Can I get a yee-haw? We left the Yellowstone area for another long drive today, right across Wyoming to the small town of Buffalo. This is the real Wild West, home of wagon trains and cattle round-ups, shoot-outs and indian war parties. And we did flash past a group of gen-u-ine cowboys on horses with hats, gen-u-inely rounding up some cattle in a big cloud of dust. Perfect. I was too slow with the camera, though, and we were certainly too English to pull over and take photos of them!
We detoured way up into the Bighorn Mountains to look at the other side in the Wild West, an Indian Medicine Wheel. It sits on an impressive mountain top with vast views on all sides and is probably very spiritual for those with belief. I enjoyed the views. In fact these mountains have some absolutely epic views down across the endless prairies below them, unbelievably vast.
You may be wondering whether we joined in the cowboy merry-making. Despite being invited, we didn’t. Perhaps fellow introverts will understand when I say that I just wasn’t sure how to approach trying to socialise with a boisterous party of complete strangers, or what I would gain from it. I was impressed, though, just wandering through the bar after dinner. These were not cowboy aficionados, these were the real thing. And having seen the vast, hot, empty spaces of Wyoming, and knowing that in a month they will be vast, snow-blanketed, empty spaces I can see why these guys are mostly built like tanks with stubble you could strike a match on.
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