New Friends

July 10, 2013

We are off today and are taking our new young friends from Taiwan with us to Old Faithful.  They have no transportation, so on some of our days off we will take them around the park.  They are so sweet.  We love to tell them facts about Yellowstone - they all act so surprised at everything we say, then cover their mouths with their hands, giggle and say in unison "Really?".  They are so cute.  Their names are Phoebe, Clara, Sandy and Jean.  All are Finance/Business students and are very smart.  All the kids from Taiwan and Columbia are so happy.  The young man from the UK doesn't appear to be as glad to be here as everyone else.  Hope to get to know him better.

Our kitchen situation has changed - again!!  We still have the head chef and Sam, from the UK has become the 2nd line cook.  He has no experience but is willing to learn.  His specialty so far is grilled cheese sandwiches and soup - what can I say???????  We have some young girls who are working in the kitchen also.  They have grilled chicken and hamburgers so far.  AND all of them have spaghetti and pasta down real good!!  Haven't heard any more about the Norovirus except 150 employees on the park and 50 guest had it.  We were lucky I guess.  The Xantera employees were the sickest I believe - they actually dealt with the bus group that stayed in their hotels who brought it into the park.

We have had a good week.  Our late schedule was changed and instead of working from 1;-9:30PM we are working from Noon-6:30PM last week and this week.  It cuts our time by one hour each day - but everyone is taking turns in rotating their schedule.  On the 4th of July the road construction ended for several days and our customer count increased tremendously. We have thunderstorms that knocked out tall but one of our registers and credit card machines temporarily.  The store was so   crowded you could hardly move.  It was stuffy and people were in no hurry to leave because of the hail and rain.  Transactions done in the midst of the power failure were lost and the customers had already left the store.  I guess that is part of the "Yellowstone Shopping Experience".

Our nights have really cooled down with the rains occurring in the afternoons.  We have lows in the upper 30's and lower 40's in the morning until about noon, then it rises to the low 70's.  Pretty ideal actually!!  We understand that it has been rainy and humid in Tennessee - so sorry we're missing that.  HaHa!!

Wished I had my camera yesterday.  A mother deer with her two spotted fawns were across the street from the store  She stood posed with the little ones nursing,---then the silly tourist started approaching her and she ran off.  The small fawns got separated from her but after a few seconds she jumped the fence and led them behind our store.   It was raining and I had to go out to our trailer for more coats. I watched her for a few minutes and then she left with her babies.



When I posted on July 4th, I mentioned the bison with the gimpy right leg passing us while we were posting on the internet.  There were motorcyclist approaching him and he got caught between cars and motorcycles.  He was not happy-----he headed straight for the bikers and they hopped off their cycles and hid behind the cars that were close to them.  After a few minutes he took a sharp left and headed up the hill - bad leg and all.  Here are the two pictures we took of him.

Happy 4th of July

Before you read this - let me apologize for the pictures showing up right in the middle of the dialogue.  We are up on a hill trying to get internet service and right in the middle of downloading the pictures a huge bison who is crippled is walking by our car.  Traffic stopped and idiots, I mean people began to gather.  Bubba got anxious and became a little undecided as to what to do next and I lost my train of thought11


Got up early to start our day and thought we would check on the Soda Butte Creek to see if if it had cleared enough to make fishing worth the effort.  Still a little murky and no hatches were going on so we cut that fishing trip short and decided to go on to Slough Creek. (pronounced sloo creek)

On the way back through Lamar Valley we saw something that few visitors get to see.....a black female wolf was walking down the road and came within 20 feet of our car.  (They usually don't come this near to humans especially at 10:00 in the morning.)  Ginny saw the wolf coming so we stopped to take the pictures.  Summer season is the toughest part of the wolf's life.  They are shedding their winter coat and are looking for food...this is not easy for the wolf.  This maybe why the wolf looks so "scraggly".  We had lunch with the Wolf expert of the park and he says we saw a two-year old female and that her looks are normal for this time of year.

We stopped at Slough Creek and tried our hand at fishing there because the damsel flies wee swarming in huge numbers.  However, huge biting flies were attacking us to the point we couldn't stay.  So we headed back for our 4th of July celebration at the EDR.

Our lunch was great.  Steaks grilled to order.  The best steak we have had anywhere in a long time.  The were so tender you could cut them with a fork.  We had a wonderful salad bar with potato salad and fresh fruit salad.  Our dessert was made from scratch cream cheese cake with blueberries, whipped cream and topped with fresh whole strawberries.  To say the least we had a feast!!

We have all been given 4th of July shirts to wear today and this weekend to work.  They are really neat!!

It's Hotter than we thought

July 3, 2013

Trying to catch up while Bud is  looking for some new work shoes.  We are in Bozeman today, even though the drive here is spectacular, we are getting a little bored with spending our off days driving to the same place each week. 

Seems like summer has arrived with a vengeance and it is terribly hot.  Even though the temperature has been in the mid to upper 80's it is almost unbearable.  The store is attempting to run the air conditioning, but honestly is it is cooler with the doors open.  At least there is a breeze.  Road construction came to a halt today until Sunday night.  Hoping that will produce a lot of customers over the week-end.  We were busier the past few days than in June, so maybe that is a good sign.

We are here in Bozeman not only looking for shoes for Bud but also to purchase cotton sheets.  We brought flannel sheets with us thinking that the nights would be cold and we would enjoy the comfort of flannel. NOT!!  So we ended up at our favorite store - As Caleb use to call it "Paradise" (WalMart) and did a little sheet shopping along with a few other things.

We thought they had boosted our internet service, but it is as slow as ever.  So I'm taking advantage of the tree shaded parking lot at TJ Maxx and trying to catch up.

We lost another one of our cooks this morning.  He got tired of the #1 cook bossing him and calling him names, so HR moved him to West Yellowstone.  He is a nice guy and we hope that he does better over there.  One of the other cook's (the sort of mama bear over the Employee Dining Room - EDR we call it) Vikki, lost her mother on Sunday.  She could not make the arrangements to go home so she took a few days off.  Her mother was terminal and they had said their goodbye's before Vikki came out to work.  So it is a mystery as to who will cook and what we will eat.  So far it has been OK but we both have lost a few pound, not necessarily from the food but from the work and the heat.

We will be heading out of Bozeman in the next few minutes so I will try and download a few picture before loosing the 4G networking.   (Tomorrow is the 4th and we will have a cook out at lunch - steaks we understand.  I will try to take pictures of some of our new friends.)


These first three pictures are out of sequence.  We actually saw the little cub on our way back to the dormitory.  Bless his little heart he has been separated from his mother.  We can only guess that he is in her way right now.  It is the mating season for the black bear and often times the mother will abandon the baby because she wants to mate and doesn't want the baby to be killed by a big make bear.

He was licking some paper.  We think he is hungry.  He has been seen by a few of our employees in the area over the past several day.

The Ranger had the traffic stopped for almost 2 miles tryin gto shew the baby cub away.   The Ranger was clapping his hands and throwing rocks at it trying to get it  to move from the road.  If you look closely at the bottom left of this picture, the cub is hiding behind the tall tree near the orange netting.

 We took a ride through Lamar Valley last week and saw this very handsome fellow

 

 

 These are some of the horse at Roosevelt that are used for Horse back riding and for the Chuck Wagon dinner

 

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 This is our resident Bison - guess you might call him the construction mascot.

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Fun AT Canyon

June 27, 2013

We decided to try a picnic in Canyon today.  Since blogging is such a problem at Tower, this is a multipurpose trip.  We actually went to an area of Canyon that we cannot ever remember going to before.  We took some pretty pictures and then came back to the General store for our 30% discount on grocery items and free drinks.  (We were suppose to have a picnic lunch today, but the kitchen ran out of bread, so we settled for a pre-made sandwich and homemade cookie.)

I spoke with some of the employees  at Canyon and they are experiencing the same decrease in customers as we are.  It seems that the park is not busy as generally it is this time of year.  Hopefully, next week being the 4th of July we will see an increase.

Our cook came down with a bug it seems.  He thought at first it was food poisoning from a restaurant in Emmigrant, MT but his daughter ate the same thing and she is fine.  He has decided not to go to the clinic to be diagnosed for Norovirus so he will stay quarantined in his room for three days.  We have no idea what our meals will be over the next few days, but I think Bud and I have decided that cold cereal, toast and juice for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch and yogurt and fruit for supper will probably be safe for us for a few.

Three girls for Taiwan that came in today.  They seem very sweet and will work at the fountain.  Because we have had such bad luck with kitchen help and because everyone's hours are being cut back, some of the cashiers (young internationals) are switching over to work in the kitchen.  (Probably another good reason to stick with cold cereal, yogurt, etc. for a few days)

Visited Old Faithful today.  Bud saw many of the folks he worked with last year.  Everyone was so happy to see him - hugged his neck and said they couldn't understand why we weren't rehired.  They had a few other remarks too that I'll not publish!! 

Saw this beautiful array of yellow flowers today and Bud was kind enough to get out of the care and take this picture.  I am spellbound by the various wildflowers.

This is Gibbons Falls - one of our favorites.  We haven't stopped here in a few years because of the road work they were doing.  But the end reseluts is beautiful, wonderful and more safe than ever before.

 

Looking downstream from Gibbons Fall.  Straight down from this point is a large picnic area.



The next two pictures are from Mt. Washburn area.  I usually drive this stretch because it is so steep and curvy.  Bud was the photographer.  He took some great pictures.

Enjoying the day off

June 26, 2013

We have worked early shift this week(7AM-2:30PM)  Our hours are cut short this week by 1 hour each day.  Hopefully, next week the traffic into the store will be better.  We don't know if the road construction o the cold weather has been the factor in decrease of customers.  We continue to meet people from all over.  Last week a couple with their granddaughter from Cookeville stopped by the store.  The granddaddy had his and his wife's picture made with me and Bud and said they were going to submit it to the local newspaper --- Whatever!!  Look for us in the Cookeville Herald-Citizen.

Night before last they decided to strip and wax the EDR floors.  So the cleanup team parked their truck in front of the dorm right underneath our window.  Thank goodness for the sound machine.  About 1:45AM - 3AM there was noise that was disturbing and then having to get up at 5:30AM to get ready for work.

We took a trip to Lamar Valley, a very beautiful area of Yellowstone that contains two of the premiere trout streams.  The water is very high but Bud thinks next week we can make a stab at fishing.  I hope so.  The past two years we never got our rods out, so fishing would be a great step for us in making this year a solid experience.

We saw some pretty scenery and animals that I will attempt to post with this.  Blogging and downloading pictures is sort of like pulling toenails - slow and painful.

Here goes:

Wild Primrose along the side of the road

Not sure what this is called, but it looks a lot like digitalis.

A cow elk outside of a ranger's home at Mammoth Hot Springs

Momma and calf Elk up in Lamar Valley.

 The Soda Butte - lots of good fishing there.  This is an area where Wolves and Grizzlies are seen often at sunset.

 Along the Soda Butte.  Love the angle of the tree growing out and then upward.

Saw this scraggly Pronghorn on the opposite side of the road from his buddies.

Changes in our blogging

June 23, 2013

We are finding that trying to maintain a daily journal is next to impossible.  Between the hours we work and the availability of internet service when we are not working is frustrating.  So we are going to try to make a weekly entry.  This morning we are free until noon - so after writing this we will go to our "hot spot" and attempt to send it.  Downloading pictures takes the longest time, so we will save that till the very end of each blog.

Thursday was another day off and we drove over Dunraven pass (the steepest area of the park) down  to Canyon.  It has been interesting to go into the different YGS to see the variation in merchandise.  We have visit 4 stores other than our own and have come to the conclusion that we have the friendliest staff.  That may be due to personalities or the fact that we are not real busy and that allows us more time to speak to the guest.

We have had rain, sleet and snow the past 3 days mixed with a little sunshine.  Today the highs are in the 60's.  We pulled out the turtleneck shirts this morning to go sit out in the amphitheater for church service.  There were just 4 of us this AM not including the 2 who conducted the service.  They are good young men and try very hard to follow the format while speaking from their hearts.

We start Early shift tomorrow.  Because there are more workers than the need for service, everyone is having their hours cut.  We will work from 7AM-2:30PM with 1 hour for lunch.  Next week we will work the late shift 2PM-9:30 with an hour for lunch.  There is a mid shift that works 12PM-6:30PM with NO lunch and a 15 minute break.  We will rotate to that every once in a while.  All of this hopefully will change as the tourist increase.

We are enjoying the Fourth Season of "24" that Greg gave to us 3 years ago.  We are actually addicted to it.  One episode just doesn't do it for us - we usually watch 2, no matter how late the hour.

We never cease to be amazed at the beauty and wonder of Yellowstone Park.  The mountains, the falls, the terrain and all the excitement and grandeur of nature is breathtaking. The beast of the fields and the birds of the air along with other sights, sounds and smells is inspirational. Bud says that Psalm 104:10-25 was written with Yellowstone in mind. 

Following are some pictures just taken at random.  Because of the internet service, we will need to download these when we send this blog, so time is a factor.

Our days off are Wednesday and Thursday of each week - so we will probably blog again from Mammoth Hot Springs on one of those mornings and bring the journaling up to date.

This is driving over Dunraven Pass, the highest drivable road in the park.  There are still large patches of snow.

 Big Bison are everywhere.

 A pretty view of Lake Yellowstone. 

 Some of the lovely flowers that seem to bloom in the most unusual places.

When we took this picture, we pulled off the side of the road.  When I got out of the car I heard a strange noise of a huffing and honking.  We couldn't tell if it was in the trees or on the ground, but I didn't wait around to see.  I got back into the car and we rolled down the windows and we could still hear it.  We could never figure out exactly what it was.

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.