Jul 04, 2014

Yay the Federal Government has provided Internet Connection. All hail Federal Government.

The thumbnail is a shot of Uncle Sam at the Cody Independence Day Parade.

A first for us was to attend a real 4th of July Parade. There were 140 entries including several huge bands (120 the largest) and it was a great atmosphere. Cody (as in Buffalo Bill AKA William Cody) has the World champion Rodeo among other things running 90+ nights in the summer. Tonight was to be the largest with top prize in excess of $400,000.00 USD. A couple of shots of the parade which we really enjoyed follows.

 

The Wyoming Marines were here in force.

 

Miss Rodeo America, a shame the sun didn't show up the sparkles. Very impressive.

 

And finally the Wyatt Earp group. Sobering. We have read that often the 'lawmen' (rough and tough and often gun slingers) were invited to a town to be Sheriff and then fired after they cleaned the place out......I suspect some of our politicians think politics works the same way today.

We were aware that the majority of exhibits in the parade were either community groups or groups within the community (trust me they are different) and a lot of focus on the Cowboy heritage. I've come to realise that as Australians we have 'The Outback' and the USA has 'The West'.  I've never before seen corn cooked on such a hge sale. This is Kettle Korn, Impressive!

 

Climbing into Yellowstone Park. One magnificent vista or huge sky everywhere we looked. (Not going to fess up to how many photos I took today!)

 

And a view from an overlook over part of Yellowstone Lake which is massive. Soon after this we rode through an area which had experienced rain shortly before and the fragrance of the forest was sublime.

 

And a shot of a Bison close to the road. Just after this he had a ball rolling in the dust as I saw a few doing. Perhaps they are trying to get rid of the last of their winter coats.

 

And some Falls on the way to our hotel. The volume and speed of this water was incredible as it galloped down through the canyon!

 

And finally, a lovely shot at the foot of the Canyon shortly before we got into Mammoth Hot Springs.