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.
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| Said goodbye to the sleeping giant |
