{"id":1773,"date":"2017-07-07T19:07:22","date_gmt":"2017-07-08T02:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/?p=1773"},"modified":"2017-07-07T19:07:22","modified_gmt":"2017-07-08T02:07:22","slug":"buffalo-wy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/2017\/07\/07\/buffalo-wy\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Wy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We left Cody on Tuesday morning heading for a KOA in Buffalo Wy.\u00a0\u00a0 Not a particularly long drive, but we did need to go over the Big Horn mountain range so we knew it might be a scenic one.\u00a0 (steep)\u00a0 It didn’t let us down. \u00a0 Just past the town of Ten Sleep, we started to climb. \u00a0 Once we reached the really steep part, we were a few cars behind a cattle truck going 15 miles an hour.\u00a0 After we slowly passed a few turnouts, I knew we were in for a long day. \u00a0 This joker wasn’t going to pull over. \u00a0 About 20 minutes of driving that slow and I was ready to pull my hair out. \u00a0[I can’t tell you how much it bothers Bill when people drive too slow in front of him, even in the beautiful, scenic parks. \u00a0Something new I discovered about him.]<\/p>\n

I saw a large turnout coming up and we pulled over to grab a bite as it was just after noon anyway.\u00a0 We were there probably 15 minutes,\u00a0 including the dog walk. \u00a0 Then we got back on the road up. \u00a0 Not 10 minutes later we ran into the back of a much longer line of cars and trucks with that dang cattle truck way up front.\u00a0 Oh, The Horror!<\/p>\n

He was still not pulling over. \u00a0 We sat behind that line for at least another hour [Really probably 20 minutes] and at times we were at 5 mph.\u00a0 Never exceeded 15.\u00a0 Finally, as we were about to find the summit, he pulled over. \u00a0 And all the vehicles went around him until a trailer that was two spots in front of us. \u00a0 He was going to let that guy back in…. I leaned on the air horn… for at least 45 seconds before he pulled out and we got past.\u00a0 I was not going to stay behind that truck any longer.\u00a0 Can’t imagine what he would be doing on the long, steep grades heading to the valley below and Buffalo, our destination for the day.<\/p>\n

There were four very long 7% downgrades with mandatory brake checks for trucks \u00a0and RVs.\u00a0 Had never seen that on a sign before.\u00a0 But the grades were amazingly long straights ending with sharp turns all the way down.<\/p>\n

We found the KOA, checked in and was led to our spot for the night.\u00a0\u00a0 We deployed the living space and unlatched the car so we could go into town.\u00a0\u00a0 It was HOT so off to the showers.<\/p>\n

Once back we headed into town.\u00a0 It was still pretty hot,\u00a0 mid-90’s. \u00a0I had read a bit about the town. \u00a0I guess its current claim to fame is Longmire Days.\u00a0 (I had missed that part)\u00a0 Turns out the guy who wrote the books the TV show is based on lived here and wrote about life in and around Buffalo Wy.\u00a0 As fate has it,\u00a0 the celebration begins on Friday. \u00a0We were leaving on Thursday.\u00a0 But I heard Starbuck wasn’t going to show, so I didn’t care.<\/p>\n

We stopped by a local museum and picked up a few walking tour maps.\u00a0\u00a0 Geez,\u00a0 they were so incorrect it was comical.\u00a0\u00a0 Many U-turns and lefts listed but were supposed to be rights. \u00a0I wondered who compiled this mess. \u00a0[Thank goodness we were driving. \u00a0We would have died on the tour it was so hot!!]<\/p>\n

After we drove all around the town’s back streets for about an hour, it had cooled off by at least a degree,\u00a0 maybe two.\u00a0 It was about 95, so we parked on Main Street and started walking the very short old downtown.\u00a0\u00a0 There are a lot of places called “Crazy Woman”\u00a0 something, \u00a0Square, Canyon, Road, liquor store, Realty etc.\u00a0 I still don’t have any idea what that is all about.<\/p>\n

There was a farmers market happening but not like any I had seen before.\u00a0 No produce.\u00a0 Mostly trinkets, and some raw milk tents,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We stopped in the Mishap Brewery and the bartender noticed my dogs looking in the window and said there was a patio out back and that we could bring them in thru the brewery.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Had a decent pint and Kathy had what looked to be a highball glass of white wine (Cold, Anything Cold she had told him)<\/p>\n

The beer was just OK,\u00a0 so I didn’t bother getting a growler fill.\u00a0\u00a0 It was still really warm on the patio, so we left and headed up the street to a bench on a small bridge crossing the Clear Creek.\u00a0 There was a \"\"<\/a>glorious breeze there, and we sat there a bit conversing with a lady driving a horse-drawn cart.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The horse was maybe five feet from us and the pups didn’t let him out of their sight.\u00a0\u00a0 She mentioned she grew up just outside of Cody where we had just come from and said she had moved to Bellingham, Washington for some time and missed riding horses,\u00a0 Not sure why she was in Buffalo and not in Cody, but before we could ask, she got a fare.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We headed off for the Occidental Hotel. \u00a0It’s the main attraction in the town, \u00a0nice place.\u00a0 After looking in there and the attached saloon, we walked back to the car and headed back toward the campground.\u00a0 Kathy was dying of heat prostration, starved and wanted Mexican, or anything where she didn’t have to cook.\u00a0\u00a0 Taco John’s.\u00a0\u00a0 Kind of a glorified Taco Bell but slightly better.\u00a0 The street tacos weren’t bad.<\/p>\n

That night a big storm blew in, lots of wind, lightning and thunder.. and of course, large drops of rain pelted the coach.<\/p>\n

In the morning it was beautiful again, and getting warm fast.\u00a0\u00a0 Packing up and heading for Devil’s Tower!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left Cody on Tuesday morning heading for a KOA in Buffalo Wy.\u00a0\u00a0 Not a particularly long drive, but we did need to go over the Big Horn mountain range so we knew it might be a scenic one.\u00a0 (steep)\u00a0 It didn’t let us down. \u00a0 Just past the town of Ten Sleep, we started … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Buffalo Wy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-traveling-the-hiways-and-byways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}