Milestones

Before going to work yesterday, we did some telephone work to enroll Josie in a supplemental health plan for Medicare. Yes, she is finally eligible for Medicare - on July 1 - and the long awaited day is finally here. She has been without health care coverage for about 3 years, and we were holding our breath hoping that she would not need any major medical attention during that time. Our prayers were answered, and she has had no occasion to seek medical attention - except for emergency cuts and stitches. We signed her up on the same plan as mine - the AARP Medicare Complete Plan that allows us to seek medical attention wherever we travel. It has worked well for me, and we expect the same for her. Her next move is to schedule exams that she has been holding off until her coverage kicks-in.

That little exercise took out a good part of the morning, so we didn't get to do any outdoor activity which would have been nice since it was a nice morning. The weather is expected to hold until at least Thursday - our next day off. Isolated thunderstorms are forecast for Thursday and Friday, so we hope those forecasts aren't accurate. It seems like every afternoon that the breeze picks up and the clouds roll in. It has been the norm for the last few weeks. Mornings have been near perfect. It probably means that another bike ride is in our near future.

As we wind down the month of June, there are only 3 months left for our summer in Jackson. The time sure flies, and there is much to do before the summer ends...

Rafting Photos and Pinedale

Before I get into yesterday's activities, I wanted to show the two photos that we purchased from our rafting trip on Thursday:

Josie and I are on the second and third row on the right. You can see how the lady sitting next to me was holding my arm through the rapids. She began doing that after we went through the first rapids and she fell backwards into the raft. It was another great ride and lots of fun.

Our goal yesterday was to see the small town of Daniel (population 100) that was just before the "big" town of Pinedale (population 1400). There was  a property there that was advertised in the paper that we wanted to try to find, but the distance - 76 miles each way from Jackson - is too far for us to consider. The drive was beautiful and the town is kind of nice:

There are no major stores in the town though, so we are thinking that major shopping has to be done in Rock Springs or Jackson. We did make a short stop at a mini-mart and got some ice cream though. We didn't locate the specific property we saw advertised, but saw several others for sale that were not especially appealing.

It made for a beautiful drive and we passed lots of pronghorn along the way:

There are so many nice areas in western Wyoming that it would take a whole summer to see them, even if we went to a different area each weekend we had off from work.

It was a scorcher yesterday by Jackson standards - 89 degrees - and we are thankful that we had two days off this week that were spectacular.

It's back to work today at 3 PM, so the weather can change or do whatever it wants for the next 5 days...

Snake River Whitewater Rafting

The big day was yesterday for our annual whitewater rafting trip on the Snake River. We tried to remember the things we did last year as far as preparation, and we came pretty close. We both wore bathing suits under our clothes, put on sunscreen and planned to leave everything except a change of clothes in the truck once we arrived at the location where we were to take the bus.

Dave Hansen is generally recognized as one of, if not the top, whitewater rafting outfitter in Jackson. It was the same company that we used last year and is the one that "comped" our trip, valued at $160 for the two of us to take the 8 mile journey down the river.

We arrived at Hansen's at 10:15 in time to get signed up, get our wetsuits and booties, and have a cup of coffee before departing at 10:45:

We passed by the lodge on the way to the drop-off on the river that was south of town. Here is a shot taken through the dirty window on the bus:

We had to leave our valuables on the bus while doing the trip which meant we had to leave the camera  and weren't aren't able to get any actual shots of the whitewater float. It's too bad, as it was an exciting trip, similar to last year. We saw several bald eagles and osprey on the trip and also spotted an otter along the banks of the river. The weather was absolutely perfect - a high of 87 and cloudless sky - and the rapids did not disappoint. I sat next to an elderly woman that was holding on to me through each of the rapids so that it was difficult for me to paddle along with the other rowers through the rapids. We selected two photos from the bunch that were taken of us this year and when I post those pictures tomorrow, you will see how the woman was holding onto my arm.

The river was probably as fast or faster than last year and we had just as good a time this year. Our crowd was smaller on this year's boat, so we had a more intimate experience as far as learning everybody's background and having conversation on the boat and on the bus.

Josie and I went to the New York Sub Shop that was a couple doors away from Hansen's and splurged on a couple Philly Cheese Steaks - umm, good!:

You may recall that we have eaten here in the past and still enjoy an occasional reminder of how good they are.

What a great day. We came home and washed the truck before sitting out in the beautiful sunshine to enjoy the rest of the day.

The weather is again beautiful today and we were deciding between several activities -  a bike ride, a hike or a drive to a town that we hadn't been to yet, Daniel, that is close to Pinedale south of Jackson Before we do anything, we will pick up our photos from yesterday's whitewater trip...

More on the BikeTrail

One of the areas where the bike trail goes is behind the post office in Jackson to the southern part of town. We wanted to see where the trail started, so we took a walk before work yesterday to locate the trail.

Across from the RV park and at the beginning of our walk, we passed the library that had beautiful flowers all around the front:

 

We picked up the bike trail at the rear of the post office and started walking the trail to see where it went in town. There were many apartments and condos along the trail, and it followed the Flat Creek through this part of town:

 



 

The trail eventually goes to Smiths grocery store where we do our shopping, but we turned off because we had to eat and get ready for our afternoon shift at work. We ended up walking about 3 miles total, and made some stops at a couple local stores before reaching home. We will definitely ride the trail with our bikes and will take it to the grocery store at the south end of town.

 



We finished our work week yesterday and will take our scheduled rafting trip this morning. We anticipate a warm, sunny morning and also some relatively fast whitewater action along the ride. It seems like the river is still high from the snow runoff and should be an exciting ride. Hopefully, we'll have some photos to show of our adventure today and a description of one of the best activities in this area...

Unsettled Weather

The last few days have been highlighted with unsettled weather. We have gotten winds and thunderstorms on each of the last three days and yesterday was typical. It started out nice and calm with clear skies. By the time we headed for work at 3 PM the skies were filling with dark clouds and the rains came by 5 PM. We aren't getting a lot of rain, but the winds were increasing during that time. Maybe it's the mountains effect, but the winds seem to pick up every afternoon, regardless of whether there is rain in the forecast or not. Every day but one this month we have had high wind gusts over 12 mph. Some of those days we were in the 25+ range. The highest winds were in the afternoon on every day this month. The longer range forecast is for nice, warm weather to arrive by the time we do our rafting trip on Thursday AM.

Once again we nearly sold out at work last night. There is definitely more traffic this year than last - so far. There have been some issues with communication among the staff that have us a little concerned. A few of the staff that have been working at the lodge for several years have fallen down on some key communications with the newer staff members and Judy, our manager, is trying to "nip-it-in-the-bud" with some heads up memos. It's early in the season yet, but we notice some change in the staff attitudes at work that we didn't have last year. We hope we are over-reacting to some of these issues. We still enjoy our work time with Donna and most of the other staff members, so we will continue to enjoy our jobs at the lodge. We will always look forward to our free time and it's hard to beat any free time in this area.

Our rafting trip is on for 10:45 tomorrow AM, so our final day at work today for this week will be filled with anticipation for nice weather and a successful trip on the Snake River tomorrow...

Chores and Things

With the threat of rain and continued cool temperatures, it became a chores day yesterday. We went to the RV park shed, picked up the mower and trimmer, and cut the grass. That has become a weekly chore since the grass grows fast in this cool weather and we are responsible for our own maintenance. If there is any negative to our staying here over the summer, it is maintaining our own yard. With the daily space rental in the park sitting at over $70 per day for visitors, we feel that we can endure that responsibility.

We went to the local Sports Authority store to pick up a mirror for Josie's bike so she will be able to see people approaching her from behind on these bike trails. She gets startled when one passes her on the trail and she isn't expecting another bike to pass. We also bought a pair of bike riding shorts for her to make it more comfortable for her to ride. This is really the first time in her life that she has spent any time on a bike. I grew up on bikes, so it is different for me.

Our day at work was very busy and it appears, so far, that we are ahead of last year's business at the lodge. We are close to selling out all the rooms every night whereas last year it wasn't until July when we reached that stage. That's good for the ownership, but tough on the employees. For about a three hour stretch, from 4 PM until 7 PM, we are constantly checking-in folks and answering phones without a break in the action. We always said that the time goes faster when we are busy so we shouldn't complain about that. Our "Thursday" is today, so the weekly countdown to our next scheduled activity - whitewater rafting  - is fast approaching. We will make those reservations today...

Bike Ride to Dornans

Even though it was a bit chilly in the morning, we felt we needed to get some exercise before going to work. We chose to take a bike ride from the junction in the south part of the Tetons called the Gros Ventre Junction to a restaurant that was just before the park entrance in Moose, WY. We mounted the bikes on the truck and left at 9:30 with the temperature barely in the 40's at 41.

We arrived at the trail location where we were going to start and began our ride at around 10:00. The mountains were clearly visible and we could see where some of the snow had melted on these peaks:

There are miles and miles of bike trails in the Tetons and this stretch would take us on a 12 mile round trip ride. We passed the Jackson Hole Airport after starting out and captured these shots:

It was a mostly level ride but we stopped a couple times to rest along the way to Dornan's:

Just before arriving at Dornan's, we passed under the highway through a tunnel to get to the Moose Junction area:

The area where Dornan's is located is also a gas stop, gift store and grocery/deli, and we sat and had a cup of coffee while enjoying the sunshine. We had eaten a meal here last year and enjoyed the quiet atmosphere:

There were many different wildflowers along the way and we stopped at a couple locations to take some photos of these wildflowers, most of which we had captured in earlier photos and posted here. This is a cool shot of the wildflowers in front of the Tetons :

Our ride was invigorating and we returned home by noon to have lunch and get ready for work at 3 PM. We will be taking more of these bike rides on different locations along the bike trail but probably not for a few days while we recover from the physical effects of this ride. Each time we ride should be easier than the last.

It was a quiet night at work and we will be rested today for our third day working this week...

Substitute at Work

Our scheduled coworker for yesterday, Nicole, called in sick and we had a substitute worker for the first time this year. The person standing in for her is named Harvey and he is a worker that we spent some time with last year so we are familiar with him. Actually, he is staying in a trailer next to us in the RV Park and is a single fellow that lives out of his truck. It's quite a story. He has no relatives except for a brother in Florida, and all of his worldly possessions are with him when he travels in his truck. He purchased the trailer just to use this summer as a place to stay. His background is in the hotel industry and he travels all over the country working in different hotels and lodges as a seasonal front desk employee. He is our age and is a very quiet, competent worker, and a nice person to be around. Last year, he rented a condo on the other side of the Teton Pass in Victor, ID, while he was working the lodge. It's hard to imagine his lifestyle, but it works for him and he seems happy all the time.

The cold weather is continuing to stick around. It was 33 again this morning and is making it difficult to get out and do things outside. It is clear today and is suppose to get back into the 70s where we haven't been for about a week now. We are keeping our eyes on the wildfire activities in Colorado and are hoping that we don't get a repeat of last year when the haze from all the surrounding wildfires ruined the views of the mountains. That didn't happen until the August/September time frame last year so it will be interesting to watch.

We are talking about taking a short bike ride this morning. It might warm up enough to make it enjoyable and we need the exercise. Hopefully, we can make that happen and still have some time to relax before going to work at 3 PM...

Idaho Falls

There were several items we needed to stock up on and with the cold weather, we made use of the off-day to go to Sam's Club in Idaho Falls. We wanted to get an early start, but it turned out we didn't leave until 10 AM. It meant going over Josie's favorite pass - the Teton Pass - but it cuts about 20 to 30 miles off the trip going that way. We stopped at the summit once again to get shots of the sign and the beautiful valley below:

The town just on the other side of the pass as you enter Idaho is Victor. We spotted these wild Poppy's:

We also stopped at the mini mart in Victor to buy a couple lottery tickets that are not available in Wyoming. It was a leisurely drive and we arrived in Idaho Falls at around noon. Our first stop was at the Walmart where we each got a haircut. We made it to Sam's Club - following a stop at the DQ in town for a treat - at around 2 PM. It's a good thing we don't shop here very often as the budget couldn't take this kind of hit on a regular basis. We stocked up on meats, fish, toiletries and other goods that are always less money at the warehouse stores. It was certainly worth the trip.

On the way home, we spotted a huge herd of bison in a field that we stopped to photograph:

We couldn't tell if this was a wild herd or part of a bison ranch where they are raised for market. It was not a normal (in the National Parks) location in Eastern Idaho, but probably could have traveled from the parks.

Closer to Wyoming, we saw these five horses - all of which had foals:

It is the first time we have seen a 100% birth rate within a small group of horses.

Of course, the weather is going to improve now that we have go back to work today. For the last two weeks we have had lousy weather on our days off. It was 35 outside again this morning, but the forecast is for climbing temperatures for the next few days. It is still a paradise here, no matter what the temperature is...

Bar-J Chuckwagon

It was so cold in the morning (35) that we cancelled our scheduled bike ride. It only went to 64 as a high yesterday, so it was a stay-home-and-keep-warm day. Our scheduled event for the evening - the Bar-J Chuckwagon and Western Show - was scheduled for the night, so we were ready to go and headed out at 4:30 for the 15 minute drive to Wilson, near the Teton Village. There was a clear view of the mountains as we crossed the Snake River south of Jackson:

It was a short time before we arrived at the entrance to the Bar-J:

The last time we came here in 2012, we arrived at just about 5 PM and were among the first to arrive before the gates opened at 5:30. This year, we arrived earlier - at around 4:50 - and were shocked to see the number of folks ahead of us waiting for the opening:

All of the seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis, so we ended up getting assigned seats on the fourth row of tables. They were still pretty good seats to watch the show. We walked to our table to place our jackets on the seats we chose at our table and then walked around for a bit in the gift shops outside the stage area. These two shots are of the entrance into the Chuckwagon area:

and of the crowd inside just before the dinner started at 6:30:

The room was filled to capacity.

Josie and I had a steak dinner with baked beans, baked potato, apple sauce, biscuits and lemonade and enjoyed the meal. The show did not disappoint:

With our comp tickets, the night only cost us $20 as we upgraded the meal from BBQ Beef to steak. It is a must-do activity for anybody visiting this area as the group has been doing this show for 36 years and have become synonomous with Jackson Hole entertainment. They perform seven nights a week from Memorial Day to the last day in September each year.

It is another chilly morning this morning so we decoded to make a much needed trip to Idaho Falls to Sams Club to restock our meats and fish plus other staples, and to get haircuts at the Walmart in town. We have one more weekend in June to complete our June comp activities, so we are hoping for a nice weekend next week...

Reminder of Vista

Our final shift at work for the week was not without excitement. We had only one bus come in but it was very busy and very eventful. At around 9 PM, the alarm at our desk phones started ringing indicating that a guest was dialing 911. It was similar to the sound that we became used to hearing at the Holiday Retirement Center in Vista CA last year. The biggest difference was that we weren't in bed sound asleep when this alarm sounded. We saw that the call was originating in room #186, so Donna went to the room to see if we could help. There was a gentleman that was part of the Caravan bus tour that had some bad food during the day and was nauseous and had diarrhea. He fell off the toilet and hit his head on the tub and was non-responsive. In a few minutes he became relatively normal and all that was left was to clean up the mess that he created in the bathroom area of the room. Donna supplied the necessary housekeeping items for that room, but the ambulance wasn't required.

There was a repeat of an emergency twenty minutes later when a woman walked up to me at the front desk and said she needed help because her husband was shaking and was not coherent. Donna once again went to this room - number 214 - and ended up assisting the woman in calling 911 for an ambulance. This person was not part of the tour, but represented our second emergency within the hour. It was our first experience handling any emergency since we started working at the lodge. To have two of them on the same night, within an hour of each other, was unbelievable. Our week then ended quietly at 11 PM last night.

The wild weather continued in the afternoon yesterday. There was another storm that went through in the afternoon just as we were starting our shift at 3 PM. The winds picked up - 25 mph gusts - and we ended up with .11 inches of rain. The result of the storm was dropping temperatures and it was only 35 degrees this morning. Our bike ride will be postponed as a result of the cold weather. We still have our engagement scheduled tonight at the Bar-J for supper and the western show. There is rarely a dull moment, and for the most part, we are loving every minute of it...

Filling in the Schedule

With June rapidly getting away from us, we scheduled our remaining days off with the comp activities that need to be done this month. We scheduled the Bar-J Supper and Western Show for Thursday evening and we will do the Dave Hansen White Water Rafting trip either Thursday morning or Friday morning. This week we will fill in with a bike ride from the Kelly turnoff north of town to Dornan's restaurant in Moose - about a 12 mile ride. Next Thursday and Friday we will use our comp meal tickets at the Gun Barrel restaurant where they serve the best steaks and game in Jackson. Also next week, we will schedule the horseback riding trip and another bike ride. Beginning in July, we will take some hikes and continue our bike trips. There just aren't enough days off to do what we would like to do. We have pretty much decided that next year, if we return, we will ask to be scheduled for just 4 work days each week. Life is too short.

It was extremely busy at work yesterday with 3 tour buses and many reservations and walk-ins. We came within a couple rooms of being totally sold out for the night. It seems that the busy time has arrived sooner this year which probably means that the economy is showing signs of recovery in Jackson Hole. The RV park is also filling up earlier than last year. Our final day is today and the week went pretty fast with the increase in business.

The weather has been a contrast each day between sunshine and calm winds in the mornings to thunderstorms and high winds in the afternoon. The same is expected today, so we will get a chance to enjoy this sunshine for a few hours before it changes this afternoon. It makes for one advantage to working in the afternoons and evenings...

Enjoying the Sun

The main activities for yesterday were: a trip to Verizon, enjoying the sun and putting in our shift at work.

We once again took a walk to Verizon about 4 or 5 blocks away to get the lowdown on our data usage alerts. It turns out that there are two measurements for data - the one from your phones and the one from our data card that is cumulative. The data usage allowance we receive the alerts for is in danger of exceeding our 6 GB quota for the month. This represents all data downloads including emails and software and I don't know of any way to control that except to eliminate many of the commercial emails we receive and limit the software downloads and digital photo downloads if possible. The net of the conversation was that we will continue on our existing plan for now. Before we left the store, I upgraded our data card to newer technology and got the new Jetpack to replace our old one. It should help to monitor our usage with the new display screens and settings that are available. Since our commitment on the old data card has expired, we received the new one for free for signing up on a new 2 year commitment.

The rest of our morning and early afternoon was spent outside enjoying the warm sunshine:

I grilled some burgers for our dinner and we went to work at 3 PM for our third day of work this week. We worked with Tasha last night and had a fairly busy night but did not sell out the lodge. The business is picking up and it won't be long before a sellout is the common status at work. We put together our schedule for our remaining days off in June, so stay tuned for some fun and exciting times for the rest of June...

Scheduling

First of all, it was a nice Father's Day yesterday as I got to watch the start of the final round to the US Open golf tournament before going to work at 3 PM. It was another major golf tournament where Tiger Woods was not a factor. He may be the number one ranked player in the world but I still have a problem with the way he conducts himself on and off the course. The stark contrast is Phil Mickelson - a contender in the tournament yesterday - who interacts with the crowd and lives his public life as a good role model for anyone. It's too bad that he fell a little short in the tournament and lost to Justin Rose from England on the last couple holes. He will always be a fan favorite in my mind.

Our schedule this year is all afternoons which makes it difficult to schedule some of the activities we need to complete before the end of June. We only have two nights - Thursday and Friday - to use our complimentary tickets for things like restaurants, the Bar J western show and dinner, and the rodeo. There is no problem with the rafting trips or the horseback trips, but our flexibility is limited for the nighttime events. It's a nice problem to have.

I had forgotten how much the temperature swings on a daily basis in Jackson. We had a low near freezing yesterday morning and the high was 83. It makes for perfect sleeping weather and wonderful days that you can enjoy outside with no jackets or sweaters. We still turn on our electric heater in the mornings, but by the time we go to work in the afternoon, we have our door open and can sit outside to enjoy the warm rays from the sun.

We walked to the Verizon store yesterday morning to discover that it was closed on Sunday. It was a nice walk, but we will have to return again this morning to discuss our cell phone plan. We used the time to walk some more around the residential area in this part of town. It is still mind boggling to see the prices that these homes sell for in Jackson. Any chance to live here is certain to be in the form of a rental until the situation changes, if ever...

New Partner at Work

Before going to work at 3 PM yesterday, we drove to the Teton Mountain Bike Tours and Rental shop to pick up the final piece of our bike transaction and to settle the deal. The temporary bar for Josie's bike makes it possible for her "step-thru" bike to sit level on the bike rack and it works perfectly. Even though we spent a little more money for the bikes and accessories, we feel we got the best deal for comfort bikes along with the accessories and good advice we needed. We're set to go.

We had an opportunity yesterday at work to spend the first shift with a new partner at the front desk - Nicole - who is the oldest daughter of our front desk manager, Judy. She was a delight to work with and we will share our Saturday shift with her on alternate weekends with Senna, the young lady that operates a winter snowmobiling business with her husband at Yellowstone. That completes all the experiences with other front desk personnel and we are happy that all of the partners are pleasant and fun to work with. We are still waiting to sell out the lodge for the first time this season even though we have come close.

Our second work day for the week starts this afternoon and we have nothing planned for this Father's Day morning, except for some short trips to the store and a visit to the local Verizon store to find out about some strange messages we have been getting regarding data usage on our account. More about that later as we discover why our usage approaches the monthly limits each month with what we consider to be light use of that feature.

In the meantime, happy Father's Day to all the dads out there...

Work at Home Day

It was not cloudy or raining yesterday, but it was cool and breezy. In fact, the high was only 61 and we had steady winds most of the day. It was a good day to get things done around the home. In fact, we were waiting on a call from our bike shop saying the part was in to complete our transaction with them. Once we get the support bar for Josie's bike, we will be able to put both bikes on the rack for transporting with the truck and the fifth wheel. The weather has made it difficult to ride anywhere, so Josie did laundry and I worked on organizing photos on the computer. I also squeezed in some time to watch the US Open golf tournament.

Our part is expected to arrive this morning, so we will stay home again until around 11 AM when we will go to the bike shop, pick up the part, and pay the owner for the bikes and accessories.

It's back to work today at 3 PM, so we need to get ready for another week behind the desk. So far, it has been great and we are really happy with our schedule this year. The people we work with are terrific and the hours are perfect. The only thing we wish we had was more days off. If we do this next year, we may ask for a 4 day work schedule similar to that of the couple that didn't return this year that have come back for over 10 years.

The temperature went down to 30 degrees last night and we brought in our plants from outside. For the middle of June, it seems like we should be past the frost danger. You never know in this area...

Picking Up Our Bikes

We had to wait until the afternoon to pick up our bikes so we mowed the grass and washed the truck in the morning yesterday. It was a nice day until late in the afternoon.

The plan was to go to the bike shop at 3 PM and consummate the deal on the bikes. We arrived right at 3 PM and Dave Hunger, the owner, was ready for us. Here are a couple photos of the shop:

The bikes were brought out and Dave explained all the features of the bike and how to get the best ride. Josie and I rode the 8 miles round trip to the Fish Hatchery on the bike trail on the side of the main road out of town:

Dave was to attach the bike rack to the truck while we were taking our first ride. He ran into a problem with the rack. It seems that the rack is built for a class I or II hitch, and we have class IV hitches on both the truck and the fifth wheel. He had to remove the "tongue" from a different track that he had in order to get the proper fit:

We still couldn't place both bikes on the rack since Josie's bike is a "step-thru" which requires an additional, portable bar, to be placed on her bike so that it will sit on the rack like mine. That part was ordered and will be in the shop today for us to pick up. We took all of our goodies - the bikes, the pump, our helmets and the rack - and plan to return today to complete the process. We will also pay Dave when we finally get everything done, at his suggestion. He has been tremendous in making sure that everything is just right for us and we are grateful that we discovered such a sincere and hard working individual to guide us through this process.

Josie walked around the area while we were retrofitting the rack and captured these geese in the park:

The young geese are getting larger and are now almost the size of their parents. It appears that there are more than a couple families in this group.

The weather turned sour once again in the late afternoon and we had a thundershower with more high winds late in the evening. It has all cleared out this morning, so we are hoping for a nice day on our second day off this week...

Storm Scare

It rained off and on all morning yesterday. We cancelled our visit to the bike shop since we didn't want to start off testing out the new bikes in the bad weather. So, we got some things done around the fifth wheel and went into work at 3 PM. It cleared a little in the afternoon until about 5 PM when we heard about a severe weather alert for Jackson that was broadcast on the TV. There was a storm coming that had hail and high winds - up to 60 mph - that was expected to arrive between 4:30 and 5 PM. I left work to rush back to the fifth wheel to prepare it for the storm. I pulled in the slides, lowered the satellite dish, brought in our chairs and plants, moved the grill out harms way and started back to the lodge when the hail started. The hail was about the size of huge gumballs that you get out of the quarter bubblegum machines. The hail was bouncing off my head and was painful until I reached the overhang along the rooms at the lodge. The winds picked up although not close to 60 mph. I suspect that the main part of the storm missed us as it ended almost as fast as it started. I returned to the rig at around 6 PM and put everything back to normal.

We were slammed at work last night and ran out of rooms with all the walk-in traffic. There were also 3 tour buses which was the most we can remember having in one night. Needless to say, we were happy to see 11 PM arrive last night and start our weekend.

We have things to do this morning - like mow the grass and do laundry - before going to the bike shop to pick up our bikes and settle with the shop owner. The weather is still questionable, but we are hoping for some nice weather this afternoon so we can ride our bikes for the first time...

Bikes, Tours and Changing Weather

There wasn't much to report from yesterday before starting work at 3 PM except we went to the bike shop to see our new bikes that we will be riding for the first time this morning. They were all assembled and almost ready for pickup except for some work that needed to be done on our bike rack that will be completed today. Our plan is to go to the shop at 11 AM this morning and take a test ride on them to make sure everything is OK and no adjustments need to be made before picking up everything tomorrow, our first day off this week. They look great, although Josie was a bit shocked at the color of hers - she was expecting to see teal, but the actual color is sage which was not what she expected. It still looks good though, and we are anxious to get them.

Work was about the busiest we have been so far. There were two buses that came in and one of them was from a Chinese tour that caused some brief problems for us. Usually, the Tour Director from these buses will come to the front desk, pick up the keys, and go back to the bus to hand them out to the guests as the bus pulls out to park at the designated area in the back of the lodge. The Tour Director for this Chinese tour came into the lobby, along with all the passengers from the bus, and proceeded to hand out all the keys to the guests in the lobby and blocking access to the front desk for all the other guests that were trying to check in. Then, all of the guests walked to their rooms from the lobby, leaving the bus to block the check-in area in front of the lodge, until everybody got settled in his room. There will have to be some changes made in the methods used by this tour company in order to show consideration for other guests.

It figures that since our bikes are about ready that it would begin to rain. This morning is cloudy and raining - lightly - with isolated thunderstorms in the forecast. The same is expected the next couple days so we will just try to make it work. We haven't had much rain since we arrived, so it is welcome anyway. We can use the time at home to schedule activities that need to be completed before the end of June. Our comp tickets for certain activities - horseback riding, rafting, Bar-J western show and complimentary entrees at the best restaurant in town all expire at that time. Since we only have two nights per week to schedule some of those activities, we need to get those scheduled now. We expect to be very busy over the next couple weeks...

Grey's River Road

We were anxious to go to the small town of Alpine, 20 miles south of Jackson, to travel the road that Donna described to us the day before. She was right about the road - Grey's River Road - that follows the river and was a pretty drive:

We only drove about 8 miles on the road because we had to get back in time for work at 3 PM and we needed to have our dinner before work. We took many pictures of wildflowers along the way, some of which were new to us:

Starting with Chokecherry:

and then Wild Blue Flax:

Yellow Salsify or Goatsbeard:

Low Hawksbeard:

Scarlet Gilia:

Longleaf Phlox:

and finally, lots of Helianthella:

Josie decided to cut some of these Helianthella and make an arrangement in a vase when we got home:

We are getting enough photos of all these wildflowers to make our own book of wildflowers in the Tetons. It is a haven for these flowers and they sure add to the beauty of the area.

There was a birthday party for Virginia (her 89th) - the nice lady that owns the Lodge - during our shift in the afternoon. It was a surprise party and we got another chance to chat with her and wish her well. She has many homes around the country, including 3 in Hawaii, and she is staying at her beautiful home near the Jackson Golf and Tennis Club close to the airport. She also owns a ranch house south of Jackson in the Wyoming hills. Her main residence is in San Diego. We have concluded that the Virginian Lodge is not her primary source for income and the value of her estate probably runs in the hundreds of millions.

We received notice that our bikes are in and being assembled at the shop in Jackson where we purchased them. Because of our schedules, we will not be able to pick them up before tomorrow and we are looking forward to doing some pleasant bike riding this summer in our free time...