Visit at Buffalo Bill Historical Center on the way to Gillette, WY

We got up at 7:00 (early for us) this morning and saw a beautiful sunrise over the desert. Mike went out and took photos of the campground since we didn't take any yesterday and got some of the sunrise.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We left Yellowstone Valley RV Park at 8:30 and headed east on US-14 to Cody. We passed Old Trail Town where several historic buildings from around the west can be visited. It will have to wait for another time, since we only have time today to stop at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We stopped to get gas in the RV at a Shell station on the west side of Cody (37.5 gallons at $3.839 gal). We passed by several sculptures on the way to the museum including this one of a cowboy lassoing a deer.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We arrived at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center a little after 9:00 and parked the RV in the RV parking lot. We saw several more sculptures on our walk to the museum entrance.

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

The admission for seniors is $16 each and is good for 2 consecutive day's visits. There are 5 galleries in the Center - Buffalo Bill, Cody Firearms, Greater Yellowstone Natural History, Whitney Museum of Western Art, and Plains Indians. We only had a few hours to visit there, so we didn't get to see all of the museums (that's a good reason to come back another time).

We started first with the Buffalo Bill Museum. We saw exhibits depicting life in the old west,

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

exhibits about Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show,

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

household items belonging to William F. and Louisa Cody.

Our next stop was at the Natural History Museum where we saw wildlife exhibits

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

and this sculpture depicting a buffalo jump.

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

Our next stop was at the Cody Firearms Museum which has 1,500 firearms on display.

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

We first saw displays of firearms from 50's and 60's western TV shows such as Gunsmoke,

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

Annie Oakley, and Bonanza (just to name a few).

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

We saw firearms dating from Colonial times up to the present time. The Cody Firearms Museum has the most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world. We saw displays of Winchesters, Colts, Rugers and Smith & Wessons just to name a few.

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

Our last stop was at the Western Art Museum where we saw art by early western and modern artists.

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

We stopped at the Gift Shop to purchase a few souvenirs, before leaving the museum. Since it was now 11:30 we decided to fix lunch while we were parked at the museum.

When we left the museum parking lot, we passed the Foundation for Wild Sheep and I saw this deer standing near these Big Horn Sheep sculptures.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

After leaving Cody we headed east on US-14 and passed by the Museum of Flight & Aerial Firefighting​ near Greybull.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

This part of US-14 is the Big Horn Scenic Byway and we drove through the Big Horn Mountains

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

and the Big Horn National Forest where the aspens were getting their fall colors.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We connected with I-90 at Ranchester, WY and took it east to Gillette. We stopped for gas at the Flying J (41.8 gal at $3.549 gal after our $.02 a gallon discount). We were only a couple of blocks away from the Wal-Mart Supercenter where we're spending the night.

We arrived here at the Supercenter about 5:30 after driving 274 miles from Cody. After discussing what we wanted to have for dinner, I suggested that we walk over to the Perkins Restaurant near us since Mike had been wanting to eat pancakes. Mike had pancakes, eggs, hash browns, sausage and toast. I ordered the French Dip sandwich. After the long day we had had sightseeing and then traveling, it was nice to have someone else cook dinner, serve it and then clean up!

After dinner and before returning to the RV, we went shopping in Wal-Mart to get a few things we needed. Tomorrow we'll be heading to Rapid City where we're going to stay for 4 days.