End of Year and New Year Happenings

   It has been a great year and God has blessed my family greatly.  We may have lost love ones, but I know where they are and one day I will see them again.  The work in Yellowstone this year was fantastic and I don't think I had any better experience in the dorm than I had this year.  Cathy and I were able to get to Tennessee and Branson this year and had a great time.  

   Coming up next year will be another trip to Tennessee and something very special.  The day after school gets out, me and my two oldest grandsons will be setting out on a trip west.  I am going to introduce them to Yellowstone and those places that I have grown to love.  I will get to show them Wall Drug and where I worked. I will introduce them to some of the people I have been working with over the years.  Both of my grandsons have told me over and over that they can't wait until May and the adventure begins.  I hope and pray that they will be as touched by the sights and places as I was when dad took me out west on our motorcycle adventure.

   Also this coming year I was asked to come back to work at Yellowstone general store for a short season.  They offered me a 33 day contract and I accepted it.  My plan is to work there and then travel to Cero Gordo and visit Death Valley. 

   Also coming up in 2024, Cathy and I will officially be on Medicare.  It is tough getting older, but I am blessed by God to be able to have good health insurance.

   I hope to get in another trip with Cathy to some place new and different.  Not that I don't like Branson or Tennessee, but I think there is some place else calling our name.

  That is all for now.  Thanks for reading and may you all have a blessed 2024.

p.s.  Another personal highlight for me this year is the Tony Kornheiser had read 6 of my emails to him this year.  His podcast is heard by a couple million listeners.  So I am getting my 15 minutes of fame 30 seconds at a time.  :)

Texas Jack Omohundro is someone you should know

   I recently finished a podcast about the historical character Texas Jack Omohundro.  If you ever want to learn about an interesting western character then I recommend listening to the 6 part podcast from Chris Wimmer. You can find the podcast at Reddit. Chris does a fantastic job detailing the exceptional life of Texas Jack, the original cowboy.

 

Yellowstone Adventure 2023 - Final Week Time To Head For Home

   I really looked forward to getting this week started because I will have completed my contract.  Completing my contract is an accomplishment to me.  Some people like to test themselves with climbing mountains or running marathons, well this is my equivalent of those.  When I complete a contract and have my truck packed and heading out, I get a sense of accomplishing something that few people do.  I will let you in on a secret.  I don't like getting praised for things I have done.  I don't know why, but I just do not like getting acknowledged for something I did.  I have felt that way for a long time.  When I accomplish something that I have worked hard to do, I feel good and well pleased with myself at that time.  No pat on the back or letter of appreciation will mean as much to me as how I feel when I drive away from a job completed and well done.  I know accolades are peoples way of acknowledging how they feel about what a person has done.  I don't chastise anyone who thanks me for doing a good job, but I have always had the basic function.  That is work as if your working for the Lord.  If I feel good about a thing that I have done, it is because I think God will be pleased with my work.

   This will be my second retirement.  Once from the Department of Defense and now from Delaware North.  I will not be doing this type of work again, but I will definitely be finding something to do for my next retirement.   I feel we all need to do something that we may or may not be able to accomplish, but something that tests us.  These summer jobs have been a test for me.  A test of being gone from Cathy for a few months, which was the hardest thing to work through.  I wished many times she would join me, but she feels she needs her tests with Grand-kids.  :)  A test of meeting new people from all walks of life and accept them as Jesus does.  That is hard to do, but every morning I pray that God gives me eyes to see others as Jesus does.  To not judge them, but see them as lost without Jesus.  A test of working harder than I did as a programmer.  It takes about a month before my body stops complaining about what I am putting it through.  I feel that I need to continue exercising and trying to keep my body in shape enough to stave off needing medical and drug attention in my future.  I know I will have to work at eating better and getting walking in as part of my daily activity, but I must do that.  I have lost weight during this contract and I need to work to keep the weight off and also work to exercise my heart.

  I wish to say good bye to a few that have made my contract enjoyable.  First is Ron my grocery boss.  I want to thank you for putting up with me and for letting me work in the grocery.  I hope I did not do anything to harm the grocery.  I will be praying for you and your brother as you care for your mother.  Your mother will be in my prayers.  Thank you Ron for giving me a great work experience that I will always remember.  I want to thank Jack for being my friend.  You work well for 86 years old and I pray God will give you happy years to come.  May God protect you in your daily life and your travels.  To George the hardest working guy I know, thanks for the trip over the mountains and I wish you nothing but goodness and blessings from God in your life.  To Scott my fellow grocery worker.  I pray you will lead the life that your Mom wanted.  May you think more about Jesus than your portfolio.  I am sure your Mom would have been happy about that.  To Eddy my replacement, you are a hard worker and I wish you nothing but the best as you go from College to work life.  May God guide you as you make decisions about what you will be doing and where you will be going.  To my main boss Chanda, I wish you well as you herd the cats.  You are doing great and I pray the rest of the season goes well.  To the second in command Jim, you have impressed me so much this summer with your work ethic.  You handled many things that would cause major stress in a persons life.  You did all those things without losing your calm character.  I wish you well Jim in what ever you will be doing in your retirement.  To the other floor managers, Theresa, Dave, Tom, and Rhonda.  It has been great working with you all.  To my longtime friends Bob and Patrick, may God protect you both in your health and your travels.  I have known you two for quite some time and you are good friends.  To Eric, Tristen and Brian of the fountain staff.  You all work great and it is a tough job.  It has been good passing through your fountain area and I have learned a few new tunes. To the EDR staff of Glenn, Evan, Jeff, Isaac, JP and Jeanine.  Thanks for the great meals and for having PB&J available when you had fish cooking.  You made my contract more enjoyable with your great cooking.  To Ryan our dorm lead.  Thanks for keeping the dorm a pleasant place to sleep at night. It has been the best dorm experience I have had.  Keep those kids in line and keep doing a great job.  To all the others too numerous to mention, may God bless you and may you make right decisions for your life.  Work hard and remember that hard work is its only reward.

As my favorite songwriter says:

"...The pride of just the other side of nowhere is going home."

Until my next big adventure/test take care and stay well.  Thanks for reading.

Yellowstone Adventure 2023 - Week Thirteen

    This week can only be described by one word, "Hot".  The temperatures have been in the high eighties and when you are at 8,000 feet in altitude, that feels like 110 when the sun is beating down on you.  We had two customers pass out in the store this week from dehydration.  Everyone is warned that they need to keep up with their fluid intake, but some just don't listen until they find themselves flat or in the floor. We are selling a lot of water and Gatorade and beer.  Just yesterday I pack 6 case of Gatorade into the fountain refrigerators in a span of 2 hours.  It is stored warm and put into the fridge warm.  So the tourists who get drinks from the fountain will more than likely get a warm drink, as they will not have enough time in the fridge to cool down.  Next weeks temperatures do not look to cool down much.  The other issue with the heat is the dorms are stuffy.  I have kept my fan on full every night and some nights have a hard time getting to sleep when it is hot.  Thank goodness there is no humidity up here.

   Even in the heat the store is really busy.  I think we are averaging a hundred thousand dollars in sales a day lately.  We had a couple of new employees come in this week.  One is named Jacob, which I have no trouble remembering.  The new guy we have in grocery, Eddy, is working out really well.  He is a hard worker and Ron is happy with his productivity.  I still feel that Delaware North is doing everything they can to limit employees, as they are really pinching pennies.  They are doing their best to see if the store can be run with a bare minimum of workers.  I can tell them from my own experience that it is tiring.  I will not be coming back in the future because of the work that I have had to do to keep up in grocery.  I am just getting too old for this type of activity.  I feel my body has been helped with the activity though.  I have lost weight and I hope to keep working on it to keep it off.  This week I totaled 94,857 steps and give me a total of 1,232, 692 steps since if have been working here. I think that is roughly 547 miles of walking in the store.

   Not too many interesting things happened in the store this week other than a dog bit a kid.  When a dog bites someone, then the park rangers have to be called immediately. They were called and the owner of the dog owned up to the dog biting the child and the father of the child understood that the dog was startled by his son.  It all ended well and was handled well by the store manager. Outside the park near West Yellowstone a bear killed a woman in a campground. They closed off the area and then tracked the bear and killed it. I guess inside the park this week a lady got gored by a bison and thrown pretty far. She was taken out of the park to a local hospital.

   My contract ends July 29th and this Sunday and Monday is my last two days off.  I decided today to drive the whole way around the park just to say goodbye to the park's beauty. Below are some pictures from that trip.  I decided, due to the heat and mosquitoes, not to do too much walking/hiking. I did manage to walk around some great views in the morning while it was still around 60 degrees.  The road construction is going well in the park and I was not stopped at any time on my drive around.  I managed to see some bison but nothing else.  I have seen many animals this year, but the one that has eluded me has been a wolf.  Maybe I will see one on my way out of the ark next week when I head home.  I am looking forward to leaving but it will be hard to say goodbye to my fellow workers, some I have known for 7 years now.  I feel that Jack, with his age, is one I may not ever see again after this season.  

  That is about all for this week.  I will probably do another goodbye entry next week as I head home on Sunday.  So take care everyone and thanks for reading.

 

 

Said goodbye to the sleeping giant