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livingthervdream · 7 years

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Rapids to Rodeos!

Today we leave Yellowstone. I am driving the Suburban with the girls while GB and Andrew are driving the RV. Our plan was to head to the dump site to empty before we head to Cody. We had no hookups at our site but they had a communal drop site for waste. Unfortunately the line was extremely long and people were taking forever. We had to make a water Rapid excursion Cody at 1245 and it was 2 hours away. It’s 1000 and we didn’t want to press our look so we decided we would just take care of everything when we pull up at our campsite in Cody. So on the road we go to Cody Wyoming!

As we pull out of our campground, I just soak up the view: The Forrest, Lake Yellowstone, the mountains…just everything that we didn’t make…nature did. My eyes start to well up as we head out on the road so sad to go. I’m sure I was welling up for a combination of reasons. This was the peak of our trip and what a cherry on top of the sundae it was. From here, we still had Cody but it really was our trend back to reality. The craziness of work and back to our schedule of life. It was so nice to just get away with the 4 people I care about most. I can’t remember another time that I truly cried at the end of a vacation. We had our ups and downs but how often do I get to spend 14 days without work and home hustle bustle to enjoy the company of my family. It maybe took a couple days 😜but the kids were for the most part getting along and playing with each other…instead of fighting constantly. Playing pretend games in the woods or in the car and not distracted by TV, Electronics, School and their everyday responsibilities. There were also tears of absolute gratefulness and thanks for a husband who took the time to plan this amazing experience. How he did it i will never know, between work and fire fighter school not to mention tending to his every day responsibilities…I truly am the lucky one. Ok enough with the tears…ohhh and please remind me to reread this later on when I say my family is driving me up a wall! Which hopefully will be longer than a week from now😜 As we are leaving Yellowstone, we are able to caravan to a couple pull outs for some photo ops. Of course, we stop at the exit. That welcome to Yellowstone sign that we missed when we arrived (we were in no condition for photos after 12+ hours driving) was forever captured in photo by the Bransons! All were smiles for nice photo and crazy photo! GB got his head shot photo with his Hixton Travel Plaza trucker hat. (Inside joke: GB has a friend who owns this truck stop in Hixton, WI. Without his friend knowing, he had a cousin by this hat and mail it to us for our trip. GB has been taking headshots with his glasses on, hat on and deadpan face at all our sites and sign pictures. He has then been texting his friend all these photos! Apparently they are going to launch a clothing line and who knows…you may see a certain someone modeling the headgear at Yellowstone or Corn Palace! I laugh everyday!) We roll into Cody around 1215. We have just enough time to park the RV at Walmart. Side note: if you ever have an RV and don’t know where to park. Apparently you can park at Walmart and they don’t care. So thanks Walmart for being our parking spot while we went rafting! Luckily the rafting adventure was in downtown Cody only 5 minutes away from Walmart. We had enough time to grab some grub at Arby’s and head to our meeting spot with 10 minutes to spare. Luckily all of us already had our swimsuits on with shirt cover ups so all we needed was the spraydown of Sunscreen and we were good to go. This rafting trip was GB’s idea. There was an all day, a half day, and a 2 hour trip. I heavily recommended the 2 hour seeing as how I thought that was all about Libby could take. I would love to take a day trip if it were just the two of us but I think 2 hours for the kids would leave it more of a positive experience. I was also unsure about Libby’s age and size. I mean we have 3 kids as a backup in case we lose any but I don’t think I would like to see my youngest just float down the river. GB assured me that he had spoken with the lady at reservations and she said she would be fine. Well, as we pull up I see a woman who has a dachshund with her. The kids loved the dog and asked who is watching the dog while she is rafting. The woman responded “she is coming rafting too.” Really?? Ok now I am really wondering what kind of trip this that this dog can also come on? We are all fit with our life vest and they have a perfect one for Libby. What that tells me is the last kid that wore it came back alive and in the boat so she has a fighting chance! They drive us to the rafting site and unload us as well as the boats. There are 3 tours going on simultaneously and all 3 are manually inflating the boats. This looks like a fun job, definitely an UE work out! They go over safety rules and what to do if someone falls off the raft. Apparently you float on your back in T-formation and wait for them to throw this small pillow to you where you don’t hold onto the pillo you hold onto the rope in order to get towed in. Now I was kind of lost a little so I can only imagine my kids are lost and that is if they are even paying attention. They then talk about always hold onto your paddle so as not to lose it down the river. They also mention that when a command of “hang on” is called out you should grip the outer red rope and lean into the boat. Ok I can totally see hanging on but I know my kids would have to reach half way out of the boat to grab onto it and then the whole lean into the boat…yup that’s it…someone here is not going to make it. I had this picture of the Colorado river and losing half my family in it as they floated down far beyond the boat. I am sure GB didn’t sign us up for such an intense Rapid ride but that is the only picture I had in my head. Sending up prayers to St. Jude for this one! The groups are split up. Our family is grouped with the woman who has the dog. Ok this is going to get really interesting. The woman begins to put the dog in this cloth tote. Really? She’s going to stay in there the whole time?? This I gotta see. She is loaded in front with her dog, GB and I are in middle row with Libby in between us. Ok, that is a safe spot, I am starting to calm. The back row is a new hire (she looks sharp…not too worried) Ali in the middle and Andrew with a paddle. He needed a couple verbal and manual cues for proper paddle hold but he definitely needed a good upper body work out…his OT would have been proud with how he didn’t complain a bit and liked it actually a lot. Maybe we need a rower machine for work😊. Our guide sat in rear to help direct the boot. I must say he was a very good guide with a loud booming voice that I couldn’t help but repeat his commands after he said them. More so that Andrew would have another reminder of what to do. We are hit our first bumps and Andrew holds his own while I remind Libby and Ali to hang on to the grips next to them. Unfortunately, the dog didn’t like the idea of getting wet and really just didn’t care about eh whole white water rafting experience. She was shaking and clawing her way to the back of the boat. The poor thing was shaking and wet and clawing it’s way almost out of the boat. Libs and I got scratched a bit by its sharp claws but you couldn’t blame the dog…the poor thing wanted out and the tour just started. There were times that the dog was wrapped around her owner’s neck like a mink just shaking and digging in her claws for dear life. Now our guide was jousting on orders such as paddle forward and so on. GB and I did most of the paddling. The woman in front was too busy hanging onto her dog to really contribute to the paddling and Andrew tried but really couldn’t accomplish what an adult could do I can say GB and I definitely got the UE workout we paid for! We hit some rapids and Libby got doused with water! It was great! She sat there looking at me laughing but shaking from being wet and cold. All she could say is “Momma where’s the car?” after laughing of course. The other 2 were having tons of fun laughing and screaming the whole time. We ended our tour with everyone still inside our boat including the dog. The poor thing calmed down after a while and just hung onto her owner. The kids were freezing after taking off their jackets just wanting to wrap up in their towel. Once we got back to the car, which was warm inside from sitting out in the sun, the kids changed back into dry clothes and finished heir drinks that they had gotten at lunch. We headed back to the RV to get set up at the campsite. Goodness knows we weren’t camping out in the Walmart parking lot. The kids were so excited to head back to the campsite. Once everything was loaded and hooked up, we all took a much needed hot shower. Afterwards, the kids were pumped to head to the jumping mat and just bounce around for a while. There was also a nice playground that the kids hung out at helping to kill time before dinner and the rodeo. Once everyone was ready, we headed off to dinner. We ended up eating at a place called Irma’s. It was an old time restaurant that they restored keeping some of the old decor that was there in the past. Large animal heads hung on the wall while a showcase of rifles was set up behind the bar. They had a buffet where the girls ate for free (awesome!) and Greg saw Country fried steak on the menu so everyone was happy. I headed to the buffet to get plates for the kids. By the third time, the guy running the buffet began to question how fast I was eating. I told him I was getting plates for my kids but I would be back for my plate soon enough. When I came back for my plate, the gentleman picked out my family as he said the kids were eyeing me everywhere I walked. It’s the mom life I said.

After dinner, we headed to the rodeo. The night had gotten colder, good thing this awesome mom packed hooded sweatshirts and pants for everyone! The kids and I had never been to the rodeo before...this actually was our first rodeo! To start the rodeo, the color guard came out on horses. Each was holding a flag and they moved out in different formations, how hard that must have been. Afterwards, everyone bent their head down in prayer and then they played then national anthem. I didn't realize how patriotic and religious these rodeos were, I guess I never heard about that part. The roping of the cows was Libby's favorite. She kept rooting for the cow to get away and not get roped. When they would walk away she would say "the cow won! Good job cow!" Not sure the cowboy would agree with her! We got to see both men and women rope cows along with cowboys sitting on bucking bulls. That was crazy! GB kept telling us to watch their heads before the gate opens, apparently they always adjust their hats. Well, I watched and noticed that they were all wearing helmets...and boy did they need them. The way they go flying off those bulls and then how close their bodies get to the feet of those bulls...yikes😬! Andrew got a chance to head down to the arena with other kids and try to chase 2 calfs. You could see him run hard for the first 2 minutes then after that the calves were running circles around all these kids. He was exhausted but he had fun. Libby didn't want to leave but unfortunately Ali was freezing to death and was not happy so we bid our goodbyes to the cowboys. Libby was none too happy saying "but it's not over yet!" Unfortunately, it was for us. Cody was a lot of fun but none of us were looking forward to the car rides home.

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