Another trip to Livingston

June 19, 2013

Still needing a headlight, we took off for Livingston.  We stopped in Gardner at an auto repair place just in case, and sure enough they were able to replace both headlights.  We drove on to Livingston for a few items, one being an egg crate topper for my bed and cheap hairspray among others.

The ride is beautiful (I'm posting pictures).  They were doing road work this trip and we had a little delay - spoke with an interesting "flagman".  I'll let you determine" interesting"...just let me say that he has probably spent too many cold days out in the weather and then too many hot days in the sun!!
There is a wonderful little restaurant in Livingston - "The Homemade Kitchen" - everything is like the name says - Homemade.  Soup, salad, sandwiches (homemade bread) desserts.  Cash only!!  So, I took a little walk to the ATM - just a few doors down.  Rained on the way back - actually stormed.  High winds and small hail - weather turned cool - uh, cold!!  27degrees was the low on Wednesday night.

We have new kitchen help - one of the cooks was going to leave because the Head Chef sounds like a drill sergeant, but he has changed his mind for now.  Everything seems to have settled down.  Anyway, there is John the head chef, (does a very good job).  He is a widow of 5 years. Vicky the baker and assistant cook.  She is a widow of 3 years. Andrew, the second assistant.  He is a single Afro-American from Southern California.  And now,TJ, a server and dishwasher from Oregon..  He is young and is very glad to have a job.  Hope they all stay.  It seems like a good team.

There is an intestinal virus in the park brought in by a tour bus 2 weeks ago.  It is the Noro Virus.  We understand the outbreak has been on the news.   It is rampant in the Xanterra group so strict hand washing in observed and our food is being served to us, cafeteria style instead of buffet. 

Beautiful female Elk
at Mammoth Hot Springs

This is some of the road equipment we see everyday at Tower.  The other day one of the construction workers came in and we visited for a few minutes. He told us that one evening a big black bear came down and found himself a nice soft spot in a ditch they had dug and took himself a little nap.  Of course, all the work stopped for a little while until the nap was over.

A Surprise Birthday

June 16, 2013

We have had a heavy frost the past three mornings with snow in some of the higher elevations.  The days warm up nicely.  It seems there is rain in the area all the time, but we don't always get it.  Everything is very green and lush this year and we are hoping that we have a good occasional rain to keep the grass healthy and green so the animals will not wander too far up in the high country. 

We have seen more black bear this year than ever before.  The area is full with them.  There is a momma and 2 cubs in our vicinity.  She was on the roadway down to the store this morning when one of our managers and his wife saw them.  They stopped and she paid them no attention.  They had their bear spray ready for us and just kept on walking and talking and she didn't mind them at all.  We probably would have backed all the way up the hill and got in our car and driven down the exit to the store.  We are not "one with the bear".   There is one bear that shows up each evening right across the road from our store.  He always has a "following" - silly touristers!! 

We went to chapel services up in the campground amphitheater this morning.  Three very nice young men led the services.  They did a real good job.  It was vey cold but there were 10 people present.  The young men have varying positions at Xanterra during the week.  They came into our store for ice cream this evening and we had a good visit with them.

One of our headlights is out and we took a quick trip into Gardner this morning to try to find some place open so we could fix it but everything was closed.  But on the way we saw two yearling cubs playing in a grassy field and a few miles further we saw a female mule deer with two fawn.  Of course, we had left BOTH cameras in the room.  Lesson learned.

Can't do any fishing yet.  The snow melt is still in progress and the rivers are high and muddy.  It should take  another few weeks for things to settle then we will begin to do some serous fishing.  The timing is good in that we are still acclimating and we are working afternoon/evening shift.

Tonight at supper one of our kitchen crew made me a special cake for my birthday.  He had been working on it for two days.  It was delicious.  White cake with a fresh pineapple-coconut filling.  It was iced with whipped cream, sprinkle with coconut and drizzled with chocolate and topped with a strawberry fan.  So thoughtful and sweet.  A young lady from Columbia had a birthday today and she got a cake, too.  They were both big enough to share with everyone at our table.  It was a nice touch to my birthday.  One of the nicest gifts I received this year is the gift of new friends.  Everyone is very nice.

We heard from Jill and Greg yesterday and today wishing us a happy birthday and Father's Day.
Miss them both very much - as well as the grandkids.

These pictures are of a black bear that we saw yesterday morning about 1.3 miles from the dorm as we traveled to get good cell phone and internet connections.  Enjoy!!

 

Our little home away from home

June 15, 2013

We've had a few days off from work to rest and set up our room.  The internet service will probably cause both of us to stroke or have a heart attack.....it I so slow.  We have a book close by so when we are trying to logon or post, we read while we wait.  (I visualize us standing in line like at Walmart waiting to be the next to be served.)  So hopefully the pictures will download quickly and we'll all be happy.

This is the entrance to our dorm.  The roads are a mess.  We hope that before the summer is over they will at least fill in the potholes with some of the asphalt they will pave the roads with. 

This is the front of the dormitory.  Our room is on the second floor and we are the first set of windows to the right of the entrance.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the view of our room from the door way.

 

This is the view of our room facing the door looking from the window side of the room.

 

This is our little table area where we use the computer, watch movies,  have our devotions and where I plan to sew this summer and Bud will study.  Our coffee station is close by on the laundry hamper.

 

I did not take pictures of our little bathroom, counter space with sink and closet.  They all are on the wall that our beds face.  Very cozy room with lots of space.  We are very pleased.

First trip to Bozeman

June 12. 2013

Even with the car packed to the top we still found that we needed some things in our room.  Today is our first day off since arriving at Tower and after breakfast we decided to head to Bozeman.  We saw a beautiful black bear as we were leaving our area of the park and pretty soon after we saw a young buck elk on the roadside (looking a little scared).  We have threatening weather for today and as we drove north toward Livingstone the clouds began to move in.  Paradise Valley is known for it's wonderful fly fishing, and this picture does not do it justice, s with the low lying clouds we thought it just too pretty not to try and capture it on film.

Storms are predicted for this evening and we are really trying to make this a quick trip and be back to our room before the storms start.  As we travel we have 4G networking and I'm to do as much as I can as we drive to Bozeman.

Still loving our job, even though Bud doesn't have a security log on to work a register yet.  Meeting great people - many love the Lord and share our desire of ministry.  Looking forward to a wonderful summer.  Met people from Germany, Italy, Poland and Hendersonville, TN yesterday.  LOVE IT!!


This is our new little
black bear friend.

Our sweet little scared
buck elk.  (In velvet - beautiful)

Clouds over Paradise
Valley near Livingstone

A lot of the charred stumps
look like bear, but truly
in the middle of this
picture is a momma
bear.  Her little cub was up in the tree that is slanting toward her.
The rangers were scooting us along  so I could get them both.

 Just another pretty picture to share.

 

 

Living in a Dust Bowl

June 11, 2013

GOOD MORNING FROM YELLOWSTONE,

Waking up to another beautiful but cool day.  These are probably some of the shortest nights we have in our year.  The sunsets around 9:30 PM and at 5:15 AM our room is beginning to lighten up .  The air is so cool coming into our room, but we don't complain because by mid-afternoon it get just a little warm up on the second floor.

We worked yesterday - a very slow day for customer service.  Bud still doesn't have a security log-in and password, so he is watching me (really?) and hopefully we are both learning by each transaction I make , whether good or bad.   There is some merchandise that is marked incorrectly and we have to override it in the register.  Of course, any discounts take time, too so honestly to have a slow customer day is good in that we can slow down and both learn at the same time how to do process each transaction.  But as for Bud, just standing around talking to customers and restocking gets pretty boring and I actually think he gets more tired than I do with not a lot to do in the store.

We are truly enjoying our experience.  The people we work with are just great.  Mostly there are retired couples here, but we have a few single ladies and men - some widowed, some divorced, some young college kids (some of the kids are from Columbia) and some school teachers on summer break, but the relationship between  all of us is great!!  Bud told the school teacher from Texas that he and I do everything together and she has had so much fun teasing us about that.  She loves to laugh and have fun and really is a character - you just can't help but love her.  One of our Floor Managers and his wife are from Iowa.  She is our facility co-ordinator and bless her heart, trying to keep the dust off the shelves and floor is a huge job.  She is a retired Pediatric Surgery Nurse, so we enjoy spending time when she is in my sales area talking "shop"  about the medical field of today.

The road outside of the store is torn down to dirt for about 5 miles.  So people traveling are delayed about 15-20 minutes either way by a flagman from 7AM - 9PM.  They make the road one-way during the day and shut it down completely at 11PM-7AM at night.  The dust and dirt just fly in the air, in the store, in your eyes....you just feel like you're choking all the time.  We have 4 bottles of water yesterday in a 4 hour period just to keep from coughing, but if the doors are shut it gets way too hot.  So we drink water, dust shelves, try to guard the clothing from too much dust accumulating and put on a welcoming face, because we are the only stop in that area and people need refreshment and after all that is why we're here ---- to meet, greet and serve.  There is a big water truck that sprays the road several times a day but when the wind is blowing hard, it dries quickly - but it is a temporary relief.  We had a wonderful rain last night, so we're hoping the road got pretty saturated and maybe the dust will be better today.

Doing laundry this morning.  We have 3 washers and 3 dryers and it is suggested that we sign up for a time.  So I signed up for 1 1/2 hours this AM.  One of our washers is new - Woo Hoo.  It is a nice laundry room and across the hall from it is a library with so many books to borrow from.  When people finish their books they can leave them, so there is quite a collection.  I finished one on the way out here traveling and finished another last night so they will become a part of the collection here.

Breakfast served from 6:15-8AM so I' getting dressed next and then the day begins.  Off tomorrow and looking forward to doing a little traveling.  There are black bear and grizzle bear within a mile of us - tomorrow evening we're hunting  "the Grizz" and maybe even see a wolf up in Lamar Valley.

Pictures didn't download this AM - Will try again...another day, another time.

TOWER FALL - Home for the summer.

June 9, 2013

Well, we've been in Yellowstone since Thursday and everyday has been full.  Classes, travel, new dorm and a new store to work in this year.  Our trip out from home was uneventful - just straight driving, good weather and nice hotels to sleep in.  We really enjoyed Jackson, WY and West Yellowstone, MT.

Our classes for Yellowstone General Stores were informative but there is nothing like getting in and actually doing the job.  Bud doesn't have his password yet to work a register so he shadowed different people yesterday, learning all about the store, merchandise, etc. 

We have a lovely room and when I can take pictures, I'll describe our new "digs" then. 

We work with really nice people.  Everyone is so unique out here - US included.  So much fun meeting and working with great retired folks and some school teachers off for the summer.  Our Dining room is nice and our cooks are fabulous.  I'll write more about them later, but to say that keeping off the 26 lbs. I lost is going to be easy is a joke.  We have our own pastry chef - just a good ole lady that knows her stuff.  More to follow.

We have pictures, too but time doesn't permit me to do a lot this morning.

Hope you'll follow the blog.  I promise, it will get better.  Just real busy and real tired right now.

Counting down the days!!

May 19, 2013

Just thinking, 2 weeks from today we will be traveling west for our third attempt at serving a summer in Yellowstone National Park.  Oh how we pray that we get to enjoy this entire summer in Yellowstone working with new friends and having a blast fishing, hiking and just generally enjoying all  the beauty of God's creation.  If you are viewing this post, may I invite you to pray with us and for us to have a fruitful summer of pleasure and witness for our Lord?