Cody, Wyoming - Emergency Room

We spent the night at a very quiet and affordable Chief Joseph RV Park. It was a very nice respite from a very expensive and crowded KOA in West Yellowstone.

I cooked up some breakfast while Alessandra caught some sunshine.

Readying myself for a quick shower, I discovered that the water heater didn’t work. For a brand new trailer only on the tenth day of our first trip, it was quite disappointing. Oh well. That is a story for another day.

The drive down Chief Joseph Highway was amazingly beautiful.

We stopped at the Sunlight Bridge. I was so glad to be towing with a Jeep. A larger vehicle might not have gotten turned around in the parking lot.

Sunlight Bridge

I have always wanted to take my wife to Cody, Wyoming. After coming out of Yellowstone on the Chief Joseph highway, we stopped in Cody for lunch and shopping. (Someday, we will stay long enough to attend the rodeo and spend a day or two at the Buffalo Bill museum. Today is not that day.

We stopped for lunch at the Silver Dollar Bar & Grill. I would highly recommend it. A bright, sunny patio and good food.

One of Alessandra’s favorite travel activities is finding T-shirts from various towns. This store was a gold mine at five dollars a shirt. Woo hoo.

After walking the streets of downtown Cody, we headed back to the Jeep/trailer to start the trip home and a quick use of the facilities. I was in the Jeep waiting for Alessandra. All of a sudden she appeared at the passenger window clutching her arm and yelling “Emergency, Emergency.” I hopped out to see what what wrong. She was blocking blood flow with pressure from her right hand.

Grabbing some paper towels to increase the pressure and absorb the blood, I looked on Google Maps for the hospital. Luckily, we were only a few blocks away. As I headed that direction, a police officer happened to pull up alongside us. I rolled down the window and asked for an escort to the hospital. I think he thought I was asking directions.

I suspected he might get the idea when I raced down main street with a 24 foot trailer in tow. He did. He met us at the Emergency Room to make sure things were okay.

The folks at the ER were very kind. Ironically, they were more worried about taking our temperature and putting masks on our faces than they were about pathogens from blood spatter! Signs of the times.

After an hour or so and five stitches, Alessandra was all patched up.

This is how the freak accident happened. Since we were on the curb in town, we hadn’t lowered the trailer steps. As she hopped out of the trailer, somehow her arm got tangled on the screen door latch and the latch became impaled in her arm. At first, she thought she had snagged her shirt on the door. As she back up to release her “shirt”, the blood started to flow.