After a 6-day work week and a hard day of driving, we were exhausted and needed a day to rest.  We slept in and then indulged ourselves with a later-than-usual breakfast of vegan blueberry pancakes.  Yummy!

Buffalo Bill Reservoir (Shoshone River).

Mid-morning we decided to drive into Cody, but we had no plans beyond getting there and looking around.  We stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam and Reservoir Visitor Center on the way in.  The dam, reservoir, and associated facilities are run by the Bureau of Reclamation.  As with all federal facilities, the visitor center does a nice job of telling the story of the dam’s construction and provides a context in terms of the natural and human history of the area.  They also had a stamp unique to the site so we stamped our “passport.”  We also bought a nice guide to Yellowstone N. P.

Buffalo Bill Dam & Visitor Center (upstream side).

On the drive in we talked about visiting the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, but decided against it.  The Center consists of five museums and the $18 adult admission is a 2-day pass, which is probably needed to do justice to them.  That sounded too intense for our day of rest.  We decided instead to just stroll up and down Main Street and then find the two organic/health stores in town and pick up a few things.  During our stroll we saw a poster for free concerts in the park.  Thursday July 25 from 6 – 8 PM will be a Celtic group.

You Don’t See This In Michigan!

We went to Whole Foods Trading Company first.  It was also a sandwich shop, so we each had a veggie Panini with vegan Cole slaw and a pickle.  We bought some produce and then drove to the Mountain High Health Foods store where we picked up some kelp noodles and black bean “burgers.”  We also discovered that Albertson’s was across the street, so we stopped there to pick up a few more things.

Our shopping and introductory tour of Cody completed, we drove back to Wapiti, by which time it was mid-afternoon.  Linda spent the afternoon using our new Yellowstone N. P. guidebook to get some idea of routes, distances, and time for our visits to the park.  I spent the afternoon responding to e-mail and working on our blog.  Based on the Thursday concert we learned about, we decided to drive the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway on Thursday as we end up in Cody anyway.