Lisa & Nils On The Road: Buffalo Bill Cody

Saturday, 8/11

Great night on the Buffalo Bill Reservoir. Woke to thunder, lightning and a little rain. Our plan for the day was to drive north to Big Horn Canyon, and to kayak there before expected thunderstorms in the afternoon. Got there around 10am (HAD to stop at Walmart on the way of course). The canyon views were amazing and so varied….we stopped at a few lookouts along the way, Nils being very careful to stay away from precipices that he just referred to as "Death" which is just short for "A Muscle-Twitch Away From Death".

Overlooking Big Horn Canyon

We drove far north, to the boat ramp and put in our brave little kayaks, and then paddled like crazy and got almost nowhere due to the combination of high winds, VERY choppy water and then--to top it all off--rain. Sigh. It felt like being on the ocean. We made valiant efforts for an hour, took some pictures and paddled and paddled and paddled...

Battling the wind and waves for a decent picture

and then finally called it quits under dark grey and threatening clouds. We stopped at the high lookout point again on the way out and the wind this time was just plain COLD! As we descended back to the real world, it warmed up to the high 70s and was sunny. We saw a small group of wild horses along the way.

Wild horses, grazing at the side of the road

To reward ourselves for our great physical exertion, we stopped at El Topatio in Powell (I asked a few people when we first arrived, what's the best Mexican Restaurant in Cody and they all made a face and said that for the best Mexican food you have to drive to Powell (a sleepy little town) which is almost a 30 min drive from Cody. This even though Cody's downtown boasts at least 5 Mexican Restaurants. WOW was it delicious…..we had a little of everything and the nachos were almost as good as Nuevo Leon's in Chicago, which is saying a lot. We ate too much and thoroughly enjoyed it. Oh, in Lovell (an equally sleepy town) we saw a restaurant called the "Cauc-Asian". No kidding.

Because we were passing by it on our way "home", we had to stop at Walmart again. Where, I ask you, can you find Bear spray, fleece hats, balsamic glaze and stevia all under one roof? Oh, and a really ripe cantaloupe.

We got back to the RV well before sunset.

The view out of our front door

There was plenty of time to gather up some driftwood along the beach (it was like being on one of the Great Lakes, it was that huge)---Nils had it ablaze in no time. Some of you may have noticed that Nils has been letting his beard grow long. Well, we realized---after seeing hundreds of pictures of Buffalo Bill Cody all over his namesake city--that Nils just happened to have the makings of a Buffalo Bill beard and moustache. Fancy that! After he did a little tweaking, it was like being in the presence of B.B. Cody himself.