There was a small list of "extras" we really wanted to do on this trip: whitewater rafting, horseback riding, seeing a minor league baseball game, going to a car race, and watching a rodeo. So far, we'd done only one. :( We left Yellowstone to head the hour or so east to Cody, Wyoming. A town with a rodeo every night, all summer long! :)
We rolled into town late-afternoon and were not surprised by the lack of suitable food/dinner options. And neither of us wanted to do much cooking. So, what does anyone do when faced with such a dilemma? You order pizza! Even though a few of the ingredients were canned and the dough was partially baked before they added our toppings, it turned out to be pretty tasty and really hit the spot. Sufficiently full, we moseyed on over to the rodeo. If you all recall, in Nashville SM picked up a western shirt (with snaps and everything!) and in Wyoming we both picked up cowboy hats. If ever there was a time on this trip to adorn our western gear, it was tonight. We really looked the part (of tourists, that is!)
Two things were apparent when we got to the rodeo. Everyone attending was a tourist from out of town and all of us were sporting our best western attire. Even though we were cuter than all get out, we were not the most original in our garb. Second, not many people ride bikes to the rodeo. Go figure! In fact, nobody besides two blue-state yankees ride bikes to the rodeo. Two yankees dressed in western attire, that is. We're such dorks...
Parts of the rodeo were pretty cool and fun to watch... the barrel races and the calf-roping competition. And, parts of it were really quite disturbing to two animal lovers like ourselves. CP, a lover and rider of horses, had tears in her eyes when the cowboys rode the bucking broncos. "We would never do something like that to Murphy" - CP. It just seemed cruel and very unnecessary. One of the bulls seemed to agree with her when the rodeo hands were prepping him for a ride. We watched this enormous, 2,500 lbs, muscular, extremely angry animal try to buck and climb it's way out of the metal holding area. It almost succeeded! The rider never stood a chance. We stayed for the whole thing and left the rodeo with mixed feelings. But still glad we were able to see the reality of this kind of "sport".
In the am, we were on to Devil's Tower National Monument - America's first national monument. You may know it better from the movies. It's the famous rock formation seen in the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This one-of-a-kind formation was created by an intrusion of igneous material (that was from wikipedia :) - we're not that smart), although there are many theories as to specifically how this intrusion occurred.
We stayed at the KOA campground right outside the entrance of the park. Besides a small liquor establishment and a store across the street from the KOA, there is nothing else around Devil's Tower for miles. If anyone has ever stayed at a KOA, you'd know that the company logo and colors are not subtle. This KOA was no exception. In their store and registration area, there must have been 30 bright canary yellow placards with the name KOA. The entry rug was bright canary yellow, reading KOA. All the employees wore bright canary yellow shirts saying KOA. The sign out front is huge and, you guessed it... was bright canary yellow. Mind you, besides the two stores across the street... nothing for miles. SM - Which all leads me to my point.... Americans are stupid. I overheard a woman just entering the store ask the clerk... "Is this the KOA?" Really?
To shake the stupidity off our clothes and clear our befuddled heads, we jumped on and rode our bikes up the three mile hill to the base of the tower. SM - I suffered. Oh, I suffered. CP is in way better biking shape than I am. Shhhh... I walked the last 1/4 mile. CP- WHAT? Quitter!!!
We hydrated and then walked the 1.3 mile paved trail around the base of Devil's Tower. The monolith is pretty amazing. Although it looks like one solid structure, it's actually hundreds of columns together. It's commonly believed that it once stood as one solid mass - like a butte. But, over time cracks formed in the butte and the weaker sediment eroded away leaving individual, but tightly-knit columns... pretty cool stuff (CP - nerd alert!). Halfway around, we looked up at the shaded side of the tower only to see climbers scaling the rock walls. Scary! But super cool (SM - nerd alert!). We felt somewhat athletically inferior. Then we felt redeemed as we passed a suffering, huffing and puffing family who were only .3 miles into their walk asking us "Are we almost done?" Aw honey, you aren't even halfway there yet!
We coasted down the hill back to our RV, made ourselves some burgers, drank a few beers, threw in some laundry, then called it a night.
SM - Murph got me up kind of early for a walk - maybe 6. I saw nobody else up and about. The sun was rising over the hills to the east and was casting a reddish light on to Devil's Tower to my west. And I heard music. BAH, BAH, BAH.... bah, bah - the theme song from Close Encounters. It was so cool! At night, this KOA shows the movie continuously. I was walking Murph at the same moment when the movie was showing the "Third Kind" playing the theme song back and forth with the scientists. Again, so freakin' cool!!!
After a bit, CP awoke. We packed up and moved on to South Dakota!
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