Making the Turn

It's a shame we didn't have more time to celebrate Josie's birthday yesterday but we hope to make up for it during our three days off beginning today. Work always seems to get in the way of celebrating these occasions.

We will make the turn on another month tomorrow, but we have some things to get done yet in July. We will pick up my cross stitch at the Fair today and drop it off at our work location for a couple days. So many people have wanted to see it that we decided to place it in the office for viewing. I can't think of a better compliment for my effort. We will also have our (hopefully) final interview on the phone today with the store managers from the Grand Canyon Association. If that goes well, we hope to get an offer to work there this winter season.

Our neighbors here at the Elk Refuge have given us free passes for activities in the Teton Village that must be used today - before the end of July. One of the free activities is a ride on the Tram which we haven't done in several years and will try to do today. We hope to get some good pictures from our activities over the next couple days, so hang on...

Great News From the Fair

I was nervous all day yesterday at work as I could hardly wait to finish the work day so we could go to the Exhibit Hall at the County Fair. Yesterday was the opening of the exhibits to the public and all of the ribbons and awards have been made. Following work at 4:15, Josie and I drove directly to the Fair and walked into the Hall and to the section where the cross stitch and other needle handiwork was displayed. I was delighted to see the ribbon on my piece that was the top prize - Best in Show:

That is six years in a row now that my Native American cross stitch entries have won the Division, and the fourth year that they have walked away with the top prize of  "Best of Show". I can rest easy again for another year.

Our final work day of the week is today - yeah! - and it is also Josie's birthday. We will do something special although we haven't yet decided. Once the work day ends today, we begin our three day weekend...

Quick Turnaround Day

What can I say - today is the morning we open at the Visitor Center after closing last night. So, after a very short night, we get to do our once weekly quick turnaround. At 7:30 AM we will leave for work.

One thing that we will get done today is to pay a visit to the Exhibit Hall at the County Fair to check out the results of this year's judging. Maybe we can run down there at lunch time to check it out - or go immediately from work at 4:30 this afternoon. At any rate, this is always an exciting time when we check out all the results of what people have submitted for another year.

As is typical of the quick turnaround day, this will be a short entry. Have a great day everybody...

Eclipse Talk Heating Up

We are over three weeks away from the total eclipse that is taking place on Monday, August 21. You would think that it was happening next week with all the preparation and talk about procedures. Every day, there is more and more written in the local papers and more and more emails and memos about how things should work. The feeling I get is that we are all over preparing for a three minute event. Our area will be in the total eclipse shadow which is a narrow band that stretches across the entire country. The prediction is for at least an extra 100K people in town for the event. I'll keep you posted on all that is happening from our location.

Our staffing situation at the Visitor Center is in flux right now. I mentioned before that two of our employees will be leaving early before the end of the season. We are holding our breath for changes that may impact our schedule which is finally where we want it.

Day number two for our week is today and will be the same as yesterday. We ran into another computer glitch last night and I am nervous about the way our system is performing lately. It doesn't seem very stable since the problems we had two weeks ago and I'm sure there are more fixes that can and will be made before it gets back to normal. We are about halfway through our season and the efforts are heating up for planning our next move in October...

Day in Idaho Falls

As we both needed haircuts and the cheapest we could find in Jackson was around $50, we decided to take a trip to Idaho Falls. We each had a haircut and Josie added highlight's for much less at the SmartStyle shop in Walmart. We also included a stop at Sam's Club and at the Ford dealership to try to get an oil change in the Escape. That didn't work out as the wait would have been too long, so that will be done at a later time. It's not like we will be driving lots of miles any time soon. It is 5 miles, round-trip, to work each day and we have no current plans for any kind of long trip for awhile.

We caught this shot of Josie's Ridge in Jackson on the way home to remind us that we climbed to the top of this hill a few years ago:

It would be tough for us to repeat that hike today. Both of us are out of shape and Josie has leg problems that still need attention. Maybe someday we will do it again.

Today is "return to work" day. Sometime during the day we hope to connect with the folks at the Grand Canyon Association. They called yesterday while we were gone and the other managers there want to talk to us. We are still excited about that potential and hope to close the loop today. Along with that potential, Josie received a text from her manager at the flower shop asking about her plans for the winter. We will have to make some decisions soon...

Back Home in Jackson

On our way out of Riverton yesterday, we stopped at the McDonalds at the edge of town and picked up a couple Egg McMuffins to eat on the way. It was around 8 AM when we left, and we drove through cloudy, but dry weather the whole way. Our arrival back at the RV in Jackson was around 10:30 AM.

We took my cross stitch to the Exhibit Hall at the Teton County Fair shortly after 11 AM. I am entered for another year in the Fair and have my fingers crossed for the judging to produce a favorable outcome. We should know Saturday about the judging results when the Exhibit Hall opens to the public.

There are some changes occurring at work that we found out about in a text from our friend at work. Evidently, the two sisters that were hired - one about three weeks ago and the other this week - are both slated to leave the Visitor Center early, before the end of the season. It is amazing to us how our manager can hire two people knowing that they would have early departures. We are wondering how and who will be making up the time that they will be gone. One is leaving in mid August, and the other in mid September. We are not comfortable with the way the personnel situation is changing. However, we will not over-react, at least until after we return to work tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, we have one more day of our five day weekend to spend today. We  plan to drive to Idaho Falls to get haircuts and stop at Sam's Club for a few items. Our long period of off days is coming to an end too quickly...

Extended Stay Ends

I guess we could call our two days in Riverton a mini vacation. We are happy that we stayed the extra day and enjoyed a combination of casino play with driving around the area to learn more about this part of Wyoming. Our play in the casino resulted in our playing the entire time on the casino's money. We won enough to cover our initial stake and played for the two days on our winnings. It is too bad that a woman won a $3200 jackpot on a machine - two away from mine - that was the identical machine I was playing. It's all in the timing and being at the right place at the right time. It is always fun to spend the time playing the slots with the anticipation that one spin will someday result in a nice jackpot for us.

We took out almost one hour yesterday in the middle of the day to have our telephone interview with the Grand Canyon Association management. It was a very pleasant and, we believe, successful interview. We ended the conversation with the gentleman scheduling a follow-up conversation with his store manager later this week to get closure on a job offer. The only real concern we have at this point is the weather that we will be experiencing in the December-February time frame when it gets pretty darn cold at the Grand Canyon. We will need to talk to people that have experienced that time frame in the Grand Canyon Village where we would be staying.

Another nice chunk of our day was taken by a drive to another town - Lander, WY - that is not too far from Riverton and the home of a brother of one of our fellow workers at the Elk Refuge. It is a nice, small town (approximately 7400 residents) that is at a 6400 foot elevation. It is nice to see the variety of towns in this wonderful state.

We will leave here by 8 AM this morning for our drive home to Jackson where I will take my cross stitch to the County Fair Exhibit Hall for entry into the Fair this year...