Block 7: Week 3 Buffalo, Dinos, and Hot Springs! Oh My!

 This week we started by having Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off, a much needed break. The optometry student in the house booked us a trip to go see the Shoshone buffalo heard in Morton, WY (about 30 minutes from the house). This was such a unique experience since it was just us, the sweet couple who were in charge of the heard, and their two fearless dogs. We were able to get within 10 feet of the bison (we learned buffalo is a misnomer for these animals). We got to learn about the desires to grow this heard and the history of the bison herds in Wyoming and in the Shoshone culture. 


We spent Tuesday out in the garage giving vaccines. This was such a busy day, we gave close to 50 vaccines over the span of five hours! We had a good system set up where one of us would take the paperwork to the patients while the other prepared and administered the vaccines. This definitely made the time go by much faster. The nurses helping were so nice and grateful for our help. 

Friday we left to go to Thermopolis for the weekend. The drive to Thermopolis was so pretty. We drove through the Boysen reservoir and saw several caves and the first railroad track of the trip. That afternoon we went to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. This place had so many fossils that were from dig sites in Wyoming, Montana, and other states close by. Some of the bones they had on display were bigger than Jaden - not a hard feat. It was neat see the older plants and organisms that had been preserved in the wood and stone. We left the museum and went to check into our AirBnB, which happened to be on a farm. When we arrived we were greeted by chickens, cows, horses, and even some peacocks. It kind of felt like we had traveled back to Alabama. We had dinner at the One-Eyed Buffalo; their food was incredible! By the time we got back to the AirBnB we were exhausted and decided to have an early night. However, our sleep was cut short by the roosters crowing at 3:30 am!! Thankfully our sweet host provided earplugs and once we put those in we fell back asleep in no time. 



   Saturday we drove through the bison preserve that was behind Hot Springs state park. While we didn't see any bison, we did get in some good rock climbing and some pretty pictures of the scenery. After lunch we went to the hot springs. We spent some time in the sauna before heading outside to the pools. It was so wild to swim in a pool that hot, it felt like bath water! After the pool we spent time in the hot tub (a nice 106 degrees). The minerals in the water were no joke, however; it tarnished some of our jewelry and even worsened some bruising. We might've smelled like sulphur when we left, but it was definitely an experience we will never forget. 



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