Arrival at Old Faithful

Yesterday was a busy day. We drove the 50 miles from Mammoth Hot Spring to Old Faithful(with a 32 mile detour to the city of West Yellowstone to see what was there). It took us 3 hours to do the 82 miles. We stopped a few times briefly and traffic does not move fast in the park. We checked in with personnel and then were assigned a room in Larkspur Dorm. It is a fairly large room with a double bed, a large closet, bookshelf with desk and 3 drawers for clothes. We also have a sofa, coffee tabele and one sitting chair. The best part is we have a sink in the room and a bathroom with a shower and toilet. We both checked in with our managers and we start work on Wednesday. We will mostly be shadowing someone else for a few days and hopefully it will not be too long before we feel comfortable on the job. The Snow Lodge where Mary Ann will be has shorter shifts and is not as busy as the Old Faiftful Inn where I will be. It figures. We do have excellent cell phone coverage here but the internet is about the same. You can usually check email but anything that requires downloading either takes forever or it will not load. I have had some luck early in the morning. It was nice to get the car unloaded yesterday. There was not an empty space in it. I think we brought everything but the kitchen sink. Mary Ann worked hard yesterday getting everything organized and our room looks very nice. The wildflowers here are beautiful(see picture). I think Mary Ann has taken several hundred pictures of just wildflowers. Thank goodness for digital cameras. We still need to download our pictures to shutterfly.com and hopefully will get it done soon. So long for now. It is time to go eat breakfast in the Employee Dining Room(EDR). Actually the food is fairly decent. Bye for now.

Change of Plans

The Manager of Hotel Front Desks stopped by the training room yesterday and said he needed to talk to Mary Ann and I. He looked really serious and we thought maybe we had done something wrong or somebody had died. As it turned out, he said "I hate to do this but we need to send you to the Old Faifthful area instead of Yellowstone Lake." We said that is okay, we are flexible. So now I am going to the Old Faifthful Inn and Mary Ann is going to the Old Faifthful Snow Lodge. I like to think it is because they needed the help and had discovered how good we are. It appears we may have cell phone coverage there but will have to wait and see and we do not know what kind of room we will have. We finish our training tomorrow and will drive to Old Faifthful on Monday. Thats all for now. I will do an update after we arrive at Old Faifthful.

Training is going great

I woke up early this morning so I was able to get a good internet connection so I thought I would do another entry. The training is going good. It is a lot to learn and there are many codes for the different type of lodging they have here at Yellowstone. They have 100% occupancy every night at all 9 lodging locations. In addition to the lodging we also book activities. The good news is we can take any of the tours for free on a space available basis. I have a feeling we are going to be busy. We still do not know what kind of room we will have when we arrive at Yellowstone Lake on Monday but have heard we will have a private bathroom. Yeah!! Our stay here at Mammoth Hot Springs for our training has been great. We are in a beautiful cabin with 2 double beds and a sink and a front porch with chairs. There is a community bathhouse a few cabins down. We sit out on the porch every night and read a book, do our homework and maybe have a beer or two. There are only four of us in the class and it seems really strange to have Mary Ann as a co-worker. I told Mary Ann I feel like I am in summer camp. Bye for now.

Out of Touch

Just a quick note. We have been without internet and it appears it will be spotty at best. We arrived in Yellowstone on Sunday and spent a night at Yellowstone Lake Lodge(as it happens, that is where Mary Ann will be working). We spent Monday night at Rosevelt Lodge and reported for work in Gardiner, Montana on Tuesday. We had a quick orientation Tuesday afternoon at Mammoth Hot Springs for an hour and will start our training today at 1PM. We finish training on Sunday and will then move to Yellowstone Lake where I will work at Yellowstone Lake Hotel and Mary Ann at Lake Lodge. We have been doing a lot of hiking and are having a great time Our cell phones work 3-5 miles either direction of yellowstone Lake but not there so you can leave us a message and we will drive to get reception every 3 or 4 days and check messages. We have taken a lot of pictures and I want to publish them on Shutterfly.com with a link on the blog but will have to wait until I get a better internet connection. The picture is the front porch of the Lake Lodge where Mary Ann will work. Talk to you soon as long as the internet cooperates.

Rest and Visit in Boise

We have had a wonderful 4 day visit with our friends Chick and Brenda Anderson in Boise. We have mostly sat around and visited. It was kind of exciting as Brenda's daughter presented her with another grandaughter on Tuesday. Brenda was taking care of her daughter's son who I think must be the smartest 3 year old I know. Mary Ann also took care of him and became his new best friend. Mary Ann has always had a way with young kids which is why we get along so well I guess. We leave today for Idaho Falls and instead of taking the fast way on the interstate have opted for the scenic route. We are getting closer and closer to Yellowstone and will report next Tuesday. We have taken a lot of pictures and I will try to get some of them published on the blog once we get settled

What a start

We left Phoenix on Monday and drove as far as Fort Tuthill in Flagstaff. We had an awesome time. We did a 5 mile hike in Oak Creek and then about a 3 mile hike back at Fort Tuthill. Our Yurt was wonderful and we put our bed on the floor so we could stare up thru the skylight at the stars. A truly magical evening. Then we spent 2 days at Zion in southern Utah. It was great staying at the lodge in the park and we had some great hikes. We hiked(well, almost) Angel Landing which is a strenous 5 mile round trip hike. The first 2 miles is fairly strenous and uphill. The next .5 is straight uphill and requires the use of chains to pull yourself up. We made it the first .1 to a lookout and then decided after looking at the trail go straight up that we were older and wiser and stopped there. Good decision. We also hiked the narrows which is hiking thru a canyon where you have to wade through the water. It was fantastic and the views were awesome. The last morning we did a 3 mile hike to the emerald pools. We left Zion and then drove to Bryce canyon. We did a 3 miles hike into the canyon that was great and provide some awesome views. The next day we left Bryce and instead of taking the most diect way we went the scenic route that provide awesome views and scenery although it did take much longer. We arrived in Moab, Utah that afternoon and checked in to our hotel and then immediately drove to Canyonland National Park. It also was pretty cool and there was a storm while we were there which added a little treat. The next day was probably the highlight so far. We went white water rafting on the Colorado River with Class 3 & 4 rapids. It was unbelievable. Tomoorow we are going to do Arches National Park and the southern end of Canyonland National Park. We have not had internet service for a few days so this is the first chance I have to add an entry.

Well, we are packed and ready to start our adventure tomorrow. We have had a great 5 day visit in Phoenix. The first day here, Yellowstone Human Resources called and asked if we would be interested in starting on July 22 instead of July 15 as the July 15 training class was pretty full. We thought that would give us an extra week and we could visit our dear friends in Boise so we said yes. Here is our itinerary for the next 2 weeks:
July 7 - Flagstaff
July 8-9 - Zion National Park
July 10 - Bryce Canyon National Park
July 11-14 - Moab, Utah where we will visit Arches National Park, Canyonland national Park and do a whole day whitewater rafting trip thru westwater canyon(up to Class IV rapids)
July 14-18 - Visit friends in Boise
July 18 - Idaho falls, Idaho
July 19 - Grand Tetons
July 20 - Lake lodge, Yellowstone
July 21 - Rosevelt Lodge, Yellowstone
July 22 - Mammonth Lodge in Yellowstone to start our week training

We are very excited to finally be heading to Yellowstone.


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