Cody's

We just had dinner at Cody's Road House in Mattoon, Illinois. It was excellent. I had the Smokey Mountain Barbeque and LuAnn had the cod dinner. My pork and barbeque sauce was really good, a great buy at $11. The young crew did a great job from the front door to the cash register, I especially liked the young no nonense male waiter's work. I told the manager the same and he and the waiter both looked frightened like I was going to complain. I think some people give retaurant people too much of a hard time.

I must confess we have been on the road for two weeks, something I don't like to publicize until after the fact. The people who need to know knew where we were.

We went to the Custer State Park Buffalo RoundUp ten days ago in South Dakota. They round up the buffalo in the park and sell of the herd to keep around a thousand head they can feed on the 72,000 acre park range. The culls bring about a quarter of a million dollars that helps keep the park open.

They charge $15 minimum for a week pass to the park and 14,000 people come watch the round up each year. People get up in the middle of the night to go sit in line to get inside the area before the gates open at 6:30 AM then wait till the cowboys push the buffalo over the ridge to the corral in front of the crowd. It's a pretty neat experience and highly photographed.

The herd looked very healthy to me as the range looked more lush than when we passed through the area two years ago. They vaccinate them and take care of them like cattle.

The fall colors are really showing more each day as we round third heading for home.

Harvest is nearing half done in places across the country as we wait to start in Ohio. The first beans have come off at home.

Ed