Busy Birthday for Josie

It was a full day for Josie's birthday. We got a fairly early start to drive out to the South Fork Road again where we had to end our first trip as a result of work schedules. This time, we traveled up the Carter Mountain turnoff to the very end of the road, which was about 7.5 miles of dirt road that winds through the countryside up to the base of this mountain. It was a spectacular drive. We stopped to take this picture looking back to Cody where you can see the reservoir in the distance that is created by the damn we had visited previously just outside Cody:

The drive was half open grassland and half forest land with lots of trees. Here are some shots taken along the road:

Among all the pictures we took, many were of the fields of wildflowers that were everywhere once we got into the forested area of this drive. Below is just one example of these beautiful fields of flowers:

There were purples, yellows, blues, pinks, whites and just about every kind of wildflower you can imagine. Josie was in heaven.

We saw only a few animals while on this drive, but the pronghorn (below) was spotted several times while we were driving up the hill, but he always stayed far enough ahead of us so that we couldn't get a good shot. We spotted him again on the way down, and the picture below represents the closest we were able to get. The deer was actually bedded down and we startled it as we passed by and she stood up for this good shot:

After coming out onto the Southfork Road again, we turned to go to the very end of that road which was a total length of 42 miles, with 7.5 miles being unpaved, but decent.

This was the portion of road that Bill Gates supposedly was looking at to purchase land. It was certainly beautiful country. These pictures were taken of the unusual mountain formations and of a ranch that was just one of several along the road:

We returned home about 5 PM to get ready for dinner which we planned to have with Karen and George at QT's. That is the restaurant that is part of the Holiday Inn at the Village here. We had a great dinner of BBQ'd ribs and a glass of wine and then decided to go to the Concert in the Park, which is held every Friday evening during July and August:

 

Unfortunately, we arrived a little before 8 PM and the concert was concluding. We didn't know it was conducted between 6 and 8 PM. So, we went next door and played a round of Putt-Putt at the mini golf course that Josie and I played earlier in the week:

It was a wonderful day and we came home and crashed shortly thereafter.

It's the start of another work week today so we are getting ourselves in the proper state of mind to do it again for another 5 days. Maybe we can break away sometime during the week to do some some more fun stuff. We hope so...

Park County Fair

We left home at 11:30 to pick up Karen and George on our way out to the Park County Fair in Powell, WY. It was only about a 20 mile trip and we arrived very close to noon for our full day at the Fair. It was very similar to the Fairs we have attended over the years with very few differences. There was a heavy emphasis on farming in the exhibits and there were many different kinds of equipment and tools on display. There was a display of heavy farm equipment close to the entrance as we went in and it made you wonder where these people get the kind of money to purchase these high end tractors and bailing equipment:

These tractors had air conditioning and every modern convenience and plush interiors of high end vehicles.

We took our time and went through all of the animal barns, starting with the sheep barn, where this young girl was sheering her entry:

Then, we went through the pig barn, where the kids were washing their entries:

And then, the cattle barn where there was some interesting activity. We first walked through the barn and saw these (dairy) cows:

The interesting thing in this barn was a pregnant cow that was suppose to birth her calf the day before but was still waiting for the process to begin. We felt sorry for this cow since she was in obvious discomfort waiting for the big event:

The actual judging for the cattle was underway outside in the arena:

We came to the large food court and decided to get lunch and watch the featured entertainment for the day - the Doo Wah Riders:

They were a pretty decent group, but what can you expect at a Fair in Powell, WY - they aren't close to being Rascal Flatts.

We moved on to the pig competion where they had 2 groups competing in the handling competition - the older kids:

And the younger kids:

We were entertained by the young girl in the center with the cowboy boots and skirt. She got a ribbon from the judge and prounced around as proud as pink showing it off.

As the day moved on and we went through all the competitive exhibits for canning, cooking, sewing, photography and arts and crafts, we went to the featured show in the grandstands that started at 7 PM. It was a Motor Cross stunts show and was just OK:

The show concluded with a chuckwagon race:

The race ended after only about two laps since one of the wagons had an equipment problem.

The day was a long one but was very enjoyable and we were glad we went with Karen and George, who also had a good time. There were no "onion burgers" stands but we did eat dinner before we left and I asked the counter person if she could prepare just a plain burger with fried onions. She said they could, and it was a valiant attempt at an onion burger. There were only a few fried onions and not the kind of "real" onion burger that is smothered with fried onions. It was near 9 PM when we arrived home and it wasn't long before we went to bed.

Today is Josie's birthday and we are planning a drive up the South Fork road again to see what we missed the day we went and had to cut the trip short because of work. We are also planning to have dinner with Karen and George at 5 PM tonight to help celebrate Josie's birthday. We have tentatively agreed to go to the Irma Hotel in town, but that may change. Later...

Storm and Final Work Day

We have only had a total of .15" of rain this month, and .07" of that was yesterday. It is almost like the summers we spent in Washington where it hardly ever rained. The storm came about 6 PM last night and was over by around midnight last night. It was definetely the longest rain storm since we arrived in early June.

It was a very busy day at work for our final work day of the week. In fact, I had to work almost an hour over my scheduled quitting time of 10:30 in order to  help Karen discover a couple of minor problems and fix them so that we could balance our totals for the day. Josie had to work until 11:30 anyway in order to complete the closing procedures for the Gift Shop. She walks home with Karen on those nights so that they don't have to walk alone so late at night.

It is always a joy to reach this part of the week. Today we will go to the Park County Fair in Powell, WY. Karen and George will be going with us and we will leave home at 11:30. Our hope is that there will be a stand somewhere in the Fair that sells onion burgers. That is the most favorite memory we have of County and State Fairs that we've gone to over the years. Karen and George have never tried one, so that's one reason we are going before lunch time. I hope we aren't disappointed. It will be interesting to see the differences between Wyoming Fairs and the Fairs we've been to from other states. Until tomorrow...

Thoughts About Next Year

It's probably a little too early to make these kind of decisions, but we have been talking about whether or not we want to return here next year. This area is one of the best we've stayed since we started. The job is probably a little too fast paced at the front desk to suit me, and the Gift Shop is probably a little too slow for Josie. If we could find a good mix with our assignments here, we would probably come back in a heartbeat. The other factor we are considering is that the goal for this adventure is to see as much of the country as possible while we can still travel this way. We have talked about spending the entire year next year on the East coast since we will be ending the year in Florida after we leave our Amazon jobs in December. A lot depends on the availability of jobs for us and we have considered just working our way up the coast. There are some great locations that we have read about in the Carolinas for one, and upper New York state for another. It would be nice to spend an autumn in the Northeast and see the beautiful colors in that area in the fall.

Another goal of ours is to spend a summer in Alaska. That trip will probably be in 2012, as we would like to start that trip from somewhere in the West. We need to somehow schedule a trip through Arizona in the next year as we have to clean out our storage unit that we have there. After not having access to the "stuff" that we have in storage, we have decided that we can get rid of about 90% of it. It's foolish to keep paying for that storage unit but we wanted to make absolutely sure that we would like this lifestyle before letting go of our "sticks and bricks" furniture and other household items that can be replaced - for a lot less than the cumulative cost for storage. Eventually, we won't have to work so much and can probably stay for long periods with short work schedules that would be a day or two a week just to pay for our site. We're almost there. We always have our membership campgrounds which will allow us to stay for up to three weeks in an area without cost, or very minimal cost.

It is fun for us to think about the possibilities and all the places that we want to, and are able to go. Anyway, it's just some thoughts about next year...

Miscellaneous Ramblings

This is a good opportunity to catch up on some small stuff that has been happening. The first is that I have to go to the UPS store this morning to send off one of my hunting rifles that I recently sold on-line in an auction. I have been carrying 2 hunting rifles in our fifth wheel in case I get a chance to go hunting while on our travels. Well, I actually only need one, so I decided to sell the second one, and it was sold to an individual in Missouri. It is very different selling firearms versus other merchandise on-line. First of all, there are special websites to use - eBay does not handle firearms at all. Secondly, PayPal cannot be used to pay for firearms as you can lose your membership if you do. The last thing is that you cannot ship firearms directly to an individual, unless he/she has a FFL (Federal Firearms License). I have to send my rifle to a dealer to act as the middle man in the transaction. It is a very safe and legal method.

We also opened another bank account locally. We have been upset with Bank of America since we arrived here. There are no Bank of America banking centers within 200 miles of us (Idaho). That means we are always charged for ATM fees at other banks and cannot make deposits anywhere (except our Direct Deposits) without sending them to our home bank in Arizona. B of A personnel have had a "aw, that's too bad" attitude every time we try to discuss this situation with them on the phone. They have no banking centers in either Wyoming or Montana. Wow! So much for the largest bank in the country and the reason we went with them in the first place. You would think they could waive some fees for the inconvenience. Anyway, we also now have an account at US Bank, which is another large, national bank with offices in every state except Texas and Kansas. We should have the banking situation resolved. We can now just write checks on the B of A account (from our Direct Deposits) to deposit in the US Bank account locally.

Day number 4 of our work is today so we are anxious to get to another weekend. We will definetely go the County Fair sometime over the weekend and we will also be celebrating Josie's birthday on Friday. Until tomorrow...

Potluck Dinner

We had almost forgotten about the scheduled potluck dinner last night. It was the 2nd one we've had since we arrived and it started at 6 PM, which was during our work schedule. The way they have these set up is that someone who normally works your area but is not scheduled at that time will stand in for you while you go and eat - of course, you have to sign out for your regular dinner hour. Anyway, it was a fun event that was more enjoyable for us this time since we know everybody much better than we did the first time. Josie made a delicious carrot raisin salad.

It was 98 degrees yesterday which is above the normal for this area. Our desk is located at the front of the building where we always have the door open so it was especially warm for us. It seemed like the heat was affecting everybody as there were more "grouchy" people coming in than normal. Karen also noticed that people had a short fuse yesterday. We're glad that day is over.

We found out that the Park County Fair will be on this weekend so we are planning to go there on one of our days off this week. We used to enjoy going to all the Fairs when we lived in Washington so it will be nice to see how they differ in this part of the country.

Today is our "hump" day at work which puts us half way there for the work week. We're hoping that the temperature is closer to our normal in the high 80's. The day is starting out to be another clear, hot one, so I suppose we'll just roll with what we get...

Gates in Town

It was back to work yesterday and was another, rare, slow day at the front desk. We had one Tour come in and we had another already staying over from the day before. That left only about 15 reservations for the whole day. When it's slow like that, we get a chance to have more conversation about what's happening in town and what's good to see. A woman that works with us, Jean, was telling us about a visit from Bill and Melinda Gates a couple months ago. She saw them at one of the better restaurants in town and then saw an article in the local paper with a picture of them, saying they were in town to purchase real estate somewhere in the area we visited last Wednesday - off the South Fork road. That would really put a stamp of approval on this area. Everybody that has been on that road southwest of town has agreed that it is one of the most beautiful areas to live in NW Wyoming. Bill Gates a cowboy? Nahhh!

Day 2 of the work week is today so we don't have a lot of time to go somewhere. Maybe it will be another stay-at-home-and-relax morning. There is a lot to do around the fifth wheel to keep us busy but who feels like doing more work. I'd say we're leaning more toward relaxing...

Billings and Shopping

We finally went to Billings, MT, to do some shopping in the stores that we miss. The trip took about 1 1/2 hours and was an easy drive. Actually, Billings is only about 10 miles past the exit off of I-90 (Laurel) that we took back in early June when we arrived here. Our first stop was at the Costco store where the first order of business was to get a replacement card for the one I lost on Thursday. No problem. It has been so long since we were at a Costco store that we spent almost 2 hours walking around and we loaded up on the things that we needed. The next stop was at the fairly new Cabela's store in town. We both needed a new pair of tennis shoes and Cabela's is where I purchased my last pair and really liked them. I found the same exact pair and purchased those, but Josie didn't see anything she liked so it was off to Kohl's. As soon as we walked out of the Cabela's store, we spotted a Sam's Club across the street so, hey, why not get my replacement card there while we're here. Done. We also bought a few things in Sam's Club that we couldn't find at Costco. Then, it was off to Kohl's. Josie did find some tennis shoes there along with a couple tops that were on sale so we got out of Kohl's at around 6 PM.

It's a good thing that those stores aren't any closer to us or we probably would be in the poor house. It was a good day though and was a trip we had been wanting to take for some time. We don't miss the "big" city and we both commented on how nice it has been to be away from the traffic that goes along with the big towns.

It's back to work today - Ugh! Josie will do laundry this morning and we will get in our last hours of relaxation before we start this afternoon. That's about it for now...

Rafting Trip and Mistakes

Yesterday was our day for the rafting trip and boy, was it fun. There were actually 2 trips that this company (Wyoming River Trips) offers - one is a short 1 hour float and the second, the trip we took, is a 2 1/2 hour float that is about 12 miles on the Shoshone River. The trip was totally free for us, except for a tip for the Guide, which made it all the more worthwhile. Prior to the departure of the trip, we were told that, unless your camera was waterproof, that you should leave it behind. They take one group photo right after the launch which is available at $11, and is the one below:

You can see us in the back row with Karen. Her husband George is in the row just in front of us. He is sitting between two men that were visiting from Italy and are staying in our cabins. The people on the outside of each row are given paddles to help out during the float. There were several mistakes in preparation that we (Josie and I) made. The first one was that we didn't dress properly. We wore tennis shoes with socks - dumb. We also wore long sleeve shirts and pants - also dumb, although George also was dressed like us. The BIG mistake for me was carrying my cards in my pocket instead of leaving them in the car. At some point during the float, all my cards fell out of my pocket and into the river. That included, among other things: my drivers license, bank debit card, Roadside Assistance card, Costco card, Sam's Club card, medical card, Golden Age Passport card, Yellowstone Association card for discounts at the Yellowstone gift shops and my free pass to the Cody Nightly Rodeo. There was also a credit card and some other cards but I was devastated and didn't enjoy the remaining portion of the trip once I discovered they were gone, which was just past the halfway point of the trip.

We finished the trip - all completely soaked - around 12:30 PM. I'm sure that the loss of my cards probably put a damper on the trip for Josie, Karen and George, since it was obvious that I wasn't too happy. In spite of the loss, we will all do the trip again. It was exciting and beautiful and we saw many deer grazing along the shore in addition to floating through some canyon areas over some pretty rough rapids.

Needless to say, I spent the whole afternoon notifying companies of the lost cards and getting replacements sent. The problem there is that most of the replacements - especially bank and credit cards - will go to our Florida address, which is our permanent mailing address. That means a delay of probably 1 week before I see them. Oh, well. Live and learn.

Our trip to Billings today to visit Costco is still on. I can get a Costco replacement card there and Josie still has one that we can use. I also have a spare drivers license with our old address in Arizona on it that I didn't discard or give back to the State, so I can still legally drive. It has the same license number and expiration, but with a different address. Let's hope that today ends with a better outcome...

New Road Around Cody and Golf

One of the things I neglected to mention in yesterday's post was a short trip that we took on a road in Cody that we hadn't been on before. This road is actually only about 15 miles of paved road before it becomes packed and graded dirt for about another 15 miles before ending at a small town called Valley in the mountains. We took the truck out which we normally do about every two weeks in order to make sure everything is still in good running condition. The short trip was a total surprise to us as far as the beauty of the terrain and the number of nice homes and ranches tucked away on this short road. We took some shots of the Shoshone River views that we had along the way:

The terrain, as mentioned, was beautiful and there was a particularly interesting view of what is called Castle Rock:

We were just about at the end of the paved road and we discovered the sign below:

And the house that was situated on Josie Lane:

Not too bad of a home in the middle of nowhere.

We also had a different experience before we went to work yesterday. We have continually passed by this place coming and going through town and decided to give it a try:

This mini golf course is part of the park that sits at the edge of town and is across the street from the Buffalo Bill Historical Center that we visited before.

Below are a couple shots of us on the course:

Today is the rafting trip with Karen and George and we were a little concerned late yesterday when it appeared that a storm was brewing and might ruin our trip. It looks like it will be mostly clear though, based on the weather this morning. It should be an exciting trip and we will try to get lots of pictures along the way. Until tomorrow...

Going Without a Dinner Break

We normally try to take our dinner break together at about 7 PM every night. Last night was a situation that I could see developing but took a chance on leaving with Josie anyway for our dinner break at the usual 7 PM. The problem was that we had a Tour that hadn't checked in yet and there were still about 20 reservations for individuals that hadn't yet checked in. We told Karen to give me a call if she needed support. Well, you guessed it, I just got home and Karen called to ask if I could come back because the Tour bus showed up along with about 10 bikers that had to check in and she needed help. It turned out that I didn't get dinner until after I left work at 10:30 last night. Josie was able to take her normal break and finished dinner alone. Other than that, it was a fairly normal night for us.

We are going to go on a rafting trip tomorrow morning at 9 AM. Karen had called the Outfitter and made reservations for the four of us for the early trip, which will be about 12 miles and last between 2 1/2 and 3 hours. It should be very exciting since I can't remember the last time - or even the first time - we have been on one of these trips. They are very popular in Cody and the trip will be free for us as employees of the Village. That will save us $76 since the fee that is charged to others is $38 per person. We will report on that trip, along with pictures, in Friday's post.

We have a surprise activity planned for this morning, so tomorrow we will (hopefully) have a few shots for the blog. In the meantime, this is our last day of the work week so we are happy about that. Until tomorrow...

First Ever Tip

We had 2 more Tours come in yesterday but we also had 39 reservations for people checking in. The reservations really keep us busy in the office as the manual system we use is very labor intensive to check-in people. While Karen was on her dinner break between 8 and 9 PM last night I got into a discussion with a person checking in about Yellowstone. It seems they (she and her husband) will be here for 3 nights and they plan to do Yellowstone on 2 of those days. We have a map of Yellowstone at the front desk and I spent about 10 minutes suggesting ways for them to see the park in 2 days and suggested some places to pull off the main road to see some exciting sights. She was so gratefull for the information that she gave me my first ever tip at the front desk - $2. Hey, I never heard of anybody else getting any tips, so it made me feel good, even though I tried to refuse it.

Josie is on her Mon - Wed closing schedule so she gets to stay late to close, which is around 11:30. With my schedule ending at 10:30 PM every night, I'm usually ready for bed by the time she gets home, and she is just starting to "unwind" from her day. We try to reach a middle ground, so we have been going to bed around 12:30. In spite of the different work schedule, we are both beginning to like it since we have some free time every day before we start work. We get up between 9 and 9:30, so there is time to relax or go some place that is not too far away.

Today is our "Thursday" of the work week so we are once again counting down to when we can enjoy some free time. The weather is still fabulous - high 80's or low 90's every day, and no humidity. What a great place to spend summer...

Chores and Golf

It was one those days where we decided to get some things done around the fifth wheel. Josie washed the Jeep and I repaired a broken cup on our weather station that snapped off during our setup here back in June. The wind gauge on the weather station has been innacurate as a result of this missing cup so now we will be back to normal with those readings. It was also a good day to watch golf on TV. The final round of the British Open was on and I was able to see the complete final round as a result of the time difference between England and here. I was disappointed that the highest finish by an American was a tie for 7th place. I wasn't disappointed that Tiger finished in a tie for 23rd. His golf game has dropped several levels since his personal life became a problem and it's good to see some new blood win for a change.

Today is our 3rd work day and Josie calls it "hump day" since it is in the middle of our week. Yesterday was perhaps the slowest day I have experienced at the front desk since we arrived. There were three Tours that arrived and we had no cabins to sell, along with just a few reservations for the cabins that were available after the Tours filled most of the cabins. Today should be much busier as the Tours usually only stay for one night and those people will be gone today. That's about it for another day...

Back to Work Again

There isn't much to report about yesterday. It was the start of another work week and the countdown to our "Friday" has begun again. We may be able to squeeze in a short trip or two before then but we are usually very tired from working the night before and are happy to just relax on our mornings before starting work. The weather is so nice that we may even walk over to the pool at the Holiday Inn and go for a swim. That is made available to the employees of the Village as part of our perks. It is also a good time to do necessary chores and cleanup around the fifth wheel. There are some small projects that we have been putting off because we would rather go places.

When we started out on our walk to town on Friday, we ran into Pernille, our supervisor, as she was leaving work a little early. She is a very nice "young" lady that is pregnant with her first child and due in December. She is from Holland and was here on a work visa for several years before meeting her husband just as her visa was expiring - hmmm. She indicated that the business pattern changes around the middle of August as families begin to stay close to home for the start of the school year. Then, September has an increase in Tour business as the older crowd comes in to see Yellowstone before the winter months. The net of the conversation was that we won't be as busy once we hit the middle of August.

After talking with Karen yesterday about planning other trips together, we probably will be doing a rafting trip as soon as we get an opening at the Outfitter's office. Since we go for free, they have to fill their trips with paying customers first and we understand that. I'm sure we'll get our chance soon. Later...

Irma's, Silver Dollar and Dan Miller

Yesterday was a good day for us to see more of the local attractions and events that we have been putting off for longer trips. It started with a long walk around town. We stopped at the Walgreen's on the corner of our complex to get a battery for the pedometer that I purchased a couple years ago. We wanted to see how far we actually walked around the town. The final total was just over 1 mile, which seemed a lot more as we stopped at just about every store on the main street. Our plan was to make a whole night of the local events that we had been missing: the Gunfighter's Shootout at the Irma Hotel, Silver Dollar Bar for dinner and Dan Miller's Western Music Show at night.

We started at the Irma Hotel at around 5:30 to get a good seat for the "shootout":

The crowd settled in and the scene became a familiar one for westerns - a Bank, a Saloon and a Jail:

Of course, there are gatherings at a poker table in the Saloon where a bank robbery is planned, then executed, and Wyatt Earp rounds up the bandits to put in jail - only some of them refuse to go to jail.

The shootout occurs and you know the rest of the story.

After the Shootout, we had time to get some dinner, so we opted for the Silver Dollar, which we were told, has the best burgers in town:

We can vouch for the burgers - they were excellent. With a cold draft of Bud Light and some fries,  it was a great dinner.

Then it was off to the Dan Miller Music Show. It was a very entertaining show (and free to us as employees of the Village) and we enjoyed all the old western songs that they performed from the Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and other old western stars' era. Read the link about this man who has some great credentials:

It was another fun "weekend" for us and we once again wished we had only signed up to work 4 days a week instead of 5. The extra day would be nice in areas like this where there is always some place to go. We are getting closer to the day when we won't have to work as much...

Drive to Meeteetse and Thermopolis

It was a perfect day to take a drive yesterday. We have been wanting to drive to Meeteetse and Thermopolis so yesterday was the day. Meeteetse was kind of a disapointment. There wasn't much to see in this small town of about 600 people so we didn't spend a lot of time there. We traveled another 50 miles to Thermopolis to see the Wyoming Dinosaur Center and visit the town that has a population of around 3,000:

The Dinosaur Center was at the east end of town and we found it tucked away on a hillside, and it  looked like a warehouse from the front:

Once inside, we paid our $11 admission fee and walked around a self guided set of displays of all kinds of fossils and examples of prehistoric animals leading up to the Dinosaur Age. Then, you enter the center of the displays and the large models of dinosaurs that were placed around a huge cast model of a Supersaurus - center photo - the largest of all the dinosaurs that was 106 feet long:

Bones for this cast model were actually discovered at the local dig site, which was a short drive from the Center. People were in a room at the Center, with surrounding viewing glass, that were actually cleaning off the bones that had been discovered recently. It's hard to imagine that these dinosaurs ruled the world for 160 million years before they became extinct 70 million years ago.

We returned home about 5:30 and just relaxed the rest of the day. We were hoping that there would be an opening in one of the rafting trips today, but we haven't heard anything from Karen who was going to call for all of us. We are assuming there were none, so we will do something else today. Our plan so far is to go to the Dan Miller Show tonight at 8 PM in town. Until tomorrow...

Another Week Down

Before heading to work yesterday, we had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant that is about a block from us. This is a place that has an outdoor-cafe type seating arrangement where you can watch all of the local activity in town while dining. We were entertained while eating, watching a group of young kids prepare for a rafting trip at the outfitters location across the street. There were probably 30 kids, ranging in age from about 8 to 12, and they all put on their life jackets before boarding a bus to go launch the rafts. It must have been an exciting day for all of them.

This was a particularly busy work week for both Josie and I and we were happy to see it end last night. It still amazes us how all the hotels and motels in the Cody area, all 30 of them, are booked solid every night of the week. We are always getting at least a half dozen people every night coming in and asking if we have a vacancy. There must be lots of people that travel through the night to find a place or that sleep in their cars. It's an absolute requirement this time of year to make a reservation.

After a discussion with Karen about trying to see if there are any openings for a rafting trip while we are off, our plans are in flux again. Josie has also said that she would like to go to Meeteetse, a small town about 25 miles south of Cody that has some neat old west attractions. That town is on the way to Thermopolis, which is about 100 miles from here and is a favorite location for viewing Dinosaur ruins and museums, and hot springs. So, with that, our trip to Billings may be delayed again for a while. We will finalize plans for our "weekend" this morning.

No matter what we plan to do, the weather is fabulous and definetly will not interfere with whatever we plan. The temps are in the mid to high 80's for the most part, and there is very little rain which occasionally arrives in the form of a brief thunderstorm a couple days a week. It is hardly enough rain - about 20 minutes, usually - to have any effect. There is no humidity and very few bugs of any kind. It is a "keeper" area for sure...

Unusual Group Arrival

One thing that has been described about the front desk job here is the hope that we get group tours. Usually, the groups have a Tour Director and all thirty or so people get checked in by him or her. We were blind sided yesterday with a group from a motorcycle club. Everything looked like a normal  group coming in as far as the paperwork at the front desk - and then they showed up. For the first time, each person in the group checked in individually, causing a line out the door as there were 20 cabins to be checked in all at once. It was a mad house for about an hour since we also had regular customers checking in while we attempted to clear out the club. Some things are so antiquated here. The system is very manually oriented and Karen and I were scrambling most of the day. It was good to see the day come to an end last night.

Today is our "Friday" and then we can enjoy some free time. Nothing is planned for this morning except for maybe a walk downtown. There are some specialty shops that we have wanted to revisit, so today may be the day. Tomorrow, we had planned to go to Billings, MT, to the Costco and other stores, but that may be delayed until Friday. There are a couple things we want to do locally, so we may switch days for that trip. That's about it for today - see ya tomorrow...

Haircuts and Local Stuff

As mentioned yesterday, Josie and I got our hair cut by a pair of fellow workampers that have hairdressing experience. Don gave me a hircut and Jan cut Josie's. It only took a short time and we are both satisfied with the cuts - and the total cost was $10. We hope they don't leave before we do.

The rest of the morning was spent driving to the Vistors Center in town to try and find a special brochure on the Bighorn Canyon that we had seen on board our trip a few days ago and then to McDonald's for a quick lunch. I have really gotten to like their new Frappe's and Josie likes the new Smoothie's, so McDonalds may become a regular stop for those.

There is another neat business that is owned by the Blairs, the owners of our Village, the Holiday Inn and the Comfort Inn, called the Dude Ranch at Ucross, which is a small town in Eastern Wyoming that takes about three hours to get to. Several of the workampers here have gone there and have raved about the place. It is a real dude ranch with ranchhouse, horse rides, swimming pool and the whole dude ranch experience. It is free to us except for a flat fee for meals and board which is a fraction of the total cost to others. We have been talking with Karen and George about the possibility of scheduling a couple days to go there in the near future.

Today is day 4 of our work week, so it will be another short day for free time. We are thinking that we probably will do a trip to Billings on Thursday to go to Costco and stock up on some things we need, and to check out the town in general. More later...

Shrinking Work Force

We noticed that the number of empty spaces in our employee camping area has been growing recently. There have been some people that just couldn't handle the physical aspects of their jobs, and we also heard about a couple that is leaving because the wife did not present herself well to customers and was replaced - so they both are leaving. This is definetly a high paced, busy environment and is not for everybody. Although there are several couples that have returned for more than 2 years, the majority are here for the first time this season - such as ourselves. We have acclimated to the job and the pace of the job, so we plan to fulfill our obligation of working until the first part of October. The perks are good and the area is excellent. The Resort has placed ads in Workamper News for housekeeping help, so they are aggresively trying to fill the open jobs.

We have a couple that have spent many years in the hairdressing business - she as a hairdresser, he as a barber - so we scheduled haircuts with them this morning. They offer them for practically nothing so we thought we would try them. Other than that, we have nothing planned before we go to work today. It's just another day at the office - 3 more to go before our weekend...

Normal Day at the Office

It was just another day at the office, so they say. We had a very busy day again and filled the cabins as we usually do. Josie was busy, although not quite as much as when the Motor Maids motorcycle ladies were in town. The town is quiet once again. Most of the people staying now are vacationers that are coming or going to Yellowstone. A big difference now though is that we are able to answer questions from people about where to go and what to do while in town. There are still some places we haven't been but, for the most part, we can speak from experience. We are fortunate to be in this area where there is so much available to do.

There are 2 places we are definetly zeroing in on - the Dan Miller Western Music Show and rafting. The Dan Miller show is a Branson (MO) type western music show that has gotten rave reviews, and the rafting trip is something we have been thinking about for several weeks. Both of those events will be free to us as employees of the Village here. Of course, there is the Grand Teton trip and Jackson WY that is also on our list of places to go, but that trip will most likely be an overnight trip for us. Another event that we hope to get to is a wild west shoot-out that is held every evening outside the Irma Hotel in town that was Buffalo Bill's office and part time home that he had built while he was alive. Never a dull moment here.

It will be a relaxing Sunday morning for us today as we prepare for our second work day of the week. Until tomorrow...

Bighorn Canyon Recreation Area

Our visit to the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area started with our departure from Cody at 11:30 AM. We picked up Karen and George and it took us about 1 1/2 hours to arrive at the pick up location which was several miles from the boat launch. Since we arrived so early, we made a couple sandwiches and had our lunch while waiting for the van to take us to the boat. We saw several wild mustangs on the short trip in the van:

 and arrived at the dock around 2 PM:

Everybody boarded and we were on our way:

This was a trip through some of the most beautiful canyon area in the country. It reminded us of the grand Canyon on a smaller scale, and very different. We never have been at the bottom of the Grand Canyon so this gave us some appreciation of how it must look at the bottom. There were several speedboats on the water, this one coming at us in the canyon:

and this one with  kids tubing:

The views of the canyon were awesome and we took a total of 160 pictures during the day. It was difficult deciding which pictures to put in today's entry, but here are a few of the canyon views:

All along the canyon we saw areas where bighorn sheep were present. We were fortunate to see several of the sheep in a couple of the favorite places:

We went probably 8-10 miles into the canyon and then turned around and came back. The trip back was different even though it was the same part of the canyon. It gave us a different perspective seeing it in reverse. After the boat trip ended, the van driver took us to a lookout point that was spectacular, and showed us where we had been while on the water:

We finished the tour with a group photo with Karen and George:

It was a fabulous day in perfect weather and we reached home, after a stop for burgers in Lovell, WY, at around 8:30 PM. Another fun day in a great area.

It's back to work today. Josie is doing laundry and I'm finishing up on the post for the day. Now, we have to plan something special for our next "weekend" starting on Thursday...