The wild west of Cody! Alternatively, the wild west of...Walmart?!

Pulling into Cody, the town founded, among others, by the famous Buffalo Bill Cody, we stopped at the visitor's center, per usual. Hoping to camp out by the lake at the state park, S went in asking for info and directions and such. Thinking we were on our way to a beautiful campsite yet again, come to find out we were apparently heading to the Walmart parking lot down the street......Turns out the winds in this area of the world are fairly fierce, especially down by the water.  Soooo, the kind man at the visitor center recommended we stay in a more secure location, the local Walmart!

Now, we already knew RVs can spend nights and days free of charge at most Walmarts (and Sam's clubs), depending on city ordinances, but we had yet to actually do it.

We pulled into the parking lot, settled into a nice spot on the far end right by the grass, along with many other RVs and their inhabitants. We were not the only ones there, by far.

Well, given all the things we ended up doing in Cody, combined with our nice 'campsite' and it's lovely neighbors, we ended up staying there 5 nights!  5 nights in a Walmart parking lot! How funny!  To us anyway :-)

Our new neighbors were, yet again, a lovely retired couple that we visited with frequently.  S helped them work out some major computer problems and they gave us advise on other free places to stay and most importantly, on how they heat their RV without using the heating system!  I.e. a large propane heater.  This has changed our life, but more on that later.

Our stay in Cody involved ice skating, almost daily -





Library visiting (I was still frozen from the ice rink, hence the heavy jacket! That rink has got to be the ccoollddeesstt rink I've ever been in!)



Workin' on her blog,



RV lego building - actually, that's pretty much a constant around here, not Cody related necessarily.  I've been asked to note that the RV includes a bathroom, couch, beds and slideouts!



This RV has two slideouts too, as you can observe :-)



This next event is definitely Cody specific, though I'm sure other wild west towns have something similar:  The Buffalo Bill street gun fight show! This one included Buffalo Bill (of course), Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, WIld Bill Hickok, the obligatory drunk jail keeper, and some well known outlaws, apparently.

The show began with the National Anthem, recognition and appreciation of all active and retired military personnel, a mention of the charities they raise money for by selling posters of the show, and of course, thanking their long list of sponsors. On a side note here, a nice couple in the audience had 'Buffalo Bill' give the kids a poster that they had paid for.  Wasn't that sweet?


In anticipation of gun shots by the outlaws, Inventor has prepared his ears.....



Those shots were REALLY loud....


The show included plenty of funny action scenes -



But the funniest part of the show was watching a tourist, who obviously didn't understand the whole gun fight show phenomenon, peer into the horse trough at the 'dead' man laying in it!  I wish I had gotten a shot of her actually peering in there, but the puzzled look on her face was priceless!



After the show the kids were excited to have their picture taken with the cast -



Jokin' 'round with the outlaws -



The girls, Calamity Jane and Analyzer -



The gun was a rubber one, not one of the real ones, not to worry!



My thought was maybe to leave them all in jail..... ;-)



The whole skit was very cute and entertaining with great adult humor that, mostly, went right over kid's heads.  Though the whisky joke apparently was well comprehended..... :-).  The guns were real but the bullets were blanks.  We soon learned though that even blanks can destroy a coke can if shot from close range......so watch out!

I have to tell you, I didn't expect much from the show, but it was really fun! I love being pleasantly surprised like that.

After the show we walked around the Irma hotel (Where the gun fight took place).  This is the original hotel built by Buffalo Bill and named for his daughter and where many famous characters stayed, including Annie Oakley!



Once home from the show all were excited to 'work' in their own way:  Analyzer sat down to report the evening's events on her blog.  Inventor kept repeating, about 14,000 times, "That gun fight was sooo cool!" and "I loved that gun fight!".  Followed by "Who invented the first gun? I know it wasn't Benjamin Franklin!"  Since I had no answer, I guess we're about to embark on a history lesson on guns.  Whirlwind came up with a little project of his own.  He set off to write CODY on his self made name tag that he then hung on his bed.  It's become his password so he says.

Tomorrow, The Buffalo Bill Historical Center!