The day before LC's friend headed back to Alabama we took him for a walk downtown.
The day he arrived the bottom dropped out of the temperatures and we had freezing cold weather for well over a week.
By the time LC's friend was readying to head home the weather had rebounded - there was now only snow high in the mountains surrounding Cody and temps were again in the 60's.
On this last day, while slowly wandering around town, we stopped for lunch at the Irma Hotel.
The Irma is right in the center of town on Sheridan Avenue, which is the main two lane road that cuts through Cody.
For the hundreds of thousands of visitors who stop in Cody during the summer (usually while on their way to Yellowstone National Park), Sheridan Avenue is "tourist central".
The place where visitors can buy their Cody shirts and mugs and key chains and posters.
The place to go for kitchy cowboy-crap, as well as very very expensive cowboy-crap.
There are also many photography studios, as well as other high end artisan stores.
The Irma, built by Buffalo Bill Cody in 1902, is located in the center of this organized chaos.
When LC and I first arrived in Cody early last year we wandered into the Irma fully expecting to wander right back out again.
The place was fancy and we had assumed that it also came with fancy prices.
Maybe the rooms at this historic hotel are expensive (and I don't really know for sure), but the food is very reasonably priced.
LC's friend walked in and did exactly the same thing we did the first time we stepped into the restaurant. He gawked.
The restaurant, as with the rest of the hotel, has a feel of "old world money".
Plush burgundy carpeting. Busy and dark wallpaper.
Large animal heads on the walls watching you eat.
Antler chandeliers.
Dark and rich mahogany benches and tables and trim, as well as the long and incredible and original bar.
Huge oil paintings. Tin ceilings.
Many black and white historic photographs of the town of Cody, Buffalo Bill Cody, Yellowstone, cowboys.
It is the fanciest place I have ever eaten without paying fancy prices.
No dressing up required.
On this particular day we ate an all you can eat buffet for $8.95 a person.
Two of the many oil paintings in the dining room...................
One day last year LC and I ate a Sunday buffet at the Irma.
It included ham and chicken and steak and roast beef and cost only $19.95 per person.
We asked for a to-go box so that we could take Jamie some scraps, and we had a ton of meat scraps stashed away for her. So many that we both knew we would be giving her this great treat over the course of a few days.
At the last minute LC also put large chunks of roast beef and steak he had left over from his plate, into the Styrofoam container so that he could make a sandwich later that evening with them.
By the time we walked out of the restaurant the container was overflowing.
Jamie had been waiting for us in the back seat of the truck and we quickly gave her one small treat from the box.
Before we headed back to the house LC and I decided to walk around town for a while (trying to work off some of the large meal we had just eaten) and left the Styrofoam container on the floor in the front seat of the truck.
By the time we arrived back at the truck we could see only a tail and furry butt through the window.
Jamie had climbed into the front seat of the truck, had worked the lid off of the container, was standing on the seat with her butt in the air while she reached down to the container with her mouth.
Our sweet dog was finishing up the last of the contents of the container when we got back to her.
She ate days worth of scraps, as well as all of the roast beef and steak we had brought with us.
We should have known better than to leave all of that in the truck where she could reach it, but she sure ate well that day.................
A picture of the bar back in the day................
The bar present day......................
We entered the restaurant from the street, but when we were finally done eating we left the restaurant the back way and wandered through parts of the hotel still exploring this hugely interesting and unique place.
More plush carpet, more animal heads, more large and historic black and white photographs, more deep and rich wood trim and furniture.......................
One of my favorite things in the hotel.
One of these days I will work up the nerve and the curiosity to head upstairs and see what's up there................
I found these two paintings near a doorway leading to the outside.
They are painted on the surface of large animal skins........................
The sit down bar...................
After wandering through the gift shop and slowly taking in all of the interesting art and decorations in the halls on the main floor of the Irma, we three headed outside.
While LC and his friend sat on picnic tables on the very long porch of the hotel, I wandered alone around the side of the building to see what else I could take pictures of.
The Irma menus...................
Every single day through the summer outside the Irma is closed off to traffic from 5pm-6pm, so that tourists can enjoy a gunfight.
LC and I attended one of these gun fights one evening last summer, along with many hundreds of other people.
Truthfully we did not stay for the whole thing.
To us it was very badly acted, with lame story line and lame costumes and lame props.
But that was only our impression, and there were hundreds and hundreds of other people who genuinely seemed to enjoy the show.
These businesses sponsor the nightly gunfights...................
A Tennessee redneck and an Alabama redneck.......................
A link for more information on the Irma Hotel:
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