July 5th: Lovell, Bighorn, Cody (Day 13)

We got out of Lovell pretty quick this morning and decided to try to see the wild mustangs that were supposed to be wandering around the state park. Lovell is home to one of the first wild mustang refuges in the country and when I asked the hotel owner if there were going to be any city July 4th celebrations he said that Lovell didn’t really do July the 4th because they celebrate “mustang days” the weekend before and set of all the fireworks then. The mustangs are a really big deal here. We never saw any mustangs, but we did get to see some great views of Bighorn state park and the canyon. The oddest thing we saw today was some kind of outhouse floating on a platform in the river way down at the bottom of the canyon, out in the middle of nowhere. We left Bighorn and headed to Cody, WY. The upward/downward trip through the mountains and canyons were really rough on the breaks and we had to stop several times just to cool them down enough to drive on. We decided to see if we could get someone in Cody to take a look at them just in case. On our way to try to find a place that was open on the weekend, we found a thrift store and decided to stop to see if we could find any cold weather gear. We found a couple of things and when we asked to see the phone book a nice gentleman overheard us and offered some advice on where to find an honest mechanic. When he realized we didn’t know the town, he wasn’t sure how to give us directions – so he offered to escort us there. We lucked out and not only got the brakes checked for free, but also got some advice on how to keep the brakes from smelling and overheating when driving through the mountains. After that, we did a little shopping and found a hotel right downtown. It was a great room with the laundry room right next door. We left the dogs to watch Nascar and went out to find a late lunch. We had lunch at Maxwell’s, which was the first really good gourmet meal we’d had since Deadwood. After walking the dogs and a quick nap, we went out to catch the 6:00pm “gun fight” that was supposed to be in the street near one of the famous salons and visit the Wild Bill Cody Museum before it closed. First, we stopped back by an antique store that we had visited earlier and picked up a pair of really cool cowboy boots for Kevin (used, black, Nocona “roach-stompers” in great condition for 50 bucks!) . We didn’t get one of the Jackalopes that Kevin wanted, but we figured they might be cheaper somewhere else, or that we could catch one ourselves. We waited for the gunshow, but it never happened so we headed to the museum. They were kind enough to let us in free since we only had about an hour and half before they closed. We didn’t get to see everything, but the stuff that we did see was pretty cool. Afterwards we picked up a pizza and headed back to the hotel room. Squeak finally seemed to get the going to the bathroom while on the leash and got to sleep in the room instead of locked in the bathroom – so we all had a really good night’s sleep! Thank goodness!

Pictures for Day 13