Yellowstone Adventure 2026 - Week 8 (Final Week)

   Today I said goodbye to Yellowstone, but I will get to that later. The post Labor day week was fairly slow. The saying that they have around here for those visiting the days after Labor Day is they are either newly wed or nearly dead.  That saying was in evidence this week. Bus loads of senior citizens were unloaded in Old Faithful area. The place was full of people with walkers and canes for sure.  Very few kids, and I was grateful for that fact. I got in 90,000 steps this week even though it was less busy.

   The weather has been great for tourists as the days were in the mid 60's and for us in the dorm, as the nights were in the 30's. Great for sleeping.  The pine marten is still making a mess in the stock room and shows no sign of leaving his hiding place. I got to see my second favorite geyser erupt this week.  The Beehive geyser is a good one to see and really soaks the tourists on the boardwalk.

   The bad issues for this week is a really bad flu is making its way across the employees. My fellow grocery worker Gary started off getting sick and it soon was passed to another grocery worker and friend Jack Hade. Then my grocery boss Ron came down with it and then the store manager Chanda became sick. It is a pretty nasty flu with fever and aches and such. Last night my 89 year old friend Jack took a turn for the worse and finally decided to go to the clinic. Because he has a pacemaker and other issues they had him transferred to Idaho Falls hospital. As of this writing he is still in the ER and awaiting a room in the hospital. He said he was on oxygen and trying to get some rest through all the tests. The problem is the grocery section was getting in eleven thousand dollars worth of goods on a truck today and  the only healthy person left to unload it is Joey. Even if Ron was over the flu, he still is limited to only lifting 5 pounds due to his hernia surgery. 

   The whole situation with the flu and Ron's surgery has been greatly on my mind. You see about a month ago Gary indicated to me he wanted to extend to work til the end of the season. You see his original contract end date was September 13th. He waited too long to ask for an extension because they already hired me to cover grocery until October the 19th. I talked to others about Gary and it seems he really needed to work and the money. So I asked him if he wanted me to contact HR and request we switch contract end dates, so he can work until the store closes. He indicated that he would appreciate that and so I contacted Chanda the store manager who contacted HR. HR approved the request and that is how I am heading home today. Once I started to see the grocery having staffing issues a few weeks ago with Ron's surgery, I asked Ron if HR would extend me to cover the grocery because basically Joey and Gary are the only healthy ones. Jack and Ron cannot lift much weight and trucks need unloaded. He said he mentioned it and HR said no as they only count heads and felt that four was enough to cover the store until closing. HR does not consider the health of their employees. That is why I have mixed feelings about leaving today. I know that grocery will survive and the world will go around the same direction tomorrow, but that is a lot of work left on Joey's shoulders as the only healthy worker left to unload trucks. I have not even mentioned that today the lower store closed and soon their excess goods will be transferred to our store and someone will have to unload that and put it in the stock room.

   It is with somewhat sad feelings that I say goodbye to Old Faithful Upper General Store. Goodbye Chanda and I pray you get to feeling better.  You are doing a great job running both the upper and lower stores.  Goodbye Ron, you are a great grocery boss and I pray your hernia heals well. Goodbye Gary and thanks for keeping the drink cooler in order. Goodbye Jack, I pray you heal from the flu and you have a nice rest of the season. Goodbye Joey thank you for stepping up and helping Ron during his time off for surgery. It was a pleasure working with you. Goodbye to my old friend and the hardest worker I know, George. I pray you talk to God and iron out your feelings about your life. God will hear if you just talk.  Goodbye to Teresa and all the floor managers.  You are doing a great job during tough times.  Goodbye to Evan, Cedra, David, Kate, and all the EDR folks. The meals were great and you all did well during some tough times with staffing issues. Goodbye to my long time friends Bob and Patrick. I wish you both well with your winter  jobs and vacations. Goodbye Jeff and Brenda and all the other employees in the store. Some I got to know because you traveled through my area and others I did not get to know personally. I wish you all the best for the rest of the season. 

   As I close this 2026 blog I want to say something special happened to me on my way out of Yellowstone. I was able to see a fully antlered bull moose.  I have never seen one in my ten years here at Yellowstone. He was big and it was amazing. He was wading through the Yellowstone river and veered toward me and my truck. I could not believe my luck. I posted the amazing video on Facebook and it will be a special video I will cherish.

  Total number of miles walked in the store since contract began is roughly 384, which is roughly 768,000 steps according to my smart watch. 

   Thanks for reading my blog and my musings. Take care and may you find Jesus and if you have may the Lord bless you and keep you.

 

My grocery store

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yellowstone Adventure 2026 - Week 7

    It has been an interesting week.  This week included Labor Day, getting back my grocery boss from his hernia surgery, losing a few employees due to contracts ending, and having to deal with the shortage of cooks in the park for employees at our stores.

  Labor Day brought a massive increase in tourists coming to the store. The Saturday and Sunday brought in over a hundred thousand dollars in sales each day for our store.  I was kept extremely busy in grocery trying to keep the beverage cooler filled and the grab and go sandwiches filled. One observation that I can make is that the majority of tourists visiting our store this weekend were from India.  I saw many women in the India garb and a few men wearing the hat that you see men wearing in the movies showing the country of India.  I did not have issues communicating with them when they approached me, but I had to have them repeat their request a few times.  The Monday after the weekend there was a big change in tourists as the majority of the customers in the store seemed to be from England and Australia. We must have had quite a few tour busses in that Day.  Monday was also truck delivery day and because of issues with the health of our grocery workers, it was just me and Joey to unload the truck and store the items on the shelves. Monday's step count was 20,500 and that does not even consider the weight of the items I had to handle. I am writing this on Tuesday, my day off.  My legs and back need a break for sure.  I am sitting in Bozeman Montana waiting for my truck to get its five thousand mile maintenance done. I plan on staying over night in Bozeman and relaxing in a hotel's hot tub.  My body definitely needed a break. The other good news is that I have three days off versus two, as the store manager thinks that fewer people can handle the grocery as the store business slows down.

   My boss Ron came back to work this week, but on a limited lifting restriction.  He is not the type of person that likes light duty and it shows. He is frustrated with not being able to do his normal duties and to rely on others to do his work, but that is what he has to do in order to heal from his hernia surgery. We are all stepping up to ensure he does not do something stupid. He let me and Joey take care of the delivery truck Monday and he just clocked out to rest while we worked. I think he was afraid he would grab something out of muscle memory and hurt himself.  He will heal over time I know and I have been praying for him to get better soon.

  Several store employees have finished their contracts and left. I sure do miss a few that I worked with daily.  That is one aspect of the job that is hard and that is dealing with making friends and then watching them leave. Normally you never hear from them again. Employees leaving also makes it hard for others to step up and do the work if the store suddenly get slammed with business. We all try to step in and help when needed.

   Now Delaware North's stores are dealing with a shortage of qualified cooks and it is starting to get serious. Grant Village has lost all its cooks and Delaware North is transferring people from other stores to fill in. Two of our cooks have to spend two days a week traveling and hour away to cook at Grant Village. Now I hear they are transferring one of our cook helpers to Grant Village for a few weeks to fill the holes they have for cook helpers.  That means the person has to actually move their belonging over to Grant Village dorms and live there for a while.  I would suspect they would have to stay there until Grant Village closes for the season in a few weeks.  Our store is one of two that will be open until mid October.  The rest close down for the winter and their stock gets distributed to our store and the other one that is open. For the cooks it is a bad situation, but none of us are trying to make their lives harder.  The food is still good but special meals are pretty much gone.  The meals are simple and usually self serve sandwiches and such. So we are not starving, but the quality has gone down some.

   The weather here has turned cold. Last night the temperature was 25 degrees and the daytime temperature will be around 60. It is great hiking weather for sure. Speaking of hiking, the CDT hikers coming into our store are non-existent now. It is a little late in the season to be trying to complete the CDT, but we do get a few hikers doing short one or two day hikes around Yellowstone. The cools night makes sleeping in the dorm rather pleasant.

   Well that about does it for Labor Day week. It wont be long before snow come regularly and business slows down to a crawl. 84,000 steps this week in the store. That is roughly 42 miles of walking. Thanks for reading and take care. 

Yellowstone Adventure 2026 - Week 6

 I am here once again sitting in the historical Jackson Lake Lodge working on this blog. I think this week the lodge hosted the economic summit for our financial experts to discuss the best way forward as it pertains to interests rates and how President Trump is killing the economy. But that is enough politics I am sure you want to know how my week was. The kids are back in school and the store is presently in the slowdown business wise before Labor day. It is normal and the managers are prepared for it, as they have reduced everyone's hours and some reduced their days worked to compensate for the revenue decrease. My hours have been reduced, but I do not mind it at all, as I am not here to make money. With the decrease in families coming to the park, it seems that the majority of visitors are foreign and tour buses. I hear many languages in the store and when I have to communicate with them I find it very interesting.  The weather has turned somewhat cold and as my grocery manager Ron says, summer is over and fall has started.  I woke up the other morning to 30 degrees and rain. We are close in temperature, that we will probably get a smattering of snow soon. We also had a very intense thunderstorm this week. It poured for several hours with a lot of lightening and thunder. When you are 8,000 feet up, the lightening can be quite startling. I managed to sleep through most of it, as I think it lulled me to sleep.

  This whole week we have been dealing with a pine marten that has decided to make our grocery stock room his home. He has been sleeping in our stock shelves and helping himself to our stock. My boss Ron used to set a trap for them and then take them far away from the store and release them into the wild. For some reason he decided to leave this one alone. We, on the other hand, decided that the guy was eating too much and making too much of a mess. He started to eat the food that we use in the employee dining room, and that was the last straw. So we surrounded the guy and with brooms and we guided him out the door and into the back area. He ran away and we were hoping he would find another place to nest and feed. Unfortunately he knows how to get back into the store and the next day he was back in our shelves and eating our stock once again.  So we are leaving him alone for now. The only problem I have with that decision is when I reach into the shelves to get stock to put out on the floor and he is there, I get somewhat jumpy. He has not shown any aggression to us working in the shelves, but I know when cornered the guy is pretty much teeth and nastiness.  His picture is below and I would imagine you think he is cute.  Well that cuteness ends when you have to clean up his poop and the mess he makes when he decides to rip into a box of moon pies. 

  It is getting to the end of the season for some, as contracts are over. We have to say goodbye to several and that is hard sometimes as you make friends for just a short while.  My boss will be getting his surgery this week and I have been praying that he will come through with flying colors and be back to work in no time. He tells me he will be on a ten pound weight limit when he comes back, and we will try to make sure he follows those limits. He is a hard headed guy and we will have to keep an eye on him for sure. The good news for him is the workman's comp came through OK and will pay for the surgery and his pay while he is off. That takes a lot of worry off his shoulders for sure.

  I have not mentioned the remodeling of the dorm I am living in for a while. Yes it is still going on and we do not think it will be over before the store closes. The workers still have a lot to finish up, but from what I have heard they have a few items that already need fixing that were installed. For instance the other day when it was 30 degrees I turned on the heater installed in the bathroom.  The heater came on and then immediately emitted a terrible sound of fan blades banging inside the unit. I turned it off and reported it to our maintenance person. He told me it has never worked since the workers installed it and it is one of many things that will be reported to the construction manager, who I hear has not been around in quite some time. 

  I will end this blog with a rest in peace to my friend and fellow church member Kenny Fiscus, who passed away this week. I have been praying for Susan and the family ever since I have heard. I always enjoyed talking to Kenny and he will be greatly missed by so many in our church.