Cabins in Moran WY

As is our practice, we like to check out opportunities for employment whenever and wherever they might appeal to us. We saw an ad in our Workamper News for help at what is called Lutens Teton Cabins in Moran WY, which is about 30 miles up the road from us on the way to Yellowstone. It is located off the road that we took to Dubois a week or so ago, so we drove there to check them out for possible future consideration.

We saw our normal herd of bison in the field on the way where they can usually be spotted. The difference yesterday was that the skies were clear - finally - and the mountains made a nice backdrop for the photo:

We also saw several pronghorn antelope on the way.

When we arrived at the cabins we drove around the grounds and also visited in the office. They are pretty remote and evidently yesterday, Sunday, was not one of the days when they staff the office as nobody was there. Anyway, we looked around, and took this photo of the cabins (of which there are 12):

and this shot of the nice view from the grounds:

There were probably five RV's parked behind the cabins which were obviously those of the workampers that were already there for this season. It seemed like a nice place to work, but is too remote for us to have any interest in working there.

Our shift at the lodge yesterday was not much better than Saturday with the new employee. She is still hyper and inattentive to instruction on how to do things, so we are still pessimistic about her future here. It will be interesting to see if she sticks around.

Today is the last day of June, and since the weather has been so bad, we are happy to see it end. There is the big 4th of July celebration coming this weekend and also a gun show at the lodge so it promises to be a busy week ahead...

New Employee

Our return to work yesterday saw us being partnered with another new employee - Rachel M. We now have three Rachel's on the staff, and this one - so far - appears to be similar to Jill who was just recently fired. We now work with two new employees on our five days on the schedule each week. Marissa is the other new employee we work with, but she appears to be a good fit. If I were a betting man, I would say that this Rachel doesn't have a bright future at the lodge. We are hoping that the staff configuration settles down soon.

We also received our order for the year of new apparel. Each year, we get to order one new shirt and anything else we might want from a catalogue of a local supplier. The Virginian Lodge logo is embroidered on each piece of clothing we order and the lodge always pays for the first item. Anything else that the employees order from the catalogue are their responsibility to pay at a discounted price. This year, Josie and I each ordered a shirt (free), and I ordered a vest and Josie ordered a light jacket. My order was totally wrong as the shirt arrived in a different color from what I ordered and the vest arrived in the form of a women's jacket. Josie's order was correct, but this year the lodge used a different clothing supplier, and the quality is not as good as last year's clothing.

I have to say that with the lousy weather we had in June, the new employee problems and this recent foul up with the clothing order, that June was not one of the best months we've had here. We are hoping for a terrific July to get back into the joyful spirit that we have become accustomed to in Jackson.

While at work last night, Josie went outside to talk to somebody and came rushing in saying we had to come outside to look at something. At about 9:45 last night, this strange looking cloud came over Jackson that looked like an alien aircraft:

Very strange!

We're closing in on the first of July and the celebration in town that is held on the 4th. This year, it comes on one of our days off, so we are looking forward to this coming week and the beginning of July...

More on Cody Trip

Our second day of the Cody trip was just as much fun as the first. We took our time in the AM just relaxing and getting our things together to check out of the cabin. At 10 AM, we checked out and went into town to walk around and visit some of our favorite stores that were on the main street. We were to meet Karen and George and Brenda and Hank at the Millstone restaurant for lunch before departing for home. At 11:30, we all met and had "build your own" pizzas that we shared with each other. It was a great time and we reminisced about all that we have been doing since our last gathering together in 2010. Below is a shot of the group as we left the restaurant at around 1 PM:

We had a fabulous time in Cody and enjoyed our time with our old friends.

It was another very rainy, cool day for traveling home to Jackson. We didn't get very far out of town driving toward Yellowstone when we spotted some very young elk trying to cross the road. There were three babies that were separated from their mothers who had made it across the road. Here is a shot of the babies trying to find an opening in the fence:

All the while, the mothers were crying out to them and the babies were crying and desperate to get across the road to join them. One of the babies did get through the fence:

and crossed the road to meet up with her mother:

They were part of a larger group of elk that were still on the other side of the road:

We're sure that they eventually all got back together again.

 



The drive to the eastern entrance of Yellowstone was beautiful, but we drove through heavy rain almost the entire way. It didn't stop on the entire trip home, except for maybe a few minutes at a time. The drive to the main loop road in Yellowstone from the east entrance is over a pass that is full of waterfalls that are on the side of the road - like this one:

We must have passed about 10 waterfalls similar to that one.

Part of the drive into this section of Yellowstone was through an area that was devastated by fire many years ago. This is an indication of the damage from that fire and how the trees look today:

New growth is beginning to appear, but the landscape is bare for as far you can see through this section of the park.

We did see more wildlife on the drive home, and this is one shot of a young buck - still in velvet - that was grazing on the side of the road:

and finally, this part of a huge herd of bison that we saw as we entered the Tetons on the final leg of our trip:

Our original plan was to drive more through Yellowstone - to the northern section - but time ran out for us in Cody so we shortened the drive to the same route we took on our first day. We will be returning in the near future to take that northern route.

We arrived back home at 6 PM last night and were happy that we had the opportunity to visit Cody and spend some quality time with our good friends...

Cody WY

We came close to our targeted departure time when we left at about 8:15 yesterday morning. With stops at the gas station and mini-mart for some snacks, it was closer to 8:30 by the time we headed toward Cody. Of course, the skies opened up just as we left and we drove through rain the whole way through the Tetons until we got to the southern entrance of Yellowstone. This is what the mountains looked like as we drove through the park:

 

Even with the rain, we spotted several animals along the road to Yellowstone. The usual location for the bison herd contained a couple huge herds, including this one:

It wasn't too much further on the highway when we saw this deer that was walking right out onto the highway:

We had almost reached our turnoff in Yellowstone to take us to the eastern entrance and to Cody, when we spotted lots of cars on the side of the road - of course, a wildlife sighting of some kind. It turned out to be this small group of elk, grazing about 50 feet off the highway:

We arrived in Cody at around 2 PM:

and by then the rain had stopped and we had some sun breaks. It had been a long time since we visited a Walmart, and Cody has one. We stopped to pick up a few items before heading to the Buffalo Bill Village to meet Karen and George and to check in. The downtown hasn't changed much, and we remembered the nice, wide street that was the main street through town:

We met Karen and George at the cabins check-in location in the gift shop and, fortunately, our room was ready for an early check-in at 3:30. This is a shot of our cabin:

We agreed to meet at 5:30 for dinner which gave us some time to shower and get settled in at the cabin.

Our dinner was at a new restaurant in Cody - Chinatown - that was a restaurant we used to visit with Karen and George located in Powell, WY, when we worked together in 2010. This new location was much nicer and we all ate a huge meal that was buffet style. It has been a long time since we had such good Chinese food.

We took a drive around town following dinner and spotted these deer, just nonchalantly grazing in yards:

One last stop was made at the gift shop to say hello to our other dear friends, Hank and Brenda. We worked with them in 2010 in Cody, and again at Amazon.com in Kentucky the same year. This is a shot of the three ladies - Karen, Josie and Brenda:

Hank was working, along with Brenda, so we all agreed to meet today for lunch before we head home to Jackson this afternoon.

It was a terrific day with some terrific friends and we look forward to our lunch with everybody today...

Prep for Cody

We had our first day working - rather, training - with the new girl last night that was hired at work to replace Jill. Her name is Marissa, and she is a twenty year old single mother that just moved here from Mississippi. What a difference from Jill. This girl will work out for sure, as she has the right personality and disposition and also has some experience in working the front desk at a motel.  The only potential downside is that she would get caught up in personal problems as she shares custody of her two year old daughter with her ex husband who lives in Colorado.

Yesterday morning was spent prepping for our trip to Cody today. We washed the car - it will rain today, guaranteed - and planning the two days we will spend on the trip. The only thing we need to do is gas up the Jeep this morning on the way out and we hope to leave by 8 AM. The weather radar map shows rain approaching now, so it looks like we won't have to wait long for it to begin. In spite of the rain, we expect a terrific trip to visit old friends and see familiar spots in another of our favorite locations.

See you tomorrow from Cody...

Back to Hiking

We were determined to get out and start hiking again yesterday. It was about 10:30 by the time we had breakfast, did our morning routines and hit the trail. There are several options for hiking the hill behind us, starting with an easy, low level hike on the lower portion of the hill, to the big daddy of them all - Josie's Ridge on the top of the hill. We took the middle trail which is the highest level before the strenuous climb to Josie's Ridge. It was what we call a moderate hike, with some steep climbing, but mostly up and down walking through some pretty areas.

We took lots of photos, most of which have been seen before, but we did get some new photos of wildflowers and some scenery that we never get tired of seeing. Starting with this shot of the town as seen from close to the maximum elevation we had on this hike:

 

The wildflowers were out in all their glory and we took these shots of a few of the ones we haven't seen before:

There were times when it seemed like we were walking through a garden:

We crossed several junctions of other trails along the way, but for the most part, we stayed on the trail that is named Sink or Swim:

The trail that turned off in the lower right was the trail to Josie's Ridge - a hike that will be on our schedule in the near future. The trail we took was steep enough as you can see the trail rising in the photo in the upper left.

Eventually, we came out to the chair lift on Sno-King. The view from this area isn't too bad either:

 

We took the trail down through the woods to the bottom , where it brought is to the same tunnel that we showed last year:

 

 

This came out on Cache Street to the restaurant where we had lunch with Karen and George a couple weeks ago - The Lift. We stopped and had another great lunch before heading home:

 

 

 

Overall, we hiked nearly 5 miles. The hike was strenuous enough for us and we arrived back home in time to shower and get ready for work at 3 PM. We need to just keep up the pace and do more hiking to get back in shape. It won't take much with a few more hikes like yesterday.

 

Our final day of work for this week is today and we leave early tomorrow for Cody to repay the visit from Karen and George. We also look forward to seeing several more friends that return each year to work in Cody at the Buffalo Bill Village...







Changes at Work

I went to the post office in the AM to pick up our package and also our mail from FL that arrived over the weekend. The lodge person that usually picks up the mail doesn't normally go to the post office until after her lunch and she brings those packages back to work. This way, we get them earlier and can read our mail before going to work rather than going through the mail during lulls at the front desk.

Work had its surprises though when we arrived at 3 PM. Our new partner, Jill, did a foolish thing following our shift on Sunday night. She came back to the lodge at around midnight to visit with Donna who was working the night audit shift from 11 PM to 7 AM. The problem was, she brought a small bottle of Vodka with her and made a general mess around the front desk with her empty bottle and ribs that she brought to eat. Coupled with a ridiculous note that she left for our front desk manager (Judy) she was promptly fired from her job. I don't normally discuss personnel problems in the blog, but this gal was doomed from the beginning. She was very difficult to work with and we knew that her future with the lodge was short. It would take an entire entry to discuss all the problems she created. A replacement has already been hired and we will work with her - another girl named Rachel (the third one on the staff) - beginning this next weekend. It has been an interesting year so far.

Once again our goal for the day is to take a nice hike in the area. We need to get out and restart our exercising routine and get back into shape. We are both beginning to get a little soft and we don't like the way our bodies are reacting to the sedentary pace. Of course, the bad weather had a lot to do with our schedule, so the improvement in the forecast will go a long way in our getting back to a more physical routine...

Laundry and Golf

Josie used the morning yesterday to do laundry so that she didn't fall too far behind. She reads and plays a few games on her phone while she waits at the laundry room. I watched the golf tournaments on TV - the Men's Travelers Tournament and the Women's US Open - while she was at the Laundromat. The weather was cool, cloudy and threatening the whole morning. Of course, the sun came out and warmed up to 78 degrees after we went to work.

Yesterday was one of those "light" days at work as we only had one bus and 38 reserved check-ins. The walk-ins kept us busy and there about 25 of those. This year we are working three days with a new partner - Jill - and we miss working with Donna. She has a different schedule this year with the departure of Tasha - the long time night (audit) worker - and Donna has asked for her shift which will provide some time off on the weekends that she has been wanting. Donna is also filling in at the liquor store which is shorthanded. All of Jackson is short on workers for the summer as the workforce cannot afford to live in town. Most of the workforce has to commute long distances from homes in areas they can afford to live. It has become a very serious problem for Jackson. That is one major reason we feel fortunate to have our arrangement with free living space within walking distance of our jobs.

We have to take a ride to the post office this morning to pick up a package of coffee that we ordered from Keurig and then we will probably go for a hike somewhere locally. It should be a bit easier to get out this morning with the sun shining and the temperature rising...

Need to Jump Start Activity

While preparing to do the entry this morning, I realized that we are getting a bit lazy. This time last year we were getting out a lot more to walk and ride our bikes. The big problem this year, I believe, is that the concern over Josie's health issue coupled with the lousy weather have resulted in our sedentary mode. We need to jump start our physical activity again and get back on track to keep our stamina high and weight under control. It is too easy to ,make excuses for not watching after our physical activity. There is plenty of time in the mornings to get out and do something to burn some energy and calories. That will be the goal beginning today.

The end of June is rapidly approaching and our need to use up our complimentary passes for some of the activities is going to expire. Unfortunately, we are planning to head to Cody this weekend that we are off, so that eliminates the last free days to schedule some of those activities in June. The main one that we want to take advantage of is the whitewater rafting. We will try to get an extension on that one. I will say that there are fewer passes this year than in the past two years. Some of the more common passes - including restaurant passes and horseback riding - have not been available this year. We don't know why that has happened.

We must be going to have one fabulous summer ahead if the weather over the past two weeks is any indication. The bad weather has been used up in the first month, so the next three should be gangbusters...

Dubois WY

The results from Josie's mammogram in the morning were a bit confusing. The hospital is saying that there is something there, but cannot determine what it is (?). They recommended that Josie get another mammogram when she returns to AZ in October. Sheesh. It was following this experience at the hospital when we decided to take our drive to forget the hospital visit. It is a very nice small town hospital where we always found parking near the front door and where the wait to be seen is very short. We are wondering about the results though.

We started out following the hospital visit wanting to take a drive to someplace we haven't been before. One of our coworkers was telling us about a little known road off the highway to Dubois, WY, which runs along the Buffalo Fork River - tributary of the Snake River. It was a nice drive through some pretty countryside and we could get some photos of the Tetons from a different perspective:

The road was probably 5 miles long before it became a dirt road and we turned around to go back.

We spotted these folks that were returning from a horseback ride at one of the ranches along this road:

There were several of these ranches on this road that specialized in riding, fishing and dude ranch vacations.

As it was still fairly early in the day, we decided to continue on to Dubois, which is a neat town about 75 miles from Jackson. It is known for very different rock formations and the ride from the Tetons to Dubois is a beautiful one that also crosses the Continental Divide along the way at 9584 feet. This is one shot we took of one of the unusual mountains near Dubois:

We had a late lunch at the Cowboy Café in Dubois before heading home. It is a highly rated restaurant in Dubois and was not disappointing. We made one last stop at the DQ in Jackson before arriving home at 5:30 last night.

It's back to work today at 3 PM, so we will have to get some chores done by then...

That's More Like It

The lousy weather pattern had run its course by yesterday morning. We could once again go outside and do the things we like to do, just in time for our days off. We started with mowing the grass. It wasn't as tough as we thought it might be after all the moisture and cool weather that allowed the grass to grow to about 6".

The next activity was to finally go to the Teton County Library which is right across the street from our campground. We have been wanting to go and pick up a library card since our first season here, but never got around to doing it. The Library is terrific:

We were searching for the movie - Frozen - but couldn't find it. It was probably already checked out by someone. Nonetheless, we will be utilizing our card for future use.

Our annual visit to the Bar-J Ranch was last night as we had to use the complimentary tickets we had before the end of June. Since we will be going to Cody next week, we had to use them this week on our days off. We took a lot of photos of the evening, some of which are below. Starting with our walk around the grounds prior to dinner and the show. I don't believe that we've shown some of these items and activities before. Starting with the old wagon:

Some of the old boots and saddles that are hanging from the rafters:

and these shots of the cooking activities including the biscuits which were handed out to all the guests before dinner:

and the steaks being grilled on the open charcoal pits:

The show was as good as we've ever seen. They have been performing at the Bar-J Ranch for 38 years now, and it just keeps getting better each year. Below are shots of the group:

and this final shot of the father of two of the group - the one on the right in the top photo (Bryan) and the second from the left (Scott). His name is Babe Humphrey and he is the founder of the Bar-J and a member of the Western Country Music Hall of Fame. He recently published a book (which we purchased following the show and had autographed by the entire group) titled "My Life's Ride to the Bar-J Chuckwagon":

He sang a very emotional song and it was a great way to end the evening.

Our schedule for today is kind of open except for Josie's second mammogram at 10 AM this morning. The sun is shining brightly and the temperatures are rising...

Ditto

We have been in a rut lately. The cold and snowy weather was still around yesterday:

That photo was taken around 11 AM while the temperature was hovering around 38 degrees. Our high for the day was 47 while our low was 35. It is easily the longest period of cold, wet weather that we have experienced in the three seasons we have been here - especially since it is in the middle of June.

The weather has us feeling sorry for the folks who have come here from all over the country - and the world - to see the beauty of the area and enjoy all that it has to offer. Many of them will leave with a less than stellar opinion of Jackson Hole.

Our weekend begins today and the forecast is for improving weather over the next several days. Where else can it go but to improve? We still have to mow the (long) grass and are anxious to get out and get some exercise. Our schedule over the next couple days will also include a visit to the Bar-J in Teton Village where we go each year to enjoy the dinner and show. Josie also has another mammogram scheduled for tomorrow AM, so most of the time off is already planned. Our fingers are crossed for a positive outcome from that event.

Here's hoping for a nice weekend...

Cabin Fever

The winter weather alert for the Jackson area was in effect for yesterday. They didn't miss the forecast by much. It rained, off and on, all day. It also snowed in the higher elevations with some accumulations in the 6-12" range. We have been staying inside throughout this stretch of bad weather which has lasted for the last 3 or 4 days. It is the longest period of this type weather that we have had in the three seasons we have been here.

Rather than spend the entire morning in the fifth wheel, we took a drive to the Park to see if there was any impact on the snow pack in the Tetons. We took this shot of the mountains as we stopped at the Visitor's Center near the park entrance:

It didn't appear to be as much as we expected, but it was still snowing there all night long. We revisited the center where they have this terrific model of the Jackson Hole area and the Grand Teton National Park:

Those are the Tetons on the left in the photo, and is the area where we have enjoyed many hikes and plan to enjoy many more in the near future into the hills and around the lakes - if it would only warm up and become sunny again.

It looks like another morning without mowing the grass as it is presently 38 degrees outside and threatening to rain again...