Two blog posts in two days. Wow!
We arrived here in mid May, so it's been a little over a month since we got here and all I can say is that it's hard to pack this many stories into such a short period of time.
We started at the Fishing Bridge location in Yellowstone since our location at Lake Village wasn't set to open for a few weeks. That gave Gina the Frugal time to learn the cash registers and cash systems while I got to work with a pretty good and well experienced chef in the EDR (Employee Dining Room). As for me, it gave me an idea of what to expect when I became the supervisor of my EDR and it set me up for success. For Gina, she walked through the door of our new location and had very little to learn...other than how to be a manager of something she had no experience in, like running what they call Fountain, where they serve hotdogs and drinks. They were in need of a manager and asked if she would do it. Of course, she said yes and it turns out she's pretty good at it.
Both of us have been short staffed since day one and it's made for a huge loss of free time, but the benefit has been some seriously good paychecks, as previously mentioned in yesterday's post. We needed to do some catching up financially and this has helped but it has limited our time to adventure. However, every day when I ride into work I'm skirting the shoreline of Yellowstone Lake with the mountains on the other side and because this is the season of ever changing weather, it means that every day the look of the mountains is the different and always amazing.
We did end up with a rare day off so we decided to head up to Canyon where they have a bit of an outdoor store, which was set to open the next day, but we stopped at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which afforded us some amazing views of the Yellowstone River cutting it's way through the volcanic landscape. As I say so often, words cannot describe the beauty, the utter majesty, and the immense power of such an environment.
One thing that is constant and unavoidable is the ever present tourists who stop in the middle of the road to take a picture of the lone Bison or Elk that frequent the roadsides. Although I understand that most of them probably come here from a place where wildlife is the exception and not the rule, us "Seasoned" park dwellers chortle a bit and jokingly ask why they are stopping for just one animal when there are usually herds right around the corner. This was the case as we returned from Canyon and traffic all of a sudden slowed and we set in with our usual sarcastic comments until we realized we had finally ended up in one of the oft talked about Bison Jams. Bison Jams are when the Bison either cross the road or just linger there until they decide to move on. At roughly 2,000 pounds, you wait for the Bison to decide to move whenever the hell they want to for two reason: 1) Interfering with wildlife here is a serious offense and, pretty much, a Dick Move since it's their land, not ours. 2) Get on YouTube and see what happens to a vehicle when it pisses off a Bison. Truck vs. High Capacity Assault Cow doesn't end well for the truck.
As we get closer to our staffing goals and get schedules set, we'll have more time for exploring and doing the things we talked about before we got here. We're here until at least September so, we probably won't see everything but we'll see enough to know that good fortune brought us to this place of wonder and beauty and we'll be thankful for it. I keep saying it over and over; you have to step out of your comfort zone and adventure. There is so much to this beautiful land of ours that just shouldn't be missed. Try it. You'll be glad you did.
And if you're wondering about Free Range Adventure Dog, she's just fine. Although she is an Adventure Dog, she spends a lot of time sleeping on the couch and begging for treats after walks. However, when we hit the road, the window gets rolled down and her nose is going at full sniffing speed. On our recent trip to Cody Wyoming, we found a park with lush, green grass...and she knew just what to do.
Remember to have a great day and always remember, This Does Not Suck.
P.S. Buy Stickers Please.