We're back in Yellowstone

Yesterday 's check-in at Human Resources went without a snag.  We were able to keep the same Employee ID and photos from last year.  We came directly to Mammoth Hot Springs in hopes of getting a downstairs room for the few days we are here and met the Personnel Manager.  He was very friendly and accommodating and even emailed ahead of us to Old Faithful to ask for a downstairs room for us.  He requested a particular dormitory for us that houses married couples and most of those room have a private bath.  We continue to pray that we can get that type of room, but we will adjust to whatever we get.

There are four other new employees in our class.  One girl is from Idaho, one from Missouri and there are two young men from Macedonia.  The two young men will work at the Old Faithful Inn with me.
The lady who interviewd us in January is our trainer.  She is very nice, patient and understanding.  Yesterday we spent time going over OSHA, Harrassment Policies, Fire Protocol, Hazardous Material, etc.  This morning we started Retail information - customer satisfaction, added sales, paper forms, etc.  After lunch we actually started training on the registers.  There were 6 of us in class and only 4 could train at a time so Bud and I volunteered to come back later in the afternoon for our training.  It went good - just the two of us there with the instructor.  We will go back in the AM to go over the register one more time and see just how much we remember.  Then we will head for Old Faithful.  We were told that both of our managers are really easy to work with and they both fly fish.

We will need to pack our car and be ready to vacate our room before 8 AM in the morning and are hoping that we don't wake up to snow like we did this morning.  We didn't realize the weather was suppose to turn so cold and with snow.  My boots were easy to get out of the car and Bud was able to find a long sleeve shirt in the first box he went into.  It was blustery with snow showers (more like ice pellets) until around 9 AM.  The snow stopped but the winds continued out of the northwest and it was cold!!  It is 7:15PM as I write this and still very light outside.  The sun is brilliant - it's pretty unreal.  It doesn't get dark until after 9PM.

The Elk are calving right now so we are all on lookout when we open any doors to go outside.  They spook easily and will attack without a lot of provocation.  To walk between an Elk cow and her calf is life threatening.   As we were doing out laundry this afternoon, we saw a girl walking her dog.  An elk saw it too and took off - headed right toward the girl/dog.  They ran out of site and neither Bud nor I wanted to go and investigate.  There were others around watching and taking pictures and after a few minutes the elk came back to her spot in the sun and that was that. 

The elk and marmot are plentiful around Mammoth usually.  Yesterday they were everywhere, but today we only saw 1 elk and just a few marmot this afternoon after the sun came out bright.  I told Bud this speaks well of the animals...they have enough sense to stay in out of the cold and snow!!!