Barns Family USA Odyssey: Wyoming and scary weather

We left Yellowstone and headed out early for Cody, Wyoming. This town was 'built' by William F Cody, aka Buffalo Bill. By all accounts he was a superb scout for the troups, tracking and killing buffalo (hence the nickname), but in the winter he took to the stage bringing the Wild West to the East coast. He certainly was a superstar of his time, but ended up broke and being trotted out for 'Wild West' spectaculars long after they stopped being popular, when he was well into his late 60s/early 70s. It did make me wonder how he was received by the other 'blokes' in the summer months when he left the stage to return to his 'real' job scouting. The Buffalo Bill Wild West Centre was just superb, with a section also on Natural History, and an exhibit about Native American Indians. We ended up spending 4 hours there before heading to the Dinosaur museum in Thermopolis.

kids and teepee

Benedict at Buffalo Bill's

Sophia

Oliver - yee haw!

Playing the Buffalo Bill board game in the museum

So about 30 minutes out from Thermopolis our radio transmition of country music was interrupted by loud screaching and warning signals. Ordinarily I don't mind if country music is suddenly stopped, but this was way scary. When you are in an area with severe storms, all radio stations are diverted to the warning system. Strong winds of 70mph, hail, lethal lightning (those were the words of the announcer), get to the lowest part of your building, stay away from glass etc etc, ... We got to Thermopolis parked the RV and headed into the dinosaur museum quick smart. The storm - thankfully - was down graded and went around us.

So the museum of dinosaurs was really awesome. Fossils and bones found directly in the Wyoming/South Dakota area were on display. We got to watch the palaeontologists do their thing - that was way cool! See the pictures below for awesome dinosaur digs!