Yellowstone Adventure - Day 3

  Well today I worked the early shift at the general store and for the most part I ran a cash register but a couple of hours I helped in the stock room getting the stock unboxed and put on stock shelves.  It was pretty much all hands on deck for that job as there were several pallets of merchandise delivered that needed to be unboxed and put in the stock room or as we call it the dungeon.  The thing is I have worked on a submarine, so the underground close quarters of an overstocked storage room does not affect me much. 

  The day started out cold and rainy and we had a pretty good storm the night before.  After a few hours on the job it started to snow and rain and then just snow for a while.  After a few minutes it was just rain and then the sun came out and then the whole pattern started over again.  I was in the dungeon at the time and the crew patrolling the general store were making frantic trips down to the catacombs searching for light weight rain slickers and ponchos.  It seems like the tourists did not pay much attention to the weather patterns of Wyoming in May at 8,000 feet up. You would not believe how many of them were freezing their rear ends off.  It was a boon for the store for sure as we sold a bunch of foul weather gear and ponchos. 

  I talk to several foreign tourists today and mostly all of them were nice enough to communicate back to me on where they came from and how they liked the park.  I talked to people from China, France, Pakistan, Germany and England today.  I am getting better at spotting the looks from people who do not understand my special Hoosier greeting of “Hello you all and how are you doing today?” as being from other countries. 

  I also talked to several people that were tenting it in the camp ground.  I commended them on their intestinal fortitude at sleeping in a tent while the snow was coming down.  They all smiled and said they were having a blast camping, but they did say that they came into the general store to get more items for warmth.  I also sold some playing cards to a group of ladies who were tenting.  They figured that they would stay in the tent during the cold and rainy nights and play cards.  They also bought a bottle of rum and some Cokes, which I think would help them stay warm too.

  The bears have been pretty active around Madison, which is north of us and I may drift up there on my day off Sunday to see if I can spot a grizzly or two.  I will be attending church in West Yellowstone tomorrow.  It is about 31 miles from my dorm to the church and about 1 hours’ drive.  After church I plan on doing some phone and computer updating at the McDonalds in West Yellowstone, as the Wi-Fi and cellular internet here are pretty bad.  I can barely get my blog updated and some pictures uploaded.  I have turned off any downloading or updating of my cell phone and computer until I get to someplace where I have a decent connection.  I will also try to find a lamp for the room or at minimum a clip on light that I can use over my bed to read.  After that I will do some exploring of Yellowstone, but I will be keeping to the west side and I will most likely not head higher into the mountains until the roads are totally cleared off and the chance of snow diminishes.

  That just about does it for my exciting day.  I am doing well and boy are they feeding me well here.  I am going to have to skip some meals if I want to start losing weight, but then again I am doing more work and standing for longer hours than I have ever done in the past.  So maybe the exercise will do me good.  I can’t wait to get in some hiking as I know that will be exercise for sure. Well you all take care and I do appreciate you reading my blog.  Stay happy and remember God like joyful people.  So spread some joy.