Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Final Entry

  Well if you are reading this then you probably know I am home. If you don't then surprise I am home in Indiana once again. Why am I home you may ask. Well sometimes you have to put the bucket list on hold to be there for the family. If you did not know my son Jacob, his wife Hayley and my grandson Marek will be moving to West Virginia. Jacob will be starting a new job in the DC area. Their house has sold and they have bought a new one in West Virginia. When Hayley posted on Facebook of their plans I started to be bothered in my heart. I prayed and talked to God about the situation and after a couple restless nights I decided I needed to be home with the family to help them in their move, if I can. But also to give hugs and advice. Several weeks ago I approached Carrie of my decision and indicated to her that I would end my contract on August 13th and head home. I explained the situation and how I have been praying about it. She understood. I felt bad about not fulfilling my contract and leaving her in a bind. Something I never wanted to do. But God answered prayer in that I have been taking to my friend Doris, who worked with me last year. She was in the tetons working and things were not going well. I told her that I am sure Carrie would pick her up as a cashier if she wanted to come back. A week later Doris contacted HR and she was hired. I felt a lot better about leaving because Doris will fill in the void left by me as a cashier until October 30th.

Since this is my last entry I wish to say goodbye once again to my fellow workers at Yellowstone. Some old friends like Kathy, James, Bob, Robert, Patrick, George, Jack, Julian, Ron, Cindy, Doris, Anita, Anna and Carrie. Also some new friends I have made Heidi, Sandi, Dianne, Anthony, Mark, Jacob, Rudi, Elizabeth, Artum, Nobel, Sherrie, Dustin, Connor, Erin and Megan.  All the Taiwanese and Russian workers.  If I left off any one I ask forgiveness. Thanks for more than a month of adventure.

Yellowstone thanks again for the sights and sounds of God's creation.

Thank you all who read my blog. Either everyday or every so often. Take care and see you around Linton, at least for awhile.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 34

  Got up and had a good breakfast of bacon and eggs. Then went into the store to get my til. I went to work in the grocery section and started to stock the refrigerators. After a couple of hours I went and stood for 2.5 boring hours waiting on very few customers. It was really slow in the store and that 2.5 hours just dragged on like slow death.
  Finally my break arrived and lunch was pretty good. After lunch I went to watch some TV and then headed to my room to listen to some music and rest.
  I clocked back in and the store finally was busy enough to justify 8 cashiers. It stayed busy for the next 3 hours. Thank goodness.
  For dinner I had cereal as Friday is pizza night and I am not a fan of spicy pizza. After dinner I needed to get my uniforms washed so I started some laundry. This is my Friday and pay day. Got a surprise in my check in that the promised bonus for the cash register issues that we went through a couple of weeks ago was in this paycheck. 80 extra dollars. Yeah.
  That is about it except, come on Cubs what is wrong with you. The Cardinals as sniffing at your backside. Whew, need to get that off my chest.
  Later all and please stay safe and well.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 33

   Another boring morning, so I won't bother you with details.
  After lunch it was very busy, finally. Had a great conversation with a couple from New Zealand and a very nice family from Italy. I also waited on a guy whose first name was Linton. Not his last name, but his first name. I told him where I was from and he laughed very hard. He said it was not a common first name and was surprised there was a town by that name. He said I made his day.  I also got the privilege of reuniting a man and his wallet after two days apart. He left his wallet at my cash register two days ago and we put it in the office lost and found. My friend Bob felt like a newly christened ship today. Demetri, who was working next to him, smacked a huckleberry flavored vodka down hard on the counter and it shattered. Spraying Bob with vodka. Let's just say Bob did not like it at all.  We also had to call the park rangers today because an elderly woman, with the on set of Alzheimer's, had wandered off from her daughter. Her daughter's cell phone has no signal and she had no way of contacting her mother. She was extremely worried and concerned. I don't know what happened in this situation as she went off with the park rangers.
  If you want to read how bad Yellowstone congestion is and will be. Then take a look at https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/17042.htm
  After dinner I decided to take a short hike to the new overlook for the Grand Prismatic pool. They just finished building this overlook, as the trail was closed for over a year. I put pictures and videos on Facebook of the pool. It is one of the most visited places and congested places in the park.
  That is about all for today. Take care and pray for one another.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 32

   The day started early and cold, but sunny.  After breakfast I got my til and went immediately into the refrigerators to stock. I worked in the refrigerators for a couple of hours. I then went to my station and noticed it was getting busy. It stayed busy until my break.
  Lunch break came and James, our cook, grilled us all hamburgers. I had a bacon cheeseburger and it was great. I went to the dorm and watched some TV for awhile. Then it turned dark and we had lightening strikes around us. Then the rain came. After a short nap I went back to work. The rain was still coming down. This forced tourists into the store and also down the road. Most of those tourist who came into the store just hung out to dry and never bought anything. They just turned the place into a crowded area.  After awhile the rain came down harder and it started to hail pretty good. Tourists still ventured out and watched the eruptions.
  Not too much else happened in the store. When I turned my cash in I got to see the report of how I have been doing as a cashier. The report showed that I was no less than 31 cents short to 28 cents over. A pretty good report. I also received a tee shirt that celebrated the eclipse coming up on August 21. Doubled my wardrobe. I also saw the report of items broken by tourists in the store and items damaged before they reached the shelf. It was incredibly long. Tourist break things everyday and multiple times a day. Mainly because the aisles are narrow and the store is crowded.
  Well that is about it. I have laundry to do now. Take care.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 31

   For some reason I could not sleep past 5am. So I got up and took a shower and got ready for work. Then I watched Mike and Mike on ESPN for awhile before breakfast.  Breakfast was blueberry pancakes and bacon. Great way to start a really boring day.  All I can say is the cold and rain kept business down and just standing around for 4 hours is a drag. We had four people stocking grocery, so everything got stocked pretty quick. The tourists were not happy standing in the cold rain watching old faithful. Most just left in their cars after watching the eruption, so business was very slow.
  Lunch was great. Baked ham and sweet potatoes. After a boring morning I looked forward to a nice nap.
   Going back to work after the break and business was still slow. If your reading this I hope you are as bored as I was. :) Going to try to read a book at the Old Faithful Inn and relax. Take care and sorry the day was not more exciting.
  P.s. yesterday Patrick said he found a wad of cash under one of our display tables. The cash was rolled up in a rubber band and had two lottery tickets with it. He said it was a lot of money and he turned it in to management. Tourists seem to always leave things behind.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 30

  Day shift today so I was up at 5:50am to get showered. Breakfast was cereal this morning because you sometimes just need some raisin bran.
   After breakfast I clocked in and got my til. The company auditors came in last night and audited our tils. I was spot on. Put my til in my register in the grocery station and headed into the refrigerators to stock. The morning was very slow and stocked until around 11am. I had a great couple from Spain come in that were lost. They could not speak english well and I had difficulty understanding them. Eventually I understood that they were traveling by motorcycle and got separated from their group, with no way to contact them because of the cell phone service. They wanted to know how to get to Sturgis, where the motorcycle rally was going on. I showed them on the map how to get to the east entrance and to Cody Wyoming. I managed to get them to understand once they got near Cody they would have cell reception. They thanked me several times and headed out. I sure wish the universal translator was invented as that would have come in handy today.
  Lunch break was great and the nap was even better.  Heading back to work at 2:30 I found the store to be somewhat busy but not too busy. Not too many customer stories from the rest of my shift and I managed to clock out on time.
  On a side note the temperature this morning was 33 degrees and it has been raining off and on. A very cold rain. Sleeping was great but had to turn off the fan in the middle of the night as it got pretty cold.
  That is about all. Please say a prayer for our cook Kathy as she fell today and was hurt. She is a great person and cares for all of us workers. She is a great cook too.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 29

   Got up semi early to get breakfast and head to church services at the Old Faithful Inn. It was pretty cold when services started and I had to put on a pullover sweatshirt. From the second floor at the inn you could see a lot of steam coming from the Geyser basin.
  After church services I headed to Idaho Falls to catch a movie and wander around a bit. I got there around 11:10 and the movie I wanted to see, Dunkirk, did not have the time that would fit in my schedule. So I settled for the Dark Tower. It was pretty good. After the movie I went to Cabela's to just wander around. Then I decided to save my peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner and ate at Panera bread. It was pretty good.
   After driving around town for a short while I headed back to the dorm. Traffic was good and not much happened other than seeing an eagle over the Firehole river.
   That is about it. Pretty boring but relaxing day. Thanks for reading.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 28

  Got up early because I wanted to get a jump on the tourists and hike the Grand canyon of Yellowstone. I gathered my hiking gear and showered and headed for breakfast. Today's breakfast was my favorite, biscuits and gravy. This fact will play a big part in my day.
 After breakfast I gathered my gear and headed north to the Grand canyon of Yellowstone. The canyon has two sides, the north rim and the south rim. With the Yellowstone River flowing down the middle. It has two major falls, the upper and the lower. I decided to hike where I have not before and that is the south rim starting at artist point and headed higher in elavation to a place called somber point. The hike is not particularly long maybe 4 miles round trip but it is the increase in elevation that I worried about.
  I reached the parking area close the artist point and found the parking lot had only a few tourists at 8:30 in the morning. I put on my day hike backpack and even though it was 55 degrees I decided not to wear a sweatshirt. I figured after about a half an hour of walking I would warm up quickly.
  I headed first to artist point and got some pretty good pictures and videos of the lower falls. Artist point is named such because it is one of the best places artists have set up to create paintings of the lower falls and the Grand canyon of Yellowstone. We sell many pictures in our store that were created at that spot. I then headed up the trail to somber point. Now you need to understand that the trail skirts the south rim with no guardrails. A person can venture off the trail pretty much and onto rocks jutting out over the canyon. I took advantage of this fact several times as I hiked the trail and took a lot of videos that I uploaded to Facebook. The views of the canyon with the Yellowstone roaring well below were fantastic. With each step I climbed higher and higher along the south rim and father and farther away from tourists. It was sure peaceful hiking that early. The weather was great and the sky was clear. At about half way up I came to a junction where I could hike to a couple of lakes or continue on to somber point. I decided to veer toward one of the lakes and see if there were any animals linguring about. I reached Lilly Pad lake after about a half mile and stood on the banks looking around. It was quiet but no bear in site. So after a few minutes I back tracked to the junction point and continued to somber point. Climbing just a little higher, and man were my legs feeling it, I reached Somber point. This area gave you a very high view of the canyon and the river. Quite a great reward for the hike effort. After a few minutes of just admiring the view I started down. After a few minutes the biscuits and gravy I had for breakfast was how should I say? Trying to go through me like Grant went through Richmond. It took me only a little while before I knew I would not make it down the rim and to the facilities. My only recourse was to veer off the trail and head about an 1/8 of a mile away and do something I have never done before. Yes just like a bear I got to experience pooping in the woods. With no toilet paper in my backpack, there will be in the future trust me, I had to sacrifice a bandana. Thank goodness no grisly came by but then again the condition I was in I did not care much.
   The walk down the trail and back to the car went well and I must have passed 40 tourists who were just taking the trail. Glad I got an early start.  I decided to head to the upper falls to get some pictures and videos. The place was packed by this time and I had to wait my turn to get to a viewing area to see the falls. The water was running fast and furious. So much power in a river.  After the upper falls I headed to the canyon village to take a look at the store that is our main competition. The Canyon general store was huge. Much bigger than our store and a lot wider isles. They even have a sandwich counter on one end and a snack bar on the other end. I talked to a couple of workers and walked around looking to see if they had different merchandise.  Leaving the store I walked next door to their Adventure store where they sell hiking equipment and shoes. That store was also very nice and well maintained. They even had glider swings in front to sit on.
  Leaving the canyon village I got gas and headed to Hayden Valley to find a spot to eat my PB&J lunch. I found a great spot that gave me a great view of a massive bison herd. A bison even walked by my car as I was eating. It is rutting season now and boy are the bison moving like crazy. Many dust clouds were seen as the bison rolled in the dirt and many bison could be seen chasing one another. A lot of activity going on in the herd for sure.
  I headed back to the dorm and was able to upload a ton of videos from the hike. After dinner I decided to take a stroll around the Geyser basin. Right now I am writing this sitting on a bench in front of Grand Geyser. It is supposed to go off in about a half an hour, give or take 30 minutes.
  Well you all take care and if there is one thing we learned today that is to pack water and Charmin toilet paper. Later taters.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 27

   Terminals were up and running, so all the cash registers were working. Slept in late and then got up to get some laundry done.
  Today was a special lunch by Kathy and James. Baked salmon and potatoes and snicker cake. Me not being a fish fan, Kathy made sweet and sour chicken. It was a great lunch. Bob said the salmon was cooked to perfection and it was real salmon steaks. Very nice.
  Not much happened at all today so I will give you some news from the store. The general stores in Yellowstone have surpassed 4.5 million dollars worth of sales.  Management announced that due to the cash register issue all the employees of the store will get free room and board for this week. That is 80 plus dollars extra in the paycheck. Everyone cheered on that.
  Today is my Friday and I get two days off. Will be heading tomorrow to hike around the canyons of Yellowstone. I will also visit the canyon general store to see what our main competition looks like. That store is the only one comparable to ours in size.
  That is about it for today. A much better day than yesterday for sure. Take care you all.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 26

   Got up early to check if terminals were working yet. They were not and it was chaos in the store having to do manual entry. I was hoping they would come up by the time my shift started at 11:25.  The Good news was that Kathy and James fixed fried chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots and peacan pie for dessert. A great way to venture into the fracus.
   Got my til and headed to the grocery section. Folks it was all hands on deck. All supervisors were there helping all the cashiers. Some people who were off we also helping. Every item bought had to be wrote down on a form. UPC code, item description and price. All credit card transactions had to been done manually with the Knuckle buster. We had supervisors who were runners that just got prices of each item. We had people going through each line filling out forms ahead of arriving at the cash register. It was definitely a team effort. The workers were all on one page and the customers were very nice and patient. That is not too say I am not tired. Writing this at my break and my hand is killing me from writing so much and my back is hurting from being bent over for three hours writing on a form. I am definitely going to be napping during this break.
  On a side note there seems to be a forrest fire up by canyon. Yesterday the smoke reached here, but today it seemed fairly clear as the wind changed direction.  We also lost another employee due to underage drinking. It really is a shame that kids and alcohol seem to attract each other to the point of being stupid.
   After a nice nap and toasted cheese for dinner I headed back out on to the floor. The Good news was the IT group was on hand and two of the four grocery terminals were working. Mine was not but business was down and we sent all the customers to the working terminals. After about an hour of stocking my terminal was up and running. So the night went a lot better. Not much else happened and the shift ended quietly. Thank God tomorrow is Friday. I am beat. Like I said before the staff all pulled together great and the customers I had were patient and sympathetic to what we were going through. Rumor has it that the head store manager is going to reward us all with free room and board for this week. We pay around 80 dollars a week for this. So that will be nice if it ever comes through.
  Take care all and I will sleep well tonight and I hope you all do too.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 25

   Woke up early because my roommate Brandon was sleeping through his alarm. I finally had to wake him and ask him if he had the day off. He did not and thanked me for getting him up.
  Later I got a text from Cathy that the Davis family from church was in the area and trying to get in touch with me. After several texts back and forth Andy understood where I was in the park. They said they would stop by and say hello.
  After a good lunch I went to work. It was very busy and I had a little run in with a co-worker. We had a difference of opinion on what staying at your cash register and working meant. After a little dust up and floor supervisor interaction we had it settled. After awhile he apologized to me and we shook hands. I consider it over and done with.
   After my break the Davis' arrived and I took them on a quick tour of the store and the immediate area. They were in a hurry to get on the road toward the Tetons, so we just had a few minutes to talk. Still it was good to see some home folks.
  After break I went back to my cash register and worked until about 7pm. Then I stocked the fridge until 8:15. We have been prepared all week for the terminals to be taken down for an upgrade. Sure enough at 8:30 the cash registers went down and for the next hour we had to manually write down every item we sold. The problem with this was that most of the items have no price marked. So with the help of a runner and some great customers, I was able to process quite a few customers.  Carrie asked us to pray that the terminals are up and running tomorrow. I really will as I do not want to go through this process again. Writing down every item's UPC code and price and using the old knuckle buster credit card machines is not my idea of a fun time.
   That it about all. A very taxiing day and I am ready for bed. Thanks for reading and sleep well.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 24

   I was up around 8am and showered. I wanted to find out if the credit card problem was fixed. I headed to the store with my book to read it in front of the store in one of their rockers. I asked the cashiers if the credit card issue was fixed and they said not yet. Drat.
  Yesterday I forget to tell you about a customer who drove up to the Lamar valley to see the bison. He said a big bull bison was walking down the road and the truck in front of him was getting a little impatient with how slow it was traveling. Evidently the guy driving the truck laid on his horn. The bison did not take kindly to that and proceeded to give all those on the road a great viral video. The bison started to bang into the truck with its head and horns before walking off. I think the guy in the truck needs to understand that it is rutting season right now and the bison are somewhat on edge. Great videos though.
  After a lunch of spare ribs and baked potatoes I headed to the grocery section and my cash register. It was fairly busy but great that the credit card issue was finally fixed. Yesterday I got a silver dime in my til. Today I got a 1926 Buffalo nickel in my til. Bought it out at once. Two lucky days in a row. Tomorrow I may get gold.
  The store was fairly busy and I worked until my break at 2:30. At my break I ran into my friend Doris. It seems things did not work out well at Colter Bay and she quit to come back to work for our group again. It is good to have her back and will be nice to work with her once again.
   After dinner I headed back to a fairly slow store. Had some interesting customer experiences. A Chinese couple came to my register with a boat load of groceries. They started to jabber Chinese back and forth between each other while I rang up their purchase. All of a sudden I felt they were talking to me. I looked up and sure enough their jabbering was directed at me and I had no idea what they were saying. They kept grabbing stuff out of the bag and then jabbering at me again. I finally held up my hand and said very slowly to stop grabbing items that I have not scanned yet and please slow down on what you are trying to say. They finally stopped jabbering so fast and we got their purchases done. It was a really tough day of communicating with customers for sure.
   We had a lady who came to our station and wanted to file a grievance against the prices that are being charged in the store. She felt that the high prices were limiting the park to only those elite rich people. Bob gave her a form to fill out and turned it over to management. I just laughed.
  Worked in the refrigerator the rest of the evening until I clocked out. That is about it for the day. I hope you all reading this are doing well. Thanks for coming along.

Yellowstone Adventure 2017 - Day 23

  Well the day started great but ended pretty lousy. Got to sleep in and just read a little until lunch, as I had the late shift today.  The first part of the shift went well. Fairly busy but not too busy. I did get a silver dime in my til as change. I quickly bought it out of my til. When I was younger my Dad had two restaurants. Every night he went through the change and pulled out the silver coins. I guess I learned from him.
   After dinner break the place was fairly busy until around 7pm. Then I went to work in the grocery section stocking refrigerators. Around 8pm Robert came and got me to get back to my register. It seems the terminals could not process credit card transactions. So we had to pull out the old knuckle Buster's and do the credit card transactions manually. It sure slowed things down and back ups at all registers started happening. It was solid chaos until closing time. The customers were nice about it and many commented that they had not seen the knuckle busting machine in years.
  On a sad note, we lost a worker at our canyon store. They found him in his RV unresponsive. They think he died of a heart attack. I prayed for this person's family today.
  That is about it and I hope they have the credit card issue worked out before I go back to work tomorrow. Take care you all and be well.
  P.s. My supervisor Robert had the best hiking story I have heard to date. He went on an 18 Mile hiked in the Lamar valley and ran into Grizzles, bison, rain, hail, sun, and lightening. He had a great adventure and all the thrills of the summer packed into one hike.