I am siting in the historical Jackson Lake Lodge presently working on this blog. From where I sit I can see the Tetons Mountain range. The place is very expensive to stay for a night, but does allow people to come into the lodge to look at the view. They have outdoor seating so you can watch the elk herds when the are around. The weather today is rainy but what you see in the pictures is also smoke from the Canadian and Oregon fires. The past several days the smoke has prevented seeing how spectacular the mountains really are around us. The tourist have been very disappointed in their visit, as the views are half the reason people come here to visit.
The store has been busy this week but not as busy as July. So the managers have been letting us go early in our shift, but just a half an hour to an hour. It seems that once school gets in session business slows down until Labor Day when it picks back up. So far I am adjusting to the altitude and the work. I estimated before that it would take a month to really feel healthy about doing the job and I am probably going to be correct about that estimate. So far this week I have put in 88,000 steps. That is roughly 44 miles of walking and lifting in the grocery section. My new knees are holding up well, but I have no desire to do much hiking on my days off. So mostly on my days off I explore outside the park. Yesterday I went to visit the historic town of Virginia City and then explored other small towns looking at their historical buildings. Below are pictures of a very old catholic church I visited. I think it was over 120 years old. Very nice and well maintained.
I experienced my first major power outage and fire alarm this week in the store. The fire alarm was understandable, as the EDR filled with smoke from a breakfast mishap. Nothing major just smoke and it was cleared out quickly but we still had to wait for the fire department to come and turn off the alarm and verify all was ok. The power outage was a major one and affected all of the Old Faithful area. It took a while to get power restored. The store has contingency plans for when power outages occur and a back up power system. So the store stays open until the backup system fails, then they go to the old fashioned knuckle dusters to process credit cards. The don't like to do that but it is the only way to keep the store going and selling items. I am glad we did not get to that point as it is hard on all workers.
I was able to talk to many continental divide hikers (CDT) this week. If you are not familiar with the CDT, it is a trail from the southern border of US and Mexico and runs all the way to the US Canadian border. Some of the hikers I talked to were heading south and some were heading north. I felt that the ones heading north had a better chance of succeeding then the once heading south. I always ask the hikers for their trail names, as when you start a major hike you choose a name for other hikers to know you by. I have met "Chef", "Peach Pit", and "Instant Coffee", as well as a few I did not remember. They all looked physically fit, if not fairly skinny. They stop by the store to get supplies for the next leg of the trip. Mostly the supplies are high calorie items, such as gummy bears and protein bars. They also by our dehydrated hiking food packets. We sell a variety of packets that they would just add water and get a complete meal. They are light weight and provides a good amount of calories.
Working in the store I get to converse, or at least try to converse, with many tourists from many different countries. I do my best to understand what they are asking, but sometimes I have to get google translator out on my phone to understand what they want. I have talked to people from China, France, Russia, Italy, India, England, and one from Australia. Most are pleasant, but sometimes they get a little rude. When that happens I just retreat to my walk in cooler and work on making sure we have enough water to be sold.
Not too much else has happened in the store this week. The weather has started to cool down, which makes sleeping in the dorm and lot better. Mornings have been around 45 degrees and by mid day it is 85. I see rain and cooling in the forecast next week. So we may be entering fall here shortly. Thanks for reading and I will blog next week.
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