PLANNING FOR THE JOURNEY

Ann and I have attended an RV show in Tampa for the past five years. One of the exhibitors at the first show was for the concessionaire for Yellowstone National Park. We had visited both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks about ten years ago and fell in love with the Grand Teton Mountains. Besides, Grand Teton NP is well over an hour closer to the town of Jackson, Wyoming. We thought about how wonderful it would be to work out west during the summer once we were both retired. Now that we have retired, we began the process of finding out about seasonal employment to make this dream come true.

Ann and I have accepted positions with the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We will be clerks in the Jenny Lake Store about halfway up the inner road through Grand Teton National Park. We will report for work on Sunday, May 9 and work through Labor Day in September. This is the view we will see each day down the path walking towards Jenny Lake from the front door of the store.


The driving route has been tentatively planned which will take us across I-10 into Louisiana for an overnight visit with one of Ann’s college roommates in New Iberia, Louisiana. The next stopping point will be Dallas, Texas via I-49 and then I-20. We will have a weekend visit with our daughter Wendy, her husband Scott, and our two oldest grandchildren, Amelia (6 ½) and John (4).

Our travel will take us north through the panhandle of Texas, through western Oklahoma into Colorado east of Denver and then north on I-25 to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Once we reach Wyoming, we will travel west on I-80 to Rawlins and then north to Jackson, Wyoming.
Here is a photo of our summer home. Most of the comforts of home, with a lot less space to clean.

PREFACE

Our adventure actually began just prior to the turn of the century when we visited Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park for the first time.  While Yellowstone was a fun experience, we fell in love  with the Tetons and planned a subsequent trip a few years later.  It was during this 2nd trip that the idea first surfaced to spend at least one summer working in Grand Teton National Park after we both retired.

On our third trip to Jackson, Wyoming, the gateway to the Tetons, we asked several workers at various locations in GTNP how they found employment.  We also began visiting the annual RV show at the Tampa Fairgrounds and spent time talking with a representative of the company that supplies workers for Yellowstone.  Once the living arrangements of either dorm or RV options were explained, we decided that we should look more closely at RV’s.  This process continued for several years as we both approached retirement.

In early August 2008, we visited several RV dealerships to get a better idea of what models and features were available in the pre-owned RV market.  We decided on a class A motorhome (looks like a bus) rather than class C (with a bunk over the cab), primarily for the additional storage space.  We found several class A motorhomes we liked at a dealership in the Sarasota area.  After returning home and doing a little more research we decided to go back to Sarasota and make an offer, even though gas prices were shooting up towards $4/gallon.  The negotiation process resulted in a deal we couldn’t refuse on a 2006 Winnebago Voyage.

Less than a year after buying the RV, Paul retired, so the vision of a summer in the Tetons took a more realistic meaning.  We traveled to Jackson Hole in September 2009 to enjoy GTNP in the fall and to further investigate employment and living options for the summer 2010.  This was the first visit to the area since we became RVers, so the visit took on a slightly different approach.

In January 2010, we applied online for several positions with the Grand Teton Lodge Company.  In a few weeks, we received employment offers, and we agreed to be hired for the summer.  We were going to work with four other couples at the Jenny Lake Store in the heart of GTNP.

We got to meet and work with some amazing people, as you will see in photos throughout this book.  Ron and Karen Royer, from California, were the store managers and had to teach us the retail business quickly.  The store opened in the middle of May and by the middle of June, lines at all four cash registers were common.  We also became good friends with coworkers Dick and Sheri DeBernardi, who live in Rock Springs, Wyoming, sharing the insanity of work-filled days and adventures during several days off.

We hope you enjoy our 2010 summer adventure!