Late Shift

Our first scheduled night shift duty was last night. We had worked these hours while at Cody and recalled that it was good time to work for several reasons. First of all, we don't start until late afternoon which gives us all morning and a few hours in the afternoon to relax or take a short trip. The second reason is that we finish up at a decent hour - 11 PM - which is not much later than our normal bedtime. Finally, there isn't a lot of work activity after about 6 or 7 PM, so the night is not hectic at all. That of course works both ways. It gets real boring after about 7 or 8 PM and we begin to watch the clock and count down the time before we are finished. Our first night was uneventful and we enjoyed the extra time off between changing from the mornings to afternoon.

It is always nice to talk with the guests checking in about their days of adventure traveling through the two Parks here. A couple days ago a couple described coming upon a moose that was giving birth to a calf. Their timing was perfect and they saw - and recorded - the entire event, including the mother cleaning off the calf and helping it with its first steps. Yesterday, another couple described what appeared to be the same moose and calf, in the same general area, walking along the roadside just past the entry gate to the Grand Tetons National Park. We are now excited about going to that location on our days off to see if we might spot the pair. As mentioned before, every day is different in those Parks.

Our final day of our first full week is today. We are getting the hang of the job and with the exception of unique situations, we feel confident that we can handle anything that comes up. With a little more practice, we will be as fast as the long time, experienced workers are at the front desk. At any rate, we are ready for the busy summer.

We expect some nice weather for our days off this week, so we are beginning to lay out our schedule for those days. One trip for sure will be to the area in the Tetons that the moose was seen. That is also along the way to a spot we want to revisit from our last trip here a couple years ago - Jenny Lake and Jackson Lake. You really can't go wrong with any choices in this area...