TRAFFIC JAM WYOMING STYLE

Today was day #3 of preparing the store for our Saturday opening.  We drove out of the campground, focused on getting to work on time.  What did we see in front of us a few miles down the road?  A herd of about 25 bison who wanted to cross the road.  And they don't like to be hurried.  We grabbed the camera and started taking pictures from the car - with the windows rolled up!  Respect for wildlife and sharing this breathtaking environment with them is one of the focus missions at Grand Teton National Park, and this situation is a perfect example.

It was certainly wildlife day, as we also saw a moose on our way along the main road.  Unfortunately, the moose was too far from the road to get a good picture.

The pictures taken Thursday morning of the interior of the store show that we are not ready to open just yet.  The first picture is a view towards the camping supplies, clothing, and souvenir items side of the store.  Cardboard boxes everywhere!  We each were supplied with our own personal box cutter to recycle the boxes after we empty them, another focus mission of the park.  In the 2nd picture, I am standing at one of the two grocery dept. cash registers preparing an energy drink display that will sit next to the register.   Notice the walls of the store are made of logs.  We have at least one woodpecker who serenades us in the mornings.

The view of the hallway leading out the back door of the store shows over 40 boxes that contain various camping supplies and souvenirs that still needed to be unpacked and sorted.  And this view is after we unloaded boxes for two straight days.  We also received basic cash register training as well as store opening and closing procedures.  

In response to several of the questions that have been asked in our blog comments.  We carry 4 different brands of beef jerky, all in at least three flavors.  We also carry about 20 types of trail mixes in several different size packages as well.  We do not have "slurpees", but we will have a "smoothie" machine which we have not seen so far.  Who needs a smoothie when there are still snow flurries, as there were yesterday.  However, we do not sell any alcoholic beverages.   Campers in the adjacent campground (tents only) have to bring their own adult beverages.

Wednesday night we took a trip into Jackson, about a 10 mile journey, to enjoy happy hour at one of our favorite places to eat--The Snake River Brewing Company.  Besides freshly brewed cold beer and great food, the people watching is interesting as well.  There aren't too many tourists just yet, mostly locals.  Several looked like they were "outdoors types", as their clothes looked like they hadn't seen a washer for quite some time.  Not sure if we can call ourselves locals until we have been here at least a month.

The Jenny Lake Visitors Center, Ranger Station and campground all open on Friday and we open a day later.  Saturday morning will be fun!

ORIENTATION AND CORRECTION

Most of you know I like to be accurate in what I say/write.  I mistakenly called the bison we have seen every day "buffalo".  Upon further review:
What is the difference between bison and buffalo?



'Buffalo' is the popular name often used to describe North American bison; however, this is a misnomer. In fact, buffalo are distinctly different animals from bison. Although both bison and buffalo belong to the same family, Bovidae, true 'buffalo' are native only to Africa and Asia.

You now have your fact for the day.

Orientation today consisted of an overview of the Grand Teton Lodge Company, a company under Vail Resorts.  This was somewhat painless after having presented over 50 workshops a year.  The various presenters, a VP, Health and Safety Director, and the Director of Retail made the topics as interesting as possible.  We will be trying to make every guest have "An experience of a lifetime."  This phrase was drilled into us repeatedly during the 2-hour presentation.  We completed registration by being photographed for our ID badges and picking up our work jackets.  Neither of us broke the camera. 

The remainder of the week will be spent cleaning and stocking the store with vendor deliveries beginning on Wednesday.  The Jenny Lake Store opens on Saturday.  

GETTING SETTLED IN THE PARK

On Saturday morning we started out at the Moose, WY U.S. Post Office.  We arrived right at 10 a.m. when the lone worker was putting up the U.S. flag.  We asked to purchase a P.O. box.  35 minutes later we not only had a P.O. Box but 6 fresh baking potatoes directly from Idaho, including a healthy coat of Idaho mud on each, courtesy of Dennis, the postmaster for the day.  Where else in this great country of ours can you rent a P.O. box and get 6 large Idaho baking potatoes?

Here is a view of the Teton mountains from the main road from Moose into Jackson. 

We continued into the town of Jackson to do laundry, get some groceries, and join the library, one of the big reasons for getting the P.O. box.  There is no house mail delivery in Jackson so if you have a P.O. box anywhere in Teton County you can get a library card.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there.  Sunday morning we headed to Human Resources at the Jackson Lake Lodge, headquarters of the Grand Teton Lodge Company.  We passed this snow covered meadow enroute.  The second  picture below is of Jackson Lake.  We have never seen such a large lake completely covered by ice.

After filling-in employment forms, we proceeded to pick-up our uniforms, maroon polo shirt with gold lettering (FSU karma over 2000 miles from Tallahassee)  and khaki slacks.  After lunch in the employee cafeteria, we drove to the Jenny Lake Store, our workplace for the next 4 months.

 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why most services in the park do not open until later in May.  We will begin cleaning the store and stocking shelves on Tuesday.  Monday is devoted to an orientation for all employees.  The store opens on Saturday.

On our way back to the campground we saw over 50 buffalo in several herds along the road to the campground.  The ones pictured below were the closest to the road.  A buffalo can get to be over six feet in height and weigh over 2000 pounds.  Yes, that is your trivia fact for the day.

We plan to continue to update our blog all during the summer. 

      

OUR DESTINATION AT LAST

We left Laramie, WY on Thursday morning after an all-night rained pelted the RV and left huge puddles around the campground.  We prepared the dinghy (warming the motor and setting the auxiliary brake) during a sleet storm.  The first picture below shows the big snowflakes coming down and the second picture is of our window thermometer (yes, we know it was attached it upside down) - if you look close you can see the snow accumulated on top of the thermometer.  

 

We continued west traveling into a strong headwind and occasional snow showers which made driving difficult due to the lack of visibility.  During the Wyoming winter, the snow fences, which dot the landscape along both sides of the highway, are severely tested.  Our journey this day took us across the Continental Divide twice.     

We arrived in Rock Springs, WY and battled more strong winds as we set up the RV for the night. The campground WiFi was weak and the Aircard that had provided us with great internet connectivity so far across the county could not hook up with a satellite. NO INTERNET! - it felt like we were totally out of touch, like we were living in pre-historic times, well, maybe pre-internet times.

On Friday we traveled on the last leg of our journey through more snow showers but fantastic scenery.  The pictures below do not do justice to the views we saw.

  

Wyoming trivia for the day.  We passed through Kemmerer, WY, home of the J.C. Penney Mother Store, founded by James Cash Penny in 1902.  Learn this fact so you too can win a trivia night at your local pub. 

Another interesting Western site along the way.  Afton, WY has the World's Largest Elkhorn Arch, which contains over 3,000 elk antlers. The arch is 75 feet wide, and 18 feet above the four lanes of Highway 89 in downtown.

The road for the final 30 miles of our journey to the town of Jackson followed the Snake River,  a beautiful scenic drive.

We felt a sense of accomplishment as we saw the sign welcoming us to our summer home town of Jackson, although many people call it Jackson Hole because the town is in a hole between two mountains.

Although it was REALLY HARD to drive past the turn to our favorite Snake River brew pub, we traveled on to our summer residence.  We are in a nice shady spot in Gros Ventre Campground, located about 10 miles from town.  We have full hook-ups (50 amp electric, water, sewer) and a good opening in the trees for the satellite dish to be able to function.  Ron and Karen, the store managers we will be working for, are in the next campsite.  This is the third summer they have been working at Grand Teton and gave us lots of good pointers about getting settled in our campsite and the job we are facing on Monday morning.

EARLY MORNING PANIC AND SNOW

Last evening there were extreme winds in Lamar, Texas which rocked the RV like it was a toy instead of a 24,000 pound beast.  Today we began our pack up procedure, which started out normally until we went to bring in the bedroom slide.  Our RV is equipped with 3 slides (bedroom, kitchen, and living room) which move outward using electronic switches to give the RV more interior space.  This morning, the bedroom slide would not retract, giving us only a flashing error light.  Considering we were far from civilization, our thoughts went to the possible scenarios.  From Ann's computer days - READ THE MANUAL FIRST - Ann checked the RV manual and found the reset procedure.  We followed the reset instructions and we were able to retract the bedroom slide.  The kitchen slide came in like normal but the living room slide needed the same reset procedure as the bedroom slide.  We don't really know what caused the slide problem - just speculating that the RV systems thought we were no longer level because of the windy conditions.  Even with the delay, we were on the road by 8 a.m.; our bodies were able to adjust to the earlier hour since we just switched to Mountain time the day before.

Our morning journey took us past more farms/ranches with the only wildlife being small herds of deer every so often along our route.  Cattle, horses, goats, etc. don't count as wildlife.  We passed through lots of small Colorado towns that were long past their prime.  Ann often remarked, "can you imagine living here?"
 
We hit city traffic again in Denver, but it was a breeze compared to Dallas traffic.  When we stopped for a stretch near the Wyoming border, we noticed that the weather had turned considerably cooler - hint of weather conditions to come.  As we began to make the climb up the mountain between Cheyenne and Laramie, we saw the first patch of SNOW.  The higher in elevation we climbed, the more snow we saw lying on the ground.   As we crossed the summit at Medicine Bow National Forest, el. 8640 ft., between Cheyenne and Laramie, we even saw a few snowflakes on the windshield.  And I was still in my shorts, but not for long.

When we checked into the campground in Laramie, we were told that we could not hook up to water, as water would only be turned on at campsites when there were no more nights below 32 degrees.  Good thing we added water to our fresh water tank before leaving Lamar!  We are so accustomed to having city water hookup that this situation is a new way of living on the road. 

The temperature was 42 degrees at 7 pm when I began this installment.  The coach is rocking again in the wind like last evening.  Today we played it smart and didn't extend the slides, figuring we could exist in cramped quarters for one evening so that we didn't have another panic situation tomorrow morning.  Snow showers are forecast for this evening as the temperature is supposed to drop into the upper 20's.  Our first use of the gas heat since we owned the RV, and it works!

TEXAS PANHANDLE AND INTO COLORADO

We left Dallas on Monday morning for our trip up through the Texas Panhandle to Amarillo. The drive was a reminder that are "Texas wide open spaces".  Nothing to see along U.S. 287 but farmlands, ranches and grain elevators.

We did some minor maintenance on the Honda Fit on Tuesday morning in Amarillo before heading north again on U.S. 287 through the western corner of Oklahoma and into Colorado.  It sure was good to visit an honest auto dealership, Southwest Honda in Amarillo.  We had minor brake work completed that didn't break the bank.   

Heading into Stratford, the last town along our route in Texas, we saw a sign which said the Pheasant Capital of Texas.  That  bit of information just might win you a trivia contest somewhere.  We didn't see any pheasants though.

Crossing state lines into Oklahoma did not change the scenery - the same barren ranchland as Texas.  We did see our first wildlife of the trip when a deer crossed the road about 50 yards ahead of us.  We also spotted prairie dogs sitting on top of their mounds along a portion of the route. 

We entered the Mountain time zone when we passed into Colorado.  We are staying at the Lamar Sportsman Park and Horse Motel.  Yes, there is a barn less than 30 yards from the front of our RV with about 10 stalls for horses.  In fact, the RV on our right is a horse trailer with some living space.  We watched as an older couple took their two horses to the barn along with water, feed and grooming supplies.

Tomorrow's journey will take us east of Denver and into our summer home state of Wyoming. 

WEEKEND IN THE BIG "D"

We enjoyed a relaxing weekend in Dallas visiting family; daughter Wendy, her husband Scott, and grandchildren Amelia (6 1/2) and John (4). Saturday morning was John's first T-ball practice.  John and Scott practiced various throwing and base-running drills during the 45-minute practice.  You can see that John was thrilled to be getting that foot on a base, while Scott (in the orange shirt) is encouraging him to run fast.

Sunday we took the children and Wendy for a picnic lunch at the RV.

We knew the children would be excited by a trip to an amusement park on a beautiful spring day. The children rode the train around the park, the bumper cars and several other rides.

We were glad to be in Dallas to hear Amelia sing in her church children's choir recital. We concluded the evening with Scott's fabulous pulled pork from a pork shoulder that he had smoked all day. Scott's grilling and barbeque skills are second to none.