After this week I have three more weeks to go. So far from April 24th to July 8th I have walked 1,040,672 steps here. Which according to my health monitor is equivalent to 462 miles. I am definitely getting in some exercise here.
The highlights of this past week have been few, but one day we had an employee pull the fire alarm in the middle of the afternoon. They never found out who did it, but the alarm was pulled in the EDR and caused the store to be shut down for about an hour and a half. We had to clear the store and the dorms and everyone had to gather outside to be counted. Unfortunately it was raining also and cold.
This past week the store set another sales record of around $115,000 in sales in one day. The tourists have been coming in droves and are spending a lot of money in the store. There is no other store in the park busier than us, but al the stores are doing well in sales.
We got a couple of new employees to work in the fountain area. I asked the boss the other day if grocery was going to get any help, and he responded yes. But he did not know when the help would arrive or who it would be. I told him I have three more weeks, 15 working days left, and really need a new person in grocery to train them before I leave. Ron, my boss, if kind of worried about what will happen in the grocery after I leave. He, as I, do not believe that Delaware North will get a good employee into the store in a timely manner. We are really one short right now and when I leave they really need to add two employees to ensure the grocery can be covered well.
We have been getting delivery trucks in mostly everyday but Sunday. We are getting plenty of goods, but as Ron points out many items are either listed as out of stock or unavailable. One of the areas that was hit hard last week was the Pepsi section. They had a delivery but many items were not available. We are down to basically 3 flavors of Gatorade. The interesting thing is that the tourists don't seem to care, as they buy whatever we have in stock. The weather here is getting warmer, relative to being in the mountains. When the temperature gets to be 70 degrees or higher, the sun beats down at 8,000 feet and heats people up like it is 100 degrees. So we sell a massive amount of water and Gatorade. We also sell a lot of sunscreen, that is pretty expensive here compared to Wal-Mart. :) We also have been selling massive amounts of bug spray at a premium price. We are in the middle of mosquito season and they are out in force. People are getting bitten regularly and we sell bug spray and a lot of after-bite medicine. The mosquitos are the big reason I do not want to hike right now. They are swarming pretty good on the trails. They usually dissipate around the middle of August and then the trails are pretty nice to hike.
On my day off I took my friend George and drove over the Bear Tooth Mountains into Red Lodge. It has been eight years since George has been over the top of the mountain. We got to see a very nice herd of mountain sheep and some great scenery. You can see in the pictures below. Red Lodge is still being rebuilt after last year's flooding destroyed a large part of the town. They are getting their roads and bridges rebuilt, but there are many houses that need to be taken down and rebuilt, but they may never be rebuilt near the water. We left Red Lodge and headed to Cody to pick up some supplies and then entered back into the park via the East entrance. We never saw any bear that day, but the Lamar Valley had many herds of bison in it. I estimate there was 2 thousand bison in that valley eating grass and resting next to the Lamar river.
The good news that I witnessed traveling around, was that the snow pack is melting and the lakes and rivers are filling up nicely. Two years ago the drought was so severe that lakes were drained and boat docks were unusable. It was very sad, but now the docks are filled in and the lakes look great.
That is about all for this week. Work goes on everyday. It is sometimes exhausting and other times interesting. I am looking forward to getting my contract over so my legs and back can rest. 15 more working days and then a slow trip home for me. Thanks for reading and stay safe and take care.
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