Bread of Life

Wyoming – Sunday, July 7

Tula and I went for a one mile walk as soon as we were up, and then I got our campsite packed up. It was a pretty morning out, and I found the Clear Creek Trail and got another couple miles in, looking at snow-capped mountains in the distance. Then I went to Buffalo’s historic downtown area, which is a classic old west style town. I saw a cute little cafe and thought I’d go have a very late breakfast and was looking forward to their special, but they started serving lunch at 11, so I had to switch gears because I didn’t want to just walk out! Then I wanted to see about making my donation – there was a food pantry in town called Bread of Life and it was based at one of the local churches. They’re open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and this was Sunday, but I drove to the church in case I could find anyone involved with the food pantry. But instead I found a sign on a back door saying the food pantry is temporarily housed in a different location while the regular one is being updated. The sign also said food donations could be dropped off any time at one of the inns in town. So I went to the inn and met the owner just as she was leaving for an hour or so. She said they do indeed collect food for Bread of Life, and said any of the usual staples would be good, and that they don’t often get rice so that would be a good thing too. She told me where to leave it inside since she was going out on an errand. So I went shopping and got rice, spaghetti sauce and noodles, cereal, baked beans, tuna and ravioli. I took it back to the inn and left it for the food pantry with a note.

Then Tula and I took a walk in one of the neighborhoods and then I walked 3 miles all through the downtown area, and another part of the Clear Creek Trail, and then to the city park outside of town. They had a huge, beautiful pool, and a separate water play area for little kids, and plenty of grassy space for chairs and blankets. And it was all free. There were lots and lots of families there, and it just seemed like a really nice thing for the community to have.

Then I started driving west – aiming for Cody. First I drove through the Bighorn Mountains which were really pretty, and we stopped and took a short walk on one of the trails. There was a little wayfarer’s chapel up in the hills and I went to look at that. And then we came to the tiny town of Ten Sleep, where we finished our walking for the day. Ten Sleep was a tiny little old-west town with just one street, and was so named because in the old days there were a couple big Indian camps a distance away, and all kinds of trails led from them. Ten Sleep was halfway between the 2 camps – 10 days (or “sleeps”) away from each of them. This is also the land of the “jack-a-lope” and the local gas station/convenience store had a mounted jack-a-lope on the wall. When we left Ten Sleep, I kept heading west to Cody. I passed through a nearly non-existent town that only had a population of 10 – Wyoming is not a crowded state! I knew there were several campgrounds in Cody, and the first one I came to was a KOA one, and it looked pretty decent. There was a big cabin for registration and a store and gift shop and all, and I was able to get a campsite – again, only because I needed a tent space and not an RV space with hook-ups, which were all full. Cody is quite close to the east entrance for Yellowstone, and I was happy to get a space there. I got everything set up, and even though Tula is always excited to get up on the air mattress once she hears me inflating it, we took a bedtime walk around the campground first. Our campsite was close to the horse corral, where they offer trail rides, so I enjoyed the faint smell of horse and listening to their nighttime sounds.