Yellowstone Adventure 2021 - Day 6

    Slept pretty well last night. My knees and feet sure do like the sleep, but through the day my knees are really screaming at me.  I left my turmeric home that I take for inflammation in the knees.  I will have to pick some up on my day off.

   Breakfast was good old biscuits and gravy.  I could eat that and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and be happy for sure.  Not to mention Oreo cookies and milk for dessert.  Today was the first day I opened by myself, as Ron finally got a morning off.  He works very hard trying to keep the grocery going and with me and Mark here he will now get some time off.  The first thing I had to do was to stock the fountain area with chips and sandwiches.  We go a load of pre-made sandwiches yesterday that needed to be stock in the fountain.  When we were stocking them in the refrigerator we noticed that two boxes of egg salad sandwiches that arrived yesterday expired yesterday.  Not very good of the warehouse to send those to us to fulfill an order.  Ron says that he has had a lot of issues this year with the pre-made sandwiches.  I would advise any of my friends to stay away from them when visiting and buy our lunch meat and cheese and make your own. Just a tip.

   I think you will like the photo below.  The tip is that you should not ever park your outdoor grill under a roof line where ravens perch.  Just a warning folks.

  Not too much else happening today.  Business was good.  Tourists were polite and grocery kept me on my toes stocking the drink cooler.  It was a little hot today and we sold a lot of water, pop and beer.

   Tomorrow is my Friday and my knees are looking forward to a break from walking.  I don't think I will be doing any hiking on the days off.  I think I will head to some ghost towns to explore.  Take care and please pray for Janie Elliott.

Yellowstone Adventure 2021 - Day 5

   After a good nights sleep, uninterrupted by any fire alarms, I showered and headed for breakfast.  Breakfast consisted of 2 boxes of Raisin Bran, because sometimes your body just needs some bran.  :) I went into work and immediately started filling the snacks in the Fountain area. This year since fountain is short handed we have to fill their fridges and snack displays.  One of the things I noticed while walking through the store was that there was only about half the number of clothing racks as we had in the past.  The kids section and the womans section was the most bare.  I thought to myself how could we be setting record sales but have so much less inventory.  I wonder if Delaware North will learn from that in the future.  I sure wish they would learn that from the gazillion types of beers I have to stock.

   The day was pretty much uneventful except for a rather strange happening in the clothing area.  The place was packed with tourists and someone informed our staff that there was someone passed out in the woman's restroom stall.  The supervisor found a woman clerk and sent her in and sure enough a girl had passed out but was coming around.  They brought her out and set her down and ask her if she had any family.  She said a grandmother and the staff then went on the intercom and asked for the grandmother to come to the area where this girl was at.  The girl looked to be dehydrated and not looking the best.  The grandmother arrived and when she looked at the girl all she did was hold up a sweatshirt and ask if this would be ok to buy.  The staff informed her the girl pass out and you might want to get her to the medical clinic.  The grandmother then asked the staff to watch her for a while so she could go and pay for her stuff.  The staff wanted to kick her in the rear end for sure.  I guess that is not the first or the last person we will have pass out in the store.  You can get dehydrated quickly here and people are warned but many don't heed the warning at all.

  We had a truck arrive late with a lot of stuff, so I hung around some and then Ron told me to check out as he and Mark would be able to handle the load.  I am sure tomorrow I will be stocking a lot of the items that arrived.  We still are having quite a few items that are either out of stock or out of production.  

   That is all for now.  Heading to get some dinner.  Go Cubs, what is left of the team anyway.  Please continue to pray for Janie Elliott.

Yellowstone Adventure 2021 - Day 4

   After my first work day I decided to head to bed around 8:30, as my legs needed a rest.  I slept real well up until 5:20AM when the dorm fire alarm went off. It seems that someone in the south dorm was doing laundry and the dry belt seized, but the motor kept on going.  The dryer started smoking and then the smoke alarm went off.  The procedure is that everyone in all dorms are to leave their rooms and congregate in the parking lot, with someone doing a head count.  It was a brisk 50 degrees this morning and not too many of my co-workers were very happy, but we managed to get into groups and chat and joke.  The fire department sent the rangers first and then the fire engine came.  They were all dressed like they would fight an inferno.  After about 30 minutes they let the people go back into their dorm who did not live in the dorm with the smoke issue.  Since I do no live in the general purpose dorm this year, I went back to take a shower and get ready for breakfast.  By the way I did not tell you that I was put in the married dorm in a room by myself. Ron in grocery said he had to pull a few strings to get that to happen, but I think he was kidding.  The dorm is very nice and the room is about the same size as the other dorm, but it is a lot quieter.

 

   After breakfast I went into work for about a half an hour and then I got in line for my COVID test.  They do a quick results test of all the employees.  I passed with flying color, but I sure do not like things shoved up my nose.  The interesting turn is that I had to shove the q-tip up my own nose.  They did not do it just rooted me on to do each nostril for 10 seconds or so.  After the test I had to blow my nose for about 10 minutes.  We only had one person test positive and they retested him and he tested negative.  So for precaution they are sending the sample to a lab and he has to stay in his room until the get an all clear.  He won't be named, but was not happy at all.

   I was informed that yesterday we set, or tied, a new sales record of $108,000 one day store sales.  When the rains came people flocked to the store and while they were taking refuge they spent money.  Ron in grocery was happy.

   For lunch today James and Kathy fixed Bar-B-Q spare ribs, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and salad.  It was great, which is why I wont be eating dinner.  That was a huge lunch.  Ron and I discussed how to adjust my shift to make sure my legs are not wore out.  So he authorized me to come in around 8AM and work til Noon and then come back around 2PM and work until 6PM.  I still get my 8 hours, but i get to put my legs up for a couple hours to rest.  Today my legs felt much better with the break.

   Well that is about all for today.  Fire alarm, COVID test, rain and thunder again and a packed store full of smelly tourists.  Not much else going on.  :)  Take care and as a side request please pray for Cathy's sister Janie.  I hate cancer. 

Yellowstone Adventure 2021 - Day 3 (first day at work)

   Got up today ready to start my work in the grocery.  As I sit here tonight writing this I can only say one thing.  "Man am I tired!!!!".  I worked in grocery before, but I worked split shifts.  Split shifts allows an 8 hour day to be broken up by a 2.5 hour break in the middle.  Because we have so few workers here everyone is on an 8 plus hour shift.  I walked 18,000 steps today.  Lifting and toting goods all over the store.  I am beat.  I have talked to Ron, my manager, about getting a split shift and he said he would think about it.  The big reason he may want me working a split shift is that when the store is open the place is packed.  Being so crowded we cannot get items on the shelves very easily.  When the store closes at 6PM then we can get goods on the shelves and areas cleaned up.  So I suggested I work a split shift where part works from 5PM to 9PM getting items on the shelf and ready for the next day.  He said he would think about it and I said it would really help my aging legs to have a break in the day rather than 8 hours straight on my feet.  I am not a young man anymore.  :)

   As for the day, well I found out that because of the times we are very very short handed.  Because of that we are required to not only do the normal grocery work, but we have to handle custodial work and fountain work.  I was told it will not be getting better soon, as we will be having a few people leaving in the future and they wont be replaced.  I am hoping that Delaware North decides to close certain parts of the store down when that happens, but that is yet to be seen.  I don't have much to learn in the way of my job here, but there are a few new wrinkles.  The first observation is we have too many different varieties of beer to sell.  I cannot keep track of them all.  I think we sell 24 varieties of specialized beer.  Can't we just stick with PBR, Bud, and Miller?  That would make my life a lot easier in the grocery refrigerator for sure.  Also many items we normally stock are out of stock from the supplier.  I don't know why they are out of stock, but it is a pretty large percentage.  Things like fruit juices, turkey wraps, sweetened tea, Gatorade, certain chips, etc...  There are quite a few empty slots on our shelves for items that may never even come this year.  Our ice sales have stopped as we cannot get the ice distributor to stock it. Also they machine they gave us barely keeps the ice from freezing.  The last few bags in the machine are mostly water.  We don't sell any Coke products this year.  It is all Pepsi, but they can't supply all our needs because there is a driver shortage it seems.  So as you can see things are going to be interesting at the store for sure.

  During all this the tourists keep coming.  Some wearing masks and most are not.  Today Delware North mandated that all employees wear masks while at work. This does not make for a pleasant time.  My glasses keep fogging up and I cannot see the items I need to stock.

   On a good note, it rained today and it was needed.  Maybe the rain will wash away the smoke that has been hanging over this area for quite some time.  The tourists did not like it at all, but the store made a killing selling ponchos and umbrellas.

   Tomorrow Delaware North will be testing their workers here for COVID.  So at 8:30AM I will get tested.  I think they are using rapid results testing, so we should hear back fairly quickly on how we did.  

Yellowstone Adventure 2021 - Day 2

   Ron wanted me to start working on Wednesday, so today was my day off.  I decided to get up and eat breakfast, which is the only meal they allow all employees to eat in the Employee Dining Room (EDR).  For lunch and dinner we are supposed to take it to our rooms and eat.  Not fun at all as I miss talking to my fellow workers and friends. After breakfast I decided to take a small 3 mile hike bordering the Madison River.  You see the Madison River is created in Yellowstone from the confluence of the Gibbon and Firehole Rivers.  They have a hiking and skiing trail close to the entrance of the park at West Yellowstone. This area is also good for entering the river and fly fishing.  You can see the pictures below on some shots of the river and a few people fishing in it.

  After walking the trail I decided to head into West Yellowstone for a tea and then head back to the dorm.  It did not take me long to discover that to leave the park was a bad decision as the tourists were lined up for two miles trying to enter the park. It was even after 10AM and they still were packed trying to get in.  So I decided to get my tea and head to quake lake and just drive around looking at the scenery until the entrance clears.  Below are some pictures of what happened the night an earthquake struck the area and several people were killed.  It was a very bad time and was also very interesting as to what happened to the land and the rivers and the lakes of the area.

  As few pictures of the lake created by the dam.

  After traveling around the lake I headed into a brief section of Idaho and then back to West Yellowstone.  I picked up lunch at the McDonald's , as I missed lunch at the dorm.  I then headed to the park entrance where it was still backed up but only for a few hundred yards.  I entered the park and quickly learned that I should never drive around the park during the height of tourist season.  In one stretch around Grand Prismatic, it took me one hour to go 10 miles.  Believe me I will never do this traveling again.

   Tomorrow I start my shift in grocery.  I will be working 9AM to 6PM Wednesday through Saturday.  I think I can get a half hour lunch in there at a time of my choosing.  I am sure I will be working later than 6PM some days as there is too many tourists to stock some areas and those areas can only be stocked when the places closes.  Delaware North is having no issues with overtime during this season.  I hope to later go on a walk around the geyser area to get my steps in for today.  Take care and thanks for reading.

Yellowstone Adventure 2021 - Day 1

   I got up around 5:30 and packed and checkout of the hotel in Bozeman Montana.  My plan was to walk next door to the McDonald's and get some breakfast before driving the hour and forty minutes to West Yellowstone, but I was disappointed in that the McDonald's did not allow indoor seating.  So I headed down the road in hopes that another place to get breakfast would show up.  Unfortunately the fast food places did not have any indoor seating or were not open.  So I decided just to have a late breakfast at the McDonald's in West Yellowstone.  Heading down the highway the sun was just coming out but the day was already proving very hazy from the fires out west of us.  It is such a shame in that the drive through the pass would have been more enjoyable if the day was clear..  The scenery along the river through the canyon is just fantastic.  I drove along thanking myself for the new truck's adaptive cruise control capability.  It makes driving and looking at the scenery so much more enjoyable and less stress on the driver.  I never saw any wild animals along the route, as in the past I have seen big horn sheep, grizzly bears and moose.  I arrived in West Yellowstone around 8:15AM and went to the McDonald's.  No indoor dining there either so I took the breakfast and ate in my truck.  Let me tell you about West Yellowstone prices.  The breakfast I got would cost $4.69 at Linton McDonald's.  Here it cost $8.00.  The McDonald's in West Yellowstone is known as the most expensive one in the franchise.

   I drove to Human Resources (HR) and checked in.  I received my ID card, which I clock in and out with and had to sign a lot of papers concerning COVID and dorm living.  The gave me three T-shirts and two aprons to use, but they wanted me to buy the used winter coat for $5.  They gave that coat in the past because we worked in the freezers and refrigerators.  I guess it is another cost cutting measure from Delaware North.  After being released from HR I was told to go to my store to check in the with store manager.  I neglected to tell you that HR is close to the entrance of the park and the tourists were already lined up trying to get in.  The line of cars stretched for about a half mile. So it took me a little while to get into the park and head to the store.  Once in the park the driving went smooth.  I did notice that the park had the road closed from Canyon to Tower, which means a trip to Lamar Valley will take about 1 hour longer.  This is not good at all but the roads need work and they have to shut down traffic to get them fixed.

   I arrived at the store and the placed was jammed packed.  I can tell immediately that it is going to be a busy busy summer/fall.  I met the store manager and her husband, who is in charge of fountain.  She seems very nice but also very busy.  Her and her husband worked the lower general store last year and requested the upper if they could get it.  She seems very capable and very personable for leading the store.  She gave me my dorm key and told me to check in with Ron.  Ron told me he already had me scheduled and my work week was Wednesday through Sunday.  So I wont start work until Wednesday.  I went around greeting the people I knew and worked with before.  Mark, Mary, Heidi, Bob, Patrick, Pam, etc.  It was great seeing these people again.  I then went to work getting my things in my room.  The pictures below are before and after:

   After getting the items put in the room I went to talk to some friends about life with Delaware North and the store.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Delaware North decided to not charge the employees for the dorm rooms this year.  That is a $50 a week raise for all employees.  That is very good as the company has been rather cheap lately in how they pay and handle employees.  I think they were doing it to ensure some loyalty and also improve morale.  Which in a packed store with limited employees is rather needed.  I also learned that the store hours, which I thought were set by Delaware North because of lack of employees, was in reality set by the park service.  This surprised me as I think they don't have enough employees to go from 7:30AM to 9:30PM.  It is way better to be open 9AM to 6PM with the staffing they have now.  The only drawback of the present hours is no split shifts.  Which means no naps in the middle of a work day.  Walking 6 miles a day in grocery takes a toll on my legs and I enjoyed having a 2 hour split shift break.  I know others did not but I sure did.

  Well that is about it for today.  I will be walking around the geyser area for exercise this evening.  I went out in the afternoon but there are too many tourists out there.  I hope the internet continues to be functional so I can update the blog regularly.  We will see.  Take care.  Miss you Cathy.

Yellowstone Adventure 2021 - The getting there

   I reluctantly left my home on Friday.  I say reluctantly because we have a family health issue going on right now that I felt I may be need to be home, but Cathy said for me to go as I could not do anything just staying around.  I decided to go but I have checked on airline flights back if I need to get home quickly.  

   I put 1,850 miles on the Toyota going through Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming and finally West Yellowstone Montana to check in on Monday the 26th.  The trip was pretty uneventful and really nothing spectacular happened.  I did get to see three crop dusters working in Iowa.  The Iowa farmers look to have a great crop this year.  Because of the fires out west there was a haze every day I traveled.  The sad part of that haze was when I finally got to Montana I could not see any mountains in the distance.  I always look forward to seeing the mountains for the first time.  I made sure I stopped at Wall Drug on my way to say hello to my old co-workers.  They all looked great and it was great to catch up, even though it was a short time.  Just like all places of business this summer, Wall Drug was packed.  I asked my friends if they are setting sales records and they said yes.  I also noticed that there were many young workers and many workers that look Jamaican.  So they must have been able to get foreign workers this year.  They said they are still way short of workers and still have limited hours.  I was surprised that my old moccasin area was manned by three people and camping also.  So at least they have some help.  I also drove to my old trailer and found it unoccupied this summer. 

Some observations from this road trip:

1. Gas is too expensive.
2. Lodging around Rapid City is too expensive, thanks to Sturgis motorcycle rally.
3. South Dakota bugs still mess up a windshield.
4.  Drivers that stay in the left lane should have their wheels fall off.
5. There was many many campers on the road.
6. There was quite a few campers broke down at the side of the road.
7. Android Auto now tells me when there is a speed trap ahead, when there is an accident ahead, when there will be a slow down in my route and (my favorite) when there is something in the road I may hit.
8. Mule deer, or prong horn, still can't make it across a highway at night.
9. Iowa is still the most boring state to pass through.
10. More wind turbines have cropped up along the route.

 

I don't know if I can update the blog regularly when I get to Yellowstone, as the internet is sketchy.  That is one thing Wall Drug had was great internet access and great T-Mobile signal.  Yellowstone has only Verizon and the Wi-Fi is very busy by all the store workers.

Ruminations: Less than a week to go until Yellowstone Adventure 2021

    This week has been Vacation Bible School (VBS) week at our church.  It has been a great week getting kids to understand Jesus.  I think we averaged 120 kids every night, but it takes a lot of volunteers to make VBS a success.  We had some great people working with the kids and with the adults this week.  When I was a kid I think the preacher and his wife put on VBS and that was all.  Then again our church only had around 20 kids.  I come from a small baptist church in Vicksburg Indiana.  The church is no longer there, but the memories are with me. It was a coal heated, no air conditioned, one piano, two story, Bible teaching church.  The people that went there were great and they truly cared for each other.  

   As the title indicates I have less than a week to go until I head the wagon west. I have one more doctor appointment next week and hopefully the dermatologist does not find any further issues.  Cathy's sister is ailing and in the emergency room now.  She has been battling cancer for quite some time and now has to contend with a a couple cracks in her ankle. She is in my daily prayers and I know God can cure her cancer.  Cathy watches her dog while she is away from her home.  We now have three dogs in the house and at times it gets a little crowded when all 4 of the grand-kids are also there.  Sammy, the oldest dog, has learned to just go hide and sleep when everyone is around.  With Cathy's sister not doing well I may not get started next week.  We will see how her sister does over the next few days.  

   The past week my dependable 7 year old Honda push mower gave up the ghost.  It was a great self propelled push mower and did a great job on the small lawn I have.  After taking it to the local mower shop, I determined it was beyond fixing and making me have 100 percent confidence in it while I am gone to Yellowstone.  So I ordered a new mower from Lowe's and it was delivered 3 days later.  I also took the old mower down to the Amish area and their Honda service group gave me $53 for it.  They will use the mower for replacement parts.  The Amish area is very interesting to visit.  They have a lot of specialized areas, such as mowers and granite counter tops.  They also have roofing and cabinet making areas.  They normally do good work, but sometimes they are behind the times for new technology.  While in the area I picked up some marinated turkey and steaks from their local butcher.  The turkey is excellent grilled.

Ruminations - Why can't people stand on their own two feet

    Having worked all my life I find myself looking around and seeing more people avoiding work than wanting to work.  I know work is hard and sometimes trying to see the end of the rainbow to retirement is difficult, but it seems that people today do not want to even put effort into getting on the road to working for a retirement.  They want instant gratification and cannot comprehend  working for years to obtain financial freedom.  The government is not helping the situation at all and unfortunately our brilliant politicians will not be changing  their ways and stop enabling people.  A person I worked with posted this observation and it pretty much sums up where the U.S. is heading and how a hard working person will start being about as rare as hen teeth in the future:

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Once in a while we just have to stand back in awe of our government.

 

The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever - to 46 million people.

 

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, asks us to "Please Do Not Feed the Animals."  Their stated reason for the policy is because "the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves."

 

Thus ends today's lesson in irony.

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   On a lighter note it was great getting together with family for the 4th of July.  I don't know how many more 4th of July's we will have with Don and Norma, but it was sure great to see them laugh and enjoy their family.  It will take a lot of effort to keep getting together in the years to come, but it is an effort that is well worth it.  

   I got great news on the several biopsy's I had done when Dr. Lynch did my EGD.  All is well so far but I have to keep on getting my hernia checked.  Now I only have one more doctor appointment before I can head west for my summer/fall job.  I pray the dermatologist is happy with my previous cancer scare and that they see no other spots.