Bar J Night

Following our final work day of the week yesterday at 4:15 PM, Josie and I drove to the Bar J Chuckwagon site near Jackson. This is a favorite evening of fun for us which began in our first year here in 2012. Normally, arriving at or near 5 PM places you near the front of the line for seat assignments for the show, as the doors open at 5:30 PM. We were surprised that, arriving at 4:50 PM, we had approximately 50 people ahead of us in line. It really didn't matter though, as our seat assignments were excellent. The dinner before the show was "OK", as we both had the barbecue ribs. The show was the usual fun filled evening of great music and laughter. Below are some shots taken during the night:

Starting with a shot of the cook grilling the steaks for the folks who ordered those for dinner:

While I was standing there watching him, he asked if I would like a taste of one of the steaks. Of course. He took a steak off the grill and cut it into sample pieces for about 5 of us standing around watching him. Umm, good!

The show is always a little different each time we come. This year, they kept all of the super songs and fun from before, and threw in some new songs and performances that made it a terrific show once again. Here are a couple shots taken during their performance:

The place was sold out, as usual. They indicated before the show that they entertain between 75,000 - 85,000 folks each summer, from Memorial Day weekend through the end of September, 7 nights a week. We figured that the revenue for that period is in the $2.0 - $2.5 million. Not too bad.

Our first day off today is now planned for a trip to Idaho Falls. We neglected to get some things at Sam's Club and both of us need haircuts, so that is the priority.

It's nice to have the next two days off...

Time is Flying Again

It is almost hard to believe hat we are 25% through the season. It has been a tough road so far with one of the most physical jobs we have worked. Today wraps up our work schedule in June. With only three months to go, we believe we can probably tough it out until the end of September. I'm not ready to say it is a guarantee, but the later it gets in the season, the tougher it is to find alternatives. You never know, though.

It is especially nice to know that when our day at work ends today, our weekend begins with a return visit to the Bar J Chuckwagon. It will most likely be our final visit there as it is rumored that the group is planning to retire after this year. It is one of the best values in entertainment in the Jackson Hole area.

Afternoon thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next several days, so we hope our weekend doesn't get impacted by any rain. There are no special plans for our weekend, but we are getting anxious to take a good hike somewhere we haven't been yet, so hang on...

New Practices

Aside form the usual day at work, we are involved in still figuring out our new phones. More strides were made yesterday as we figured out that the performance of our other computer equipment is terrific with the phones off. I guess there are still some settings in the phone that we haven't yet discovered that will alleviate the drain on our computer performance. Someone suggested having our phones on Airplane Mode, but that isn't much better than having them completely turned off as you cannot receive calls, make calls or send messages.

With two days to go before our weekend, we are taking it a day at a time and beginning to get settled for the long term this season. It may yet turn out to be a pleasant and fun experience if we can stay the course...

Business as Usual

It was another "normal" day at the office. Normal is a hectic, super busy day with a couple 15 minute breaks and a half hour lunch thrown in. When we start late as we did yesterday - 10:45 AM - the day is too long. We get out at 7:15 PM and last night we had to go into town to Smith's to pick up some items we needed, so we didn't get home until after 8:30 PM. By then, it's too late to eat dinner before going to bed so that we can get up early to begin this day at 8:45 AM. As mentioned before, the schedule stinks, but then everybody else has a similar schedule.

Today is our Wednesday, so we are midway through another week. We are looking forward to going to the Bar-J on the real Wednesday night after work to kick off our next weekend...

Email Discovery

After trying several different options, including adding another email account, I made a discovery. If we power off our new phones, the emails come through - fast - and the performance of our hotspot improves many times over. Evidently, the cycles taken up by our new phones are too much for the hotspot, even though it can supposedly handle up to 15 devices without a problem. I have to do further investigation, but I'm on to the problem and feel a lot better about the fixes. With our two computers, two phones and our printer, the hotspot cannot keep up with the data traffic - at least in this area.

We made reservations at the Bar J Chuckwagon - a favorite night out in this area - for next Wednesday night. We enjoy that night of dinner and good entertainment fun every time we come to Jackson. We still had a couple of complementary tickets left over from the Virginian Lodge that we needed to use before the end of June, so we just made it with our reservation for the 29th.

Other than that, it is the same grind at work and we do it again today, starting at 10:45 AM. We don't like these late starts, but we only have two of them each week...

Computer and Phone Conflicts

I discovered a new problem with my computer that I can't determine is a result of the new phone settings or not. I am suddenly not able to receive new emails on the computer, but all new messages are going to the phone. Sheesh. I spent a couple hours last night trying to figure out the problem, and another 3 hours this morning. I guess I need to go through the phone manual to see if I find conflicting settings. This situation is causing even more concerns about upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Maybe that will fix the problem - or it may make it worse. I guess I'll just use the phone for my emails until I can get some professional help on my next day off - if I can't fix the problem during the limited free time I have during work days.

The days off just go too fast. We drove to Driggs, ID yesterday to see if there were any changes there since our last visit a couple years ago. It is on the backside of the Tetons in Idaho, and has much cheaper land deals with some nice views of the mountains. Of course, it isn't Jackson, and it involves a drove over the Teton Pass each time you want to visit. It's just another option for down the road.

Another week begins today and we are closing in on July. With one full month down, the time seems to be going faster now. We hope it continues, as, so far, it has been a bit of a struggle getting used to our schedule...

Learning Curve

My conversion from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is on temporary hold for now. We are both struggling a little bit with our new phones while learning about new features and trying to learn about ways to do things we took for granted with the old phones. The main one being a new method for transferring photos from one phone to the other. It's a new procedure that I haven't yet mastered, but will be easy (I hope) by the end of the day today. I am still scared to make the Windows change, but I still have a little bit of time.

We went into town yesterday to buy some ink for my printer and I spoke with the 'techie' there who indicated that they - Staples - would perform my conversion to Windows 10 for free. He said they get reimbursed by Microsoft. I may have them do the upgrade, but I'm not sure yet. I don't know if I want all of my data in there hands for a day or two while they do the upgrade.

While in town, we stopped at the Silver Dollar Grill in the Wort Hotel to have lunch. We sat outside and enjoyed their lunch special - soup and sandwich for $8 per person - a very good value. Following lunch, we walked a little bit around town and took a few pictures. Starting with this one of one of the police officers in town:

and this one of the famous antler arches in the town square:

and finally, a shot of Josie being threatened by one of the 'beasts' in this fine western store in town:

After having some ice cream, we headed home to get more work done on our home projects - Josie doing laundry, me doing reading about the phones and a little more about Windows 10. UGH!...

Seasonal Orientation

We started work at our regular time yesterday - 7:45 AM - and set up the store for the regular, daily business. There was a Seasonal Orientation that began at 8:30 AM in the Director's Room of our building for all new employees which provided an introduction to the leaders and departments within the Grand Teton National Park. It was a terrific program, and we  were introduced to: the Executive Director, Grand Teton Association, Grand Teton National Park Foundation Director, Public Affairs officials, the Chief Ranger in the Park, Superintendent of Grand Teton National Park (the big boss), Acting Chief of Interpretation who gave us a chance to practice with a bear spray canister, and our Sales Manager for the Grand Teton Association. The orientation lasted until 12:30 at which time sandwiches and salads were brought in for our lunch. It was time well spent and it was inspirational.

The rest of our day at work, until 4:15 when we left, was forgettable. It was the usual fast pace, super busy day. It was nice to end the day and begin our weekend.

We took a trip into town to the local Verizon store and had our new phones activated. So far, they are wonderful, but we have a lot to learn about their use and all the new features. One if the nicest features is the new camera which has double the zoom capability of our old phones. We are looking forward to learning the rest of the gadgets and widgets available on the phone.

This morning, I was to begin the conversion of my computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Before I begin that project, I need to make sure everything is backed up properly and all the info I need is copied. I found out that one of my print cartridges is empty, so we need to run into town to Staples and buy more ink cartridges. There's always something in the way...

Ready for Weekend

Even though yesterday was only our "Thursday" this week, we are relieved that today, our final day of the week, will be taken up with an orientation that all employees must attend. We did have a record day of sales on Monday - $14.5K - and we still haven't reached the busiest time of the year. We discovered yesterday that most of the other employees we work with are feeling the same about the schedule. With the kind of activity we endure each day, the work week should be 4 days. At any rate, we are keeping all options open.

There are two activities that are scheduled for our days off this week. The first is to convert our phones to new ones that we purchased this week from Verizon. We both will convert to the new Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge phone. Laptop magazine has those rated as the best smartphones available today, and with even more improvements in the area we are concerned most about - the camera. We have been super satisfied with our S4 camera, and the new one is even better. Overall, the Samsung product is a winner.

The second activity is to upgrade my computer to Windows 10. I am scared  to death to go through this upgrade as I have never had a problem-free upgrade with Microsoft products. The only reason for doing it will be to protect my email account - running under Windows 7 - which Microsoft is discontinuing support for in July. If I didn't have so much data in Microsoft systems, I would dump Microsoft for Apple. It's too late now for that conversion, although many folks have done it over the years.

I will end this entry with a fabulous photo of the Tetons taken on the way home last night. It doesn't get any better...

Worn Out

Below is a photo of the Discovery Visitor Center where we work:

That field in the foreground is where the foxes hang out and is where we saw the fox that we photographed. It is a beautiful facility and is the first exposure to the Grand Teton National Park for visitors coming to the area.

It was an unusually physical and demanding day. We left at 5:15 PM so we don't know what the final totals were, but I would bet it was another record day for us. We are totally worn out and wonder how long we can keep up this pace. I hate to say it, but this is probably the most physical job we have ever had. It is right up there with our last go-around at Amazon.com.

Our week will be ending tomorrow with an Orientation meeting at the Park Administration Building which will take up most of our day. We will welcome that interruption.

This is a photo of the mountains taken on our trip home last night - the first day of summer:

It never gets old...

Fathers Day

You might say that Fathers Day this year was like any other normal day. By working all day, there was no time to do anything special. Just hearing from my family with good wishes was enough to make it a special day.

The picture from yesterday would be exactly as the one published in yesterday's entry. For two consecutive days now, we have had cloudless mornings and the drive to work was spectacular. It is still nice this morning although there are a few high, scattered clouds. The big difference here is that the high temperatures are only in the low 80's, and not 115+. We feel for the folks living in those areas - AZ, NV, CA and other parts of the southwest - where it has been so hot the last few days.

This will be a short entry as there is nothing to say about our rather normal work day and our lack of free time to do anything special...

Start of Another Week

It was back to work yesterday and this was the view we had of the Tetons on our way:

It was one of the few cloudless days we have had so far.

The business that we did during the day was good enough for a new record for the season. We did $13.9K which was only $100 from the record day of all of last year. There is no question about the huge increase this year in tourists that are frequenting the park. It's good for business, but not for getting around inside the park.

The schedule we have for work is not the best. We have two days when we begin work at 10:45 AM, followed by one day at 8:45 AM, and ending with two days where we begin at 7:45 AM. It is better to start each day at the same time and we are not alone with that desire. Our commitment suggests that we make it work, which we will. The best part is that we love the area so much that it doesn't change our opinion of working in Jackson Hole...

Unscheduled Visit to Urgent Care

Our plans for the second day of our weekend were altered when we decided to make a stop at the Urgent Care in Jackson. Josie has been suffering with some disorder in her mouth which has made eating very uncomfortable for the last 4-5 months. She has lost about 14 pounds as a result of this uncomfortable condition which began shortly after our return from WA in January. Obviously, the stress which she has endured from the events so far this year have contributed to the problem. Our doctors in AZ have been unsuccessful in diagnosing and treating the problem, so we wanted a different opinion. Josie was in the examining room for an hour and a half and the doctor was ten times more competent than our regular doctors. He prescribed some medication which we picked up at the pharmacy after her appointment and this morning she is already reporting  progress.

Even with the detour to Urgent Care, we were able to do some driving to areas we haven't seen in several years. One is in the Tennis Club/Golf Club area of Jackson which is high end, multi-million dollar homes. This is also the area where the owner (Virginia) of the Virginian Lodge has one of her many homes. Almost all of the homes have a view of the Tetons. Here is one shot of a typical home:

Can you imagine the view from their back yard?

We also have a shot of a buck deer that crossed the road in front of us:

He was beginning to show some steady growth on his antlers.

There were also some nice farms along the drive just outside of the residential area:

Finally, while taking the drive through town on the way to this nice area, Josie took a shot of the antler arches which reveals the kind of crowds that are showing up each day in town for this summer season:

It's back to the grind again today as we begin another new week. We don't have to be to work until 10:45 which gives us a little time to do some things around home...

Idaho Falls Trip

It was after 9 AM before we got started for our trip to Idaho Falls. With nothing else planned, it was a good time to leave. We had several stops planned, and we were in no hurry to get there. The drive over the Teton Pass was a refreshing reminder of how beautiful it was to look down on Jackson Hole from the summit:

The drive is almost 100 miles from our campground, so it took the better part of two hours to get there. Our first stop was scheduled to be at the new Camping World in Idaho Falls. The problem was that it is too new to be in our GPS, so we had to stop at an RV dealership to ask how to get there. That was an experience, as the guy at the dealership tried to talk us out of going there by saying his store had as much or more than Camping World so why even go there. That was a joke. Camping World had five times the merchandise and with our Good Sam discount, we got everything at a 20% discount.

Our next stop was Sam's Club where we stocked up on some paper products, water and toiletries. It was after 3 PM by the time we started home. While on the return trip, Josie took these shots of strange cloud formations:

Very different from what we've seen anywhere else.

We gassed up the truck when we got back to Jackson and then drove around to the Teton Village to scout out shortcuts from our campground. This shot was taken while on that drive:

We are surrounded by beautiful scenery and just about everywhere we go, there are great pictures to be taken.

I am now staring at an upgrade on my computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I'm super nervous about pulling that trigger as I have never had a smooth upgrade with Microsoft products. I bought a couple books and have read everything about it that I can find, but I may wait another week before going forward. It has to be done before the end of the month, as Microsoft is pulling the support for my email at that time. That gives me something to look forward to. Right...

Closing Out the Week

Our final work day of the week was a typical, fast paced day. Our drive into work was pleasant again as there were low clouds for the second straight day. This is a sample of the views we had while driving to work:

It has been, as mentioned yesterday, a pretty lousy week weather wise. It is improving today and tomorrow for our weekend - happy days.

We will start our weekend with our first trip to Idaho Falls for the season. There are several stops we need to make, starting with a visit to the new Camping World that opened in Idaho Falls. We need some RV stuff including a carpet/mat for the outside. Next, we need haircuts and, finally, a stop at Sam's Club to restock some paper products and other items that are cheaper at Sam's Club. Unfortunately, there is no Costco in Idaho Falls, but Sam's Club is a great substitute.

At this point, tomorrow is undecided, but we are leaning toward another hike, or spending the day walking around Jackson which we have not yet done this year...

Rare View of Mountains

The drive to work yesterday gave us a rare glimpse of the Tetons. The weather has been mostly lousy the last week and yesterday we had the opportunity to see the mountains as we have not seen before. The clouds were so low that the mountains could be seen clearly above them as shown below:

It was a treat to catch that view.

The day at work was mostly uneventful except that it was our Thursday. Yes, today is TGIF day. We are planning our "weekend" and the first order of business is a trip to Idaho Falls to visit Sam's Club and maybe get haircuts while in town. It will be our first drive over the pass this year and a chance to see any changes in that part of the Jackson Hole area. Our second day is undecided at this point, but one thing we want to do is walk around town for the first time this year.  No matter what we decide, you can bet we will be enjoying the time off...

Finding Time

The latest issue we are having with our schedule is finding time to do other business. With our working all day, 5 days a week, we are finding it difficult to get other things done. An example is trying to schedule time to get an issue addressed with our new truck. Every time it rains, our instrument panel lights go out. They come back on when the rain stops or when we turn off the headlights. The nearest Ford dealer is in Idaho Falls, so a full day would be required to take it in for service. The warranty, of course, is still in effect, and worse case we can wait until we return to AZ for service since it isn't a major problem affecting the performance.

The other issue at the moment is that our insurance company has made an error in the loss payable endorsement of our homeowner policy. Our policy was renewed last month and we didn't see the error until our mortgage company pointed it out. With the time difference between us and the east coast, I'm finding it hard to get the time to fix the problem. I will attempt to fix that problem at 6 AM this morning (8 AM east coast time, when the insurance company opens).

While coming home from work last night, we spotted this moose on the other side of the river. The picture isn't crystal clear as the shot was taken in pouring rain:

That is one big bull moose. It may be the same one that we saw near our RV earlier this season as his rack is rapidly growing. It was about a mile from our campground when we spotted him.

Two more days until our weekend. We left work at 5:15PM last night so we don't know the sales figures yet for the day. I'm betting it was close to a season high as we were super busy all day...

Consistency

It was another great business day yesterday. We went over $12K in sales once again and the numbers just keep getting better. Of course, the crowds are still growing, so there is no reason to expect otherwise. There were times yesterday when our line at the three registers was almost halfway into the store. Then, the afternoon lull arrived at around 4 PM and we could begin to relax a little bit.

We are planning our next days off this Thursday and Friday. Our first trip to Idaho Falls is probably going to occur this week as we need some items from Sam's Club. It is probably good timing as the weather has been lousy the last few days and the drive to Idaho Falls is only nice in good weather. Another hike, or perhaps our first bike ride, will also be on the schedule. As we struggle to get into the flow at work, we really look forward to those weekends...

Late Start Time

Yesterday was our first day for starting the late shift at work. That means working from 10:45 AM to 7:15 PM. We don't particularly like it. We sit around the RV all morning and at night, by the time we get home at 7:45, there is little time left to do anything but eat and go to bed. We do the same thing today. Fortunately, we only have two of those days scheduled each week.

We set another high sales mark for the season - almost $13K. The crowds continue to grow and all of the registers (3) are going most of the day. It's hard to believe that the crowds could grow even larger, but the forecast is for record crowds as a result of several factors: This is the Centennial year for the National Parks, the gas prices remain low, and this is a nice area to vacation, weather wise. We see a tremendous difference from when we started coming here 5 years ago. The town of Jackson is getting close to total gridlock for getting anywhere within the city limits. Yellowstone is close to having unmanageable crowds and when an animal is spotted off the road, forget trying to pull over to take pictures. We probably will not go to Yellowstone again this summer until very late in the season.

We will be very happy to spend our days off hiking and biking and visiting areas we know will not be overrun by the crowds. In fact, we will most likely include Idaho Falls as a destination on our next weekend. That is a nice drive from here and not as crowded with visitors. We are still grateful for the opportunity to spend our summers in such a beautiful area...

First Hike

It was nice enough yesterday for us to take our first hike of the season. We went to Schwabacher Landing and hiked along the river for a total of 3 miles. We didn't want to do anything too strenuous for the first hike, and this was perfect. Before getting into the pictures of the hike, I wanted to show this terrific shot of the Tetons that Josie took as our final picture of the day on our way home:

We took lots of pictures during the hike. Most of these are somewhat familiar as we have taken this hike on several occasions, but you never get tired of seeing this beautiful area. The hike follows the river - actually, a stream that connects to the Snake River:

and we saw this robin on a fallen tree - the only wildlife we saw along the way:

We also saw lots of wildflowers, two of which are below. These two shots are of Lupins which are just about everywhere at this time of the year:

and this photo of Larkspur:

We did spot this large pronghorn on the drive home. He was fairly close to the road:

It was a nice hike, especially for our first of the year. We will certainly be doing others.

It's back to work today and we don't have to start until 10:45. The longer hours for the Visitor Center have started, so we are now open until 7 PM. Ho hum, no more free time until next Thursday...

Pinedale

We waited around the RV for awhile to see how the weather would be for the day. While waiting around and doing a few things in the fifth wheel, I went outside to the back of our rig to check on the "new" creek that the rising river created:

The wildflowers are beginning to show behind us also. I took this shot of one of the Coralroot flowers growing behind us:

It looked like a threat of thunderstorms, so we bagged the hike for a trip to Pinedale, WY. It is a nice town that is about 75 miles southeast of Jackson. The scenery was beautiful on most of the trip and Josie took many pictures along the way. Here are a couple of those:

The trip was filled with views of ranches and cattle grazing almost everywhere. We pulled over on the side of the road to get these shots of some cowboys herding cattle:

Typical Wyoming activity.

Pinedale is involved in an economic crisis of its own. The freeze on the oil production in the oil fields of Wyoming has resulted in many recent foreclosures, and consequently, a housing depression of its own. We did not see obvious results of this, and actually saw a few neighborhoods where beautiful new homes were being built. Even though the town is over one hour from Jackson, it still has some expensive real estate.

Our trip back home was filled with more wildlife sightings. This pronghorn had just crossed the road in front of us and was running along the fence looking for a way inside to get to his family:

Closer to home, while driving through the canyon, we spotted a small group of sheep that were walking along the hillside. We couldn't get any great pictures because they were grazing behind the trees, but this is a photo of two of them that were at the edge of the trees:

Finally, after we got home at around 5 PM, we had dinner and two of our coworkers - Bill and Mary - came by to tell us about a Ranger presentation at the campground Amphitheater. This was our introduction to this program that is a regular activity here in the summer and gave us an opportunity to see the Amphitheater:

The presentation was excellent, and we learned all about the Pronghorn in the Park, including their annual migration to Pinedale, of all places, each winter season.

It turned out to be a very fun day and we wrap up our "weekend" today. Our plan right now is to take the small hike we discussed yesterday. The weather appears to be cooperating, so we will go forward with that plan...

Ending the Week

Our final work day of the week was yesterday. The fifth day of the week that we work is tough from the standpoint of wanting it to end quickly. I guess it is a natural feeling. It was a smooth business day and we are getting better at performing our duties. The summer will go faster as we get better at our jobs.

We had lunch outside again with the newest co-worker - Becky - that started work this week:

 The scenery was great again as the weather was nice:

Josie and I went into town following work to stop at the Verizon store. Our phones are not in sync as Josie has a hard time at times sending messages with her phone while we are in the fifth wheel. The 'techies' at Verizon made a change in one of her phone settings and it appears that everything is OK again. We fought the urge to upgrade our phones and left without spending a penny.

One of our favorite Jackson restaurants in town is The Lift and is the one where we attempted to eat with Donna last week but discovered it was closed for lunches. They said that the restaurant would be opening, once again, for lunches very soon. The problem had been the usual one in Jackson - finding employees to hire to cover the shift. We sat at a table outside with this view of "the lift" at the Sno-King mountain:

Our plan to begin our hiking program for the summer has been temporarily interrupted by thunderstorms this morning. We are on hold right now to decide on a plan for the day...

Centennial Numbers

Our fast pace at work is always high, but this year, being the Centennial year for the National Parks, it is unusually high. The local newspaper - The Jackson Hole Daily - reported yesterday on the record crowds so far this year:

"More than 292,000 recreational visitors showed up to Grand Teton National Park last month, a figure that is up 26 percent compared to 2015 and double the rate of May tourism that was recorded just 5 years ago."

The sales numbers at our visitor center reflect the increase in tourism this year. Every single day since we started work on May 26 has been a new record in sales for that day. We aren't sure if we are happy to be part of those records. All I can say is that we are very tired at the end of each day. More tired than on any job we've worked so far in the last 8 years - with the possible exception of Amazon.com. I also think that the larger crowds in the park will make it more difficult to enjoy the amenities within the park. For example, we have been used to hiking on lightly traveled trails. This year, the trails are getting heavy use and that will most likely impact the number of animals spotted along these trails. That does not affect the beautiful scenery, so that will not change.

Our final work day of the week is today, so we will be anxious to see 4:15PM come along. We hope to get out and do some things to enjoy the area, including our first hike of the season. We will witness the increase in visitors firsthand and will let you know the effects from our perspective...

Mail

When we left AZ on the 7th of May, we had our mail held for us at the Pioneer RV Park. We didn't have any valid forwarding address, so nothing was sent to us since that date. Our mail finally caught up with us yesterday and we had one month's mail in our mailbox at the Moose post office. We changed our address to the Pioneer Park with all of our creditors, magazines, Doctors, etc., and have pretty much eliminated our Florida mail forwarding service. We will keep that address for awhile to make sure everything has been changed. At any rate, we spent last night catching up with one month's worth of mail.

The weather made a sudden change last night. As we were leaving work at 5:30 PM, a thunderstorm came through that had some heavy hail and some strong winds. We have had some terrific weather the last week as the mornings were crystal clear with blue skies and warm temperatures. The pattern is changing, and thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next couple of days, at least.

Two more days to go before our "weekend". The work takes a lot out of us each day - so far - and we are hoping that we get used to the pace and the schedule and can get into the flow without being so tired at the end of each day. It's like any other new job, I guess, and by the time we get to the end of the summer, we will most likely wish we could stay and continue. There are lots of fun times ahead before that happens though...

Getting Into Summer

We are now, and have been for about a week, into a stretch of beautiful weather. The skies are blue and the views of the mountains are spectacular. The snow on the mountains is beginning to run-off and the river is rising. We can tell the water is rising as there is a stream behind our site that now has water where it had been completely dry since we arrived. It has been so nice that we take our lunch outside. This is a shot from the table outside where we had our lunch yesterday:

It doesn't get much better than that.

We are slowly getting into the routine of our job but it is definitely a fast pace. They didn't miss the description of our duties at all. As I mentioned before, the only real negative is that we don't get more free time. Working the day shift is new to us in this area and we are sorry that we will not have the same free time we had before. The better pay kind of offsets that factor, but it is an adjustment we are trying to make.

Our third work day of our week is today and we are already looking forward to our next day off which will be Thursday...

First Barbecue

We set another seasonal sales record yesterday by doing $11.2K in business. We have been surpassing last years sales every single day so far this year. Our Visitor Center is the busiest of any in the Grand Teton System. The work is still super-fast paced and the jury is still out on whether or not it is our cup of tea. Time will tell.

Following work, our co-workers - Bill and Mary - held their first "neighborhood" barbecue of the season. They will hold several over the summer, and this one really was good in that it enabled all of us to get to know each other better. Each person, or couple, was asked to bring an item that could be shared while they provided the hot dogs.  Here are a few shots of our gathering:

You can see how the campground is situated in the forest and how spacious all the sites are. That is me standing in the background talking to one of our "new" neighbors. He (Bob) - from West Virginia -  happens to be next to our site and owns a 2016 DRV Mobile Suites so we had a lot to talk about.

The barbecue broke up at around 8:30 and a great time was had by all...