Cross Country Trip (Day 29) – Summit, SD

Our Travels - 2016 Cross Country

Our Final Days out West

After Yellowstone, we spent two nights in Cody, Wyoming. What a cool little town! Granted, it’s focused on tourism, but it really does help you live the old west.

The town was named after William Cody, alias Buffalo Bill. Probably the centerpiece of the town’s tourism is The Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This is a really great museum with a large portion of it dedicated to the life of William Cody, and life in the old west.

After spending the morning at the museum, we walked downtown and had lunch at the Irma Hotel, built by Buffalo Bill in 1902 and named for his daughter, Irma. In the middle of the dining room is a bar that was a gift from Queen Victoria to Buffalo Bill. It was interesting place to think about all the history of the area. As we left, we walked out through the bar, which was populated with what looked like real current day cowboys.

The bar at the Irma Hotel, given to Buffalo Bill by Queen Victoria.

The bar at the Irma Hotel, given to Buffalo Bill by Queen Victoria.

While in Cody, we also visited Old Town. This is a collection of original buildings collected from the old west and placed on the piece of property originally laid out for the town of Cody by Buffalo Bill himself.

For me, being a big fan of the old movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the highlight of Old Town was a saloon that was frequented by the boys, as well as a cabin that was used by Butch, Sundance and the Hole in the Wall gang (one of the buildings in the photo at the top of the page).

Saloon frequented by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Saloon frequented by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The following day we drove across Wyoming and settled in Hills City, South Dakota. In the morning we visited Mount Rushmore. It’s pretty incredible to see in person. Unfortunately, besides making us proud to be American, it couldn’t help but bring attention to the lack of respect that exists with our current presidential candidacy.

Here we are visiting Mount Rushmore.

Here we are visiting Mount Rushmore.

We left Mount Rushmore and spent the next two days driving east, leaving all of our northwest adventure behind. Tomorrow we start month two of our trip. We will be spending the next few days in Michigan’s upper peninsula, then heading down to my hometown of Grand Haven, in the lower peninsula.

Here are our personal reviews of the campgrounds we stayed at since we left Cody:
Creekside Mountain Resort in Hill City, SD.
County Line Campground in Summit, SD.

Tuesday, June 1 - Summit, SD

Tuesday, June 1 - Summit, SD

Denny Johnson

Denny Johnson

After having spent most of our adult life in Orlando, my wife Fay and I moved to Knoxville, TN in 2020. We are loving the change of seasons and being near the mountains. Plus, this part of the country is loaded with great places to camp. 
 
We camped years ago with a pop-up camper, but got serious about it when we purchased our Casita in 2014. There was a lot to learn as we started traveling with it, and a lot of conflicting opinions on line. That's when I decided that creating a website would be a good retirement project. I started tinyTowable.com to share things we've learned along the way that have worked well for us in hopes that the information would be of help to others.
 
However, since moving to Tennessee, I've gotten involved with new hobbies (you can check some out on my personal website at https://www.softrite.com) and we haven't camped very much. So, at the end of 2023, I made the tough decision to stop updating this website.
 
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