Great Falls to Billings to Cody, WY

I packed up and left the Great Falls Moose Lodge Sunday morning. I stopped to fuel up and bought 8.77 gallons at $4.56 per gallon for $40.00. I averaged 13.1 MPG. Not bad!!

I travelled south on the very scenic HWY 89, one of my motorcycle ride roads during the HOG Rally. I cruised past Neibert, the farthest point on my Saturday motorcycle ride. I continued south to the intersection on HWY 89 and HWY 12. I turned left/east on HWY 12. It was a really nice road for a few miles, then became very narrow, with NO shoulder. I began to wonder if I was on the right road. There was no where to pull over to check the map, so I just continued on, and on, and on, and on. I finally found room to pull over in the town of Harlowton, had some lunch and checked the map. Yep, I was on the right road. I had another 50 miles til the town of Lavina and a turn south on HWY 3. HWY 3 took me into Billings. It was really hot in Billings. I did a little shopping at Petsmart, then found a little shade on a side street where I parked until after 7 PM, when the local Harley shop was closed, then I found a nice spot in the Harley shop parking lot where I spent the night. Monday morning I fueled up in Laurel, just west of Billings. I was pleasantly surprised to find diesel for only $4.45/per gallon. I got 21.65 gallons for $96.60. I averaged 14.5 on that tank. YIPPEEEE!!!

After fuelling up in Laurel I headed south on HWY 212 and drove the 104 miles to Cody, WY. I arrived there fairly early, and headed to the very RV friendly Wal-Mart and found a good spot.

Tuesday morning I headed to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. I found a nice, cool, shady parking spot on a side road, where I was hopeful the doggies would be comfortable while I was out and about all day.



I went into the Historical Center and purchased a combination two day pass to the Center and a ride on the Cody Trolley Tour. I checked out the Buffalo Bill Museum and the gift shop, then headed to the bus stop for the Trolley Ride.




One of the first RVs on display





That's a lot of guns!!!



This was one of my favorite sculptures in the Whitney Gallery of Western Art. The cowboy is giving his horse a drink from his hat. The horse couldn't quite make it down to the water hole. AWWWWWWW!!!!



I learned everything I ever wanted to know about Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley and the town of Cody. After the Trolley tour I checked on the doggies, then headed out on foot to tour the town.



This is the Irma Hotel, built in 1902 at a cost of $80,000, and named after Buffalo Bill's youngest daughter. The $100,000 cherry wood bar in the dining room was a gift from Queen Victoria in appreciation for a command performance of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show when the show visited England in 1887.



This is one of many bears scattered around the town of Cody. This one is in front of the Visitors Center.

On both Monday and Tuesday afternoons Cody was blessed with wild afternoon rain, thunder and lightening storms. One clap of thunder was so loud it shook the trailer and caused me to let out a loud yelp. I don't know which scared Murphy more, the thunder or my yelp. I worried about the horses 1/4 mile away at the nightly rodeo. The weather calmed down and I had a nice nights sleep.




This was the view as I exited the Historical Center late Tuesday afternoon. I could see we were in for a doozie of a storm!!