Our first week

On Wednesday after the delicious huckleberry pancake breakfast we decided to play tourist in the Mammoth area. We visited the visitor center and walked the path around the Hot Springs. We both remembered much more liquid flowing when we visited in 2010, but it was still interesting to see. This is a map of the terraces.

Here are a few scenes of the flowing hot springs.

This one is called Liberty Cap.

When we were at the top we took some pictures of the Mammoth area. This one shows our store on the left side.

This one gives an overall view. The steam at the top is a hot spring.

There's a hotel, restaurant, post office, clinic, visitor center, Yellowstone headquarters, military buildings from the past, and several other attractions.

This is the Cleopatra terrace.

 

 Here's a view looking down from the top of the path.

As we were walking back down there were people stopped looking at something. Here it is.

We got to watch it slither into its hole.

On the way back to our campsite we passed some animals. First some elk.

Then some bison.

 

 And finally some sheep on the hillside.

Since we had several days before our job started we took a drive to explore Livingston, MT about 53 miles north of Gardiner. In addition to driving through town and checking out the two grocery stores we stopped at the Yellowstone Gateway Museum. They had outdoor exhibits of how people survived in the past.

We were impressed with the quantity and quality on the displays inside. Here's an iron lung used back then.

An old, old fashioned washing machine

 

How the kitchens looked

 

And the sewing area

 

Dan liked the fire truck.

 

 

One fun fact about schools

 

Original transportation in Yellowstone

 

Sheepherders wagon

 

 

So after several days of playing we headed to West Yellowstone for our first day of training. We received our shirts, aprons, and jackets which were the same as last year. After refreshing our memories of how to use the register, we were reminded of how the money is handled.

 

The next morning we reported to our store at Mammoth. It's much smaller than last year but very busy.

 



 

The manager, floor supervisors, and associates proved to be very friendly and helpful. We had an opportunity to learn about each section of the store: apparel, gifts, grocery, and fountain. Everyone works all sections of the store if needed. We joined a group at a local restaurant and got to meet more of our fellow workers.

 

We got our schedule for the week and found out that our weekend will be Wednesday and Thursday. Starting Friday we will work 5 days of early shift (7:15 to 2:45), have 2 days off, and then work 5 days of late shift (2:15 to 9:45. So we had two days off right away.

 

We took the opportunity to explore the city of Gardiner on foot. Our campground is less that a mile from town. Gardiner, with a population of around 900 (more in the summer), is just north of the northwest entrance to Yellowstone and about 5 miles from where we work. It mostly consists of places to stay, eat, and buy souvenirs with several churches, gas stations, and one grocery store and post office.

 

This evening we are joining the other employees for a cook out here at the campground, and tomorrow we will jump right in to the job bright and early. We're looking forward to a fun summer working and playing at Yellowstone.

On the road again - FL to MT

Here's our summer home parked beside our winter home before the trip.

In order to miss the FL love bugs, we left early on May 9th and headed north on I75 through GA. We thought we were missing the rush hour traffic by going through Atlanta at mid afternoon, but as we drove bumper to bumper on one of seven lanes of traffic all I could do was pray. Dan did an excellent job maneuvering and keeping in the correct lanes. We stopped in northern GA for the  night. After all the flat roads in FL it was nice to see some hills.

The next morning the rush hour traffic through Chattanooga, TN was not as bad as the previous day in Atlanta. But as we made our way through TN we encountered rain most of the way.

Here's Nashville as we passed by.

The weather cleared in northern KY, but started up again when we arrived at the chosen campground in IL.

The next day was our worse travel day. Road construction around St. Louis, MO gave us quite a challenge in the RV.

We got a good view of the Gateway Arch, but got sent on a wild goose chase around the northern part of the city because of construction on a bridge over the MO River.

After we were stopped by an accident we had to merge from three lanes to one, and that was a mess. All along the way there were signs "MoDot cares." After a while we just had to laugh! To top it off it became very windy in northern MO. So we called it quits for the day. We were surprised that the trees were still bare.

By contrast the next day was sunny and beautiful. We had a peaceful, flat drive through IA passing farmhouses, silos, and fields showing the remainder of last year's corn crop.

SD provided similar views and the miles flew by. Here's a typical SD farm.

There were lots of fields where sprinklers were set up.

Since our grandson's name is Mitchell and we heard about the Corn Palace located there, we stopped at Mitchell, SD. This sign is composed of corn cobs. The one on the right is not complete.

 The Corn Palace is the center of community activity, hosting basketball games, stage shows, trade shows and other activities. We missed seeing Willie Nelson by three days.

What's unique about it is that each year the outside is completely torn down and rebuilt with about 275 thousand different colored corn cobs. The designs are made by artists in the community. Inside there are displays about corn and pictures of the palace each year since 1892. Here's what the auditorium looks like. The designs all around the stage are made of corn cobs.

One of the displays was corn husks decorated with products made of corn.

In one of the display cabinets there was a baby in a sleeper shaped like corn.

All in all it was pretty corny but interesting. (I had to say it!)

After the Corn Palace visit we drove west through SD passing a few rolling hills

Then the land flattened out, and we saw ranches occasionally. The fields were brown and the temperature reached 88 that day. The spots on this picture are bugs on the windshield!

We stopped at Sturgis, SD for the night and took a drive to see the city where thousands attend their annual motorcycle rally in August. Many cyclists go to Yellowstone before or after the rally.

After SD we drove through part of WY where we had our first snow covered mountain sighting.

It was another sunny day and a beautiful drive through WY and into MT. We stopped at Billings, MT for a quick Sam's Club shopping trip, and then continued west. We could have made it our final destination, but decided to stop for the night.

The next morning when we drove down route 89 from Livingston, MT we followed the Yellowstone River with awesome scenery.

Yellowstone RV Park is on the northern side of the city of Gardiner. The campsites are down over the hill by the river. Our site is the first empty site beside the two on the right by the river.

And here we are set up for the summer.

 

 Here's the view from the back of our sight.

After driving 2494 miles we are looking forward to our summer adventure meeting new people and seeing new sights of Yellowstone and the surrounding area.

 We joined some of the staff at the store where we will work for a huckleberry pancake breakfast before the store opened this morning. It looks like we'll be working with lots of friendly and fun loving people.