Cody Wyoming

On Tuesday the first, we drove to Cody WY.  Mind you our engine was still giving us lots of trouble and I was preparing for the worst.  As we headed toward the East Entrance of Yellowstone we passed LOTS of bison.   While ordinarily this wouldn’t present a problem, with our engine in it’s poor condition I got nervous every time we had to slow down.  The slower we got, the more the car would shake, the RPMs would bob up and down and the engine would sputter.  And the looky-loos were rubber necking at every chance.  It was nerve racking.  At one point the bison were totally messing with us and standing right in the road in front of us.  Pretty rude if you ask me and they didn’t seem to care at all that I was worried.  Bison….what cha gunna do?  Once we got past the pesky bison it was (fairly) smooth sailing.  When the car was faster and running more smoothly it was easier to appreciate Wyoming and it’s beauty.  It is so very different from Oregon.  What a country we live in.

We finally made it to Cody at about 1:30.  I dropped Bob and the kids off at the Wild Bill Cody Museum.  Mind you I joined the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco because it was one of the places that had reciprocal benefits.  I was looking forward to going but I had bigger fish to fry.  Mom went with the pack, Ed went to a bar to watch the USA World Cup game and I went….wait for it…..to the Dodge Dealership.  I was grateful that Cody had a Dodge Dealership! 

I rolled in unannounced.  Mind you, I had asked Bob to call ahead and he wouldn’t/didn’t do it.  When I walked up to the service desk and pleaded my case the two women looked at each other and code talked, “Well we just got that thing and Jesse is going to check for Joey.  Then we need to lift that other thing.”  That kind of jargon.  One went back and confirmed that Joey could take a look.  Whew, that was too close. “Thank you so much.”  Iva and I went to the waiting room.

As I went toward the waiting room I stepped outside to give Iva a break.  As I walked around the grounds I was eyeing the new cars and trying to figure out if I wanted another van or something different.  If the news wasn’t good I’d be getting a new car in an hour or so.  We finally made it to the waiting room.

The waiting room had five men and one other woman.  The men all appeared to be working farmers and by the conversation, a few were vets.  Fox “News” was on the TV and the conversation followed the reporting.  Their take on things was, to be polite, “right” wing.   I don’t / didn’t agree with them but I like to listen to try and figure out why people think what they do.   When they eyed me, we talked about Iva and what a great dog she is.  I think congress could use a few dogs, they bring us all together. 

Forty five minutes in Joey reported to Julie and Julie reported to me.   The sixth cylinder was misfiring and I needed a new ignition wire, it would be $200.  What?  That is AWESOME!  I couldn’t have been happier.  They asked for permission to fix it and I was all, “Yeah, do it!”

Another hour later and it was done and ended up being only $129.  Even better!  I tried to tip them but they wouldn’t have it.  I ended up writing a really nice review and thanked them for their honest, quick and friendly service.  If you are going to break down with a Dodge, do it in Cody. 

I hopped in my smoothly running car and picked up the gang.  We checked into the hotel, had a bite to eat and went straight to a gunfight.  Yup, a gunfight.  It was really fun.

Next up RODEO!  As luck would have it, the big professional rodeo was in town and we got to see it.  It may have been wasted on us but we had a lot of fun and this in not something you see everyday in Portland.  And certainly not with that crowd in an open-air arena.  I don’t think this was their first rodeo….hahahahaha.  It WAS my first rodeo.   The bucking broncos and bull riding were my favorites, well that and the clown.  He looked like Eric Stonestreet and had a great sense of humor.  One of his lines, “Whoa, that looked like it hurt.  You know the great thing about landing on your face?  No danger of a broken ankle.” True. 

We were home around 11 and crashed.  What a day!  From a campground in Yellowstone at 9 am to a rodeo in Cody WY at 8 pm.   We packed it in.  Our little cowboys and cowgirl were tuckered out and slept like logs.  It was a great day and we didn’t even need a new car!  That’s a good day.