She said she is going for her Masters degree so spends the time studying (while keeping an eye on traffic).  It was good to hear she was using her time wisely and not just reading some steamy romance novel.

This all happened just south of The Middle of Frickin Nowhere, Wyoming.  Actually, it was near Clark, WY (pop. 300).  She was out there with just the truck, a small shelter for shade, and a port-a-potty, bless her heart.

As I left the desert town of Cody to head back towards Yellowstone I felt like I went through some kind of time/space warp.  There was a tunnel (3 quick ones, actually) through a big mountain and when I came out the other side here was this gigantic lake.  It is the Buffalo Bill Reservoir and it is huge.  I sure didn’t see that comin’.