Yellowstone Park - I'll Miss You (Sort Of)

The time approaches to say farewell to my dysfunctional home in Yellowstone Park.  But then, aren't all  homes dysfunctional?

What will I miss?

Number One son who works at Grant Village.

Of course, if I wanted to see him, I had to track him down.  All the same, I knew he was just down the road.

Grizzly Son and his girl friend who took me on some great hikes.

I kept up with them, by the way.

My friend, David, at Yellowstone Traders, in West Yellowstone.

He's living the dream, living on the edge, living off the radar...you pick.

My friend, Ken, who took me on some great nature drives, taught me all about ravens and other creatures, and offered a pleasant break from the insanity of the Park.

And of course, there is Yellowstone Park, not to be confused with the companies who run the hotels and stores here.

It stands alone in its beauty.

It belongs to no one.

The Park would be better off without any humans, but I am grateful that I was allowed to spend a couple of months here.

So, good bye Yellowstone. 

I loved walking through your beauty, even though you scared me to death at times.

I may never be back, but I have the memories, the pictures and the stories to last me a lifetime.

For all of my blog friends, I hope you continue to follow my trip home.  There will be some adventures there, I'm sure.  It's never boring with the hubby.

There will be a new blog once Yellowstone Dreaming is packed away.  It's in my blood now.  Gotta keep writing.  Gotta stay in touch with you all. 

Gossip from Yellowstone Park

I have officially resigned from my minimum wage job.  My last day is the 28th of June which gives hubby and me plenty of time to explore Yellowstone Park together.

I'm trying to squeeze out a tear.  

I think I pulled something, but no tears.

It's time for some gossip.

Yes, I realize this poster is sexist.

Yes, I would pummel someone who said this to me.

I still think it's kind of cute in a retro way.

Here's the big gossip of the day.  Actually, it is a fact.

I have reliable sources but will go to jail before I reveal them.  Unless they threaten me with a Federal offense then I'm singing like a bird.

Remember the girls from my bus tour?

Many Yellowstone Park employees are from Asian countries.  There are agencies that set them up with jobs in the U.S., promising them opportunities to practice their English and a chance to explore our country.  They pay a good chunk of money for the honor of cleaning rooms and working in kitchens.

All of us agree that these young people are an asset to Yellowstone Park.  They are friendly, hard working, and polite.

This season, the company that shall remain nameless, over hired staff.  It seems that last season, they didn't have enough employees, so they went gang busters this year.  We over floweth with help.  A lot of people have only been getting 3 days of work every week.

Employees in housekeeping and the kitchens have been offered an early out if they leave by the end of June.  That means that they can still get their $3 a day bonus for completing their contract.  Obviously, that didn't work.

The solution to this problem?  The Asian employees are being terminated.  They have already paid for their round trip tickets and you know what happens when you try to change them....additional costs.  They also haven't been here long enough to make much money to cover the costs.

There have been tears and disappointments, yet they are too polite to complain.

I debated about posting this, but then...what the hey.  I haven't told any of the managers about my blog.  Didn't seem like a wise move.   I'm not world famous, yet, so there seemed no danger of this showing up on CNN.  I hear the oil spill is taking up most of their time.

I'm just reporting the news from my little town, my hot bed of intrigue, my home away from home.

Working for one of the companies that have contracts in Yellowstone Park is no different than working for any corporation.  The bottom line is profit.

The answer to any concern here is, "But you have the privilege of living in Yellowstone Park for the season.  You should be happy."  I guess it's just the old hippie in me, but that isn't the best answer or even an answer for that matter. 

Well, it is what it is.  The wheels of the corporate world keep spinning just like my head.

But I'm going for every bit of fun I can wring out of this place before I leave.  We are out of the rainy season and nature calls.  Not the bathroom...the nature outside. 

Work at 2:30.  Back to the room by 11:00.  Have I mentioned before that our dorm room smells like a gerbil cage? 

Could be a dead yellow bellied marmot under the bed for all I know. 

Until tomorrow.

Lightning Strikes in Yellowstone Park

Yellowstone Park threw in some new weather today.  I had forgotten about hail, but Mother Nature didn't. 

O.K., the hail wasn't this big.

It did pile up, though, in a very short period of time.

The lights dimmed briefly at the Old Faithful Inn, where I was bored out of my mind cheerfully waiting on customers.

We heard later that a guest was walking around the Old Faithful geyser basin and was struck by lightning.  Several people around him felt the effects also. 

There were ambulances and a care flight and I missed it all.

You know that I'm afraid of bears.  Now I'm afraid of lightning.  Worse case scenario...I'm being chased by a bear when a storm blows in and lightning is all around me.  Unless the bear is standing up, ready to attack, and the lightning gets him first, I'm seeing a double calamity.  Death by bear and electrocution. 

Other than the weather drama, it was just another working day at Old Faithful.  I worked the 9:30 to 6:00 shift today. 

You might be thinking that this is really a wonderful job, and I just don't know when I have it off well.  "Off well" is a phrase hubby used one night when he was half asleep and thought he was being profound.  He meant to huffily retort that I didn't know when I had it so well off, and he came out with "off well," and I guess you had to be there.

Let me show you just a small slice of my day.  I get my 35 minute lunch break and stand the rest of the shift.  I have ankles the size of watermelons now.  Here's my trip to lunch.

This is a horrible picture, but somehow reflects the cheer of the Old Faithful Inn.

I walk down this dark dreary hall, where there are guest rooms, by the way.  They should have braille numbers on the doors cause you sure can't see your hand in front of your face.

Or the mice.

Then, I gingerly walk down these steps.

They are much darker than this.

You can see the bottom of the steps in the background.

I walk through some kind of housekeeping area or secret torture chamber rented by the CIA.

I walk out the door to this.

Guest rooms look out on this also.

What charm, what ambiance...what a pile of mud!

I tiptoe through the mud puddles to the entrance of the employee dining room.

Charming so far?

It always looks better in my pictures, but the dining room is trashed.

The really elegant part is the dish area where everyone stacks their trays and dumps their food scraps.

You should thank me that I didn't take any close ups.

Just imagine all of the leftover food dumped into one trash can. 

This is part of the Yellowstone Park weight loss program.  Go in there first before you eat, gag, and run for fresh air.

Just wanted to share in case you were jealous.

It's 8:30 p.m. now, I'm in my cell dorm, roomy is snoring and snorting away, and I have to work at 6:15 in the morning.  What's not to love about this? 

I'm thinking a lot about the movie, "The Shawshank Redemption."  If I start digging a hole now in the wall of my dorm, I could possible escape in a month or two.  Oh that's right!  Hubby is coming to take me away!

Until tomorrow, Judy reporting from Yellowstone Park.

Memorial Day Weekend, Yellowstone Park: Part One

And now for the highlights from Judy's day off in Yellowstone Park, Part One:  The Start of Memorial Day Weekend.  Pretty heady stuff, wouldn't you say?

First, the bad news.  It's raining, snowing, sleeting, raining, snowing, sleeting....it's hard to keep track of the weather here.  If you are cooking out in your shorts, don't even bother to tell me about it.

The good news is that I am not a tourist who has invested a thousand dollars in a trip of a lifetime.  The roads were closed this morning, and the way things are looking, there are going to be some unhappy travelers tonight.

I started out the morning with a nasty gourmet breakfast at the employee dining room (English muffin with peanut butter and some toast.)   It seemed the safest option.

I ran into one of the women who conducts tours of the Old Faithful Inn.  She gives the history of the building several times a day.  She told me about an author, C.J. Box (real name?) who wrote a mystery, called "Free Fire," based in Yellowstone Park.

Kind of looks like a country/western singer, don't you think?

The hat is probably hiding a bald spot.

I bought the book at the gift shop, and will let you know how it goes.

The Yellow Buses are back!  These tour buses were in the Park from the 30's to the 50's.  They were sold when tourists fell in love with their own cars and the demand went down for their services.

In 2007, Yellowstone Park bought them back, refurbished them and they are popular again.  That's why you should have hung onto your poodle skirts and saddle shoes.  Old always becomes new again.

If you want to know more about them, check out this site, http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-4661-National-Parks-Travel-Examiner~y2009m5d10-Yellowstone-National-Parktake-a-yellow-bus-tour.

As I was wandering around outside, I ran into a sweet couple in their 70's from Pennsylvania.  Richard and Helen were looking for the web cam so they could wave to the folks back home.  Being the guest services person that I am, pat self on the back, I walked them to Old Faithful and pointed out the cameras perched on a tree.

They insisted that I wave to their family with them.  We went back into the Old Faithful Inn and chatted for a while.  I now know about their cancer surgeries, all of their children and their political orientation.  They wanted me to hike with them, but I had plans to head into West Yellowstone.  It is amazing how you can bond with perfect strangers.

The Governor of Wyoming, Dave Freudenthal, was staying at the Old Faithful Inn.

As I was talking to my sweet friends, he passed through with a film crew.  He was appropriately dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans.

Grizzly son and I decided that this wasn't a big deal as only about a hundred people actually live in Wyoming. 

It would seem that anybody could be governor of Wyoming if they really wanted to.  Maybe the citizens of the state just rotate the job every few weeks or so. 

Grizzly's girlfriend and I took off for West Yellowstone after lunch.

Something new is going on now in the Park.

It is fly fishing season. 

I didn't see any of them actually catch a fish, but they were having a good time in their expensive gear, standing in the middle of a freezing river.

I hope they can move fast in those waders when the bison take their afternoon stroll through the area.

Of course we saw more bison on the way...nothing new or exciting, but the drama is building now that there are thousands of tourists in the Park.

These smarty pants were standing right next to a mother and her calf.  The Park ranger was walking the opposite way from this scene.

He was probably going to his car to call the ambulance ahead of time. 

West Yellowstone was jumping, even in the rain.

Just like every other tourist town, you can buy t-shirts, hats, key chains, stuffed bison toys, and over priced jewelry. 

We looked but didn't buy.  Remember, we earn minimum wage.


West Yellowstone even has a summer theater, called the Play Mill.

A windmill in Yellowstone?  Could there have been a more appropriate choice?  How about the Bison Poo Players or Theater in the Poo? 

Couldn't resist a poo reference.

My real mission was to find a room for me and the hubby when he comes to rescue me in June.

The prices are incredibly high for the summer, but I decided on The Hibernation Station.  If I have to pay a mountain of money to sleep in a bed, it had to be here.

That's a statue of elk in the front.

Look at these adorable cabins with tepees on the top.

Who needs the Holiday Inn when you can have some atmosphere?

This is a picture of one of the rooms, taken from their website.

It sure isn't dormitory living. 

I can't wait to live like an adult again.  The earplugs at night are really starting to irritate me.

They are necessary to drown out the roomie's snoring and the drunks outside my window.

Last night, roomie screamed so loud in her sleep, she woke herself up.  She was dreaming that a wolf was ripping the throat out of a dog.  She needs some long counseling sessions.

Tonight may call for a pub visit.  I hear a Moose Drool calling my name.

Stay tuned for Part Two of Memorial Day weekend....same time, same place.

Bison in Yellowstone Park

I know that I've shown you lots of bison poo.  I think it's time that we talk about the creature who makes numerous piles around Yellowstone Park.

I was stumbling to work this morning,  not paying too much attention to my surroundings, and wowee, zowees...there they were.

That's the Old Faithful Inn in the background.

I needed to get there by 7 a.m.

That sidewalk is "usually" where I walk.

This isn't the best picture, but my hands were cold, fear was slowing my reflexes and more were headed my way.  I did what I could.

I made as wide a path as I could around them.  I frantically waved at a young man on his cell phone walking down the sidewalk, directly into danger.

I was successful, so don't worry about any bloody pictures.

Later in the day, Grizzly son and I took a drive to find bears or wolves, but all we came up with were more bison.

This herd had lots of calves.

They are also called "red dogs" because of their coloring.

Isn't it amazing how the babies can be so cute and then grow up to be.....adult bison.  Not cute.  Impressive, though.

There were lots of babies in this herd.

This must be the queen bison mother.

Sweet little babies.

Don't you just want to take them home for the kids to play with?

Got a couple hundred acres of grass for them to munch on?

Now for bison facts.

The bison is the largest land animal in North America.  Even bigger than Oprah off her diet.  Sorry about that.

The male bison stands 6 feet tall from hoof to shoulder and can weigh up to 2,000 pounds.  And you wonder why they give me the creepie crawlies.

The hump on the back of bison is from the movement they make back and forth with their heads to dig through the snow.  These nasty looking creatures eat vegetation and digging through Yellowstone snow builds up some big muscles in their necks and shoulders.

The female has one calf and the gestation period is nine months.  Their health insurance only allows one day in the hospital which leads to some problems, but.....oops, health care is a whole other discussion.

Bison can run up to 30 mph.  I can't.  I am afraid.

Bison behavior is unpredictable.  They can appear lazy and then for no reason, just take off after you, a car, a tour bus, or another bison.  Remember the 30 mph and the 2000 pounds?  This is a bad combination.

I'll leave you with this link from Animal Planet.  http://animal.discovery.com/videos/jaws-and-claws-2-bison-clash.html.

I'm not sure how it ends as my video capabilities here in Yellowstone Park are minimal.  I hope there isn't any blood and gore.  Let me know.

For now, I will stay alert.  No stepping in bison poo, and I will be looking behind trees for the moody things.

Working 9 to 5 in Yellowstone Park

No big adventure in Yellowstone Park like I warned you yesterday.  I feel such a responsibility to make every day photo worthy or at least have an element of danger. 

Today could have been boring work day in anywhere U.S.A.  I woke up to this.

It was colder than it has been in a while.  This is my poor, brave red car.

It has been wrecked on a country road during a snowstorm in Ohio.  It spent a month in the hospital, but is as good as new.

It drove through 120 degree temperatures in the sand of southern California. It braved the freeway and the treacherous drive to Yucca Valley without a complaint.  And now I do this to it.  You will go home, little Mitsubishi.  Hang in there.

I tried walking to Old Faithful, but I didn't get far.  I was losing feeling in my extremities.

This will be a quick tour of the sights I see every day.

A swamp between my dorm and the Inn.

The Old Faithful Clinic and the Ranger's Station.

Not a ranger in sight.

The Post Office which is right next to the Ranger's Station.

The mail men are just as grumpy here as they are back home.

This is the Snow Lodge which is another hotel just behind the Old Faithful Inn.

Everyone wants to stay at the Inn, but this is newer and not as, shall we say, run down.

We call the dark, dreary atmosphere at the Inn, "historic."  Uh huh.  Whatever (said in my Valley Girl voice.)

They are building a new visitor's center.

It's almost bigger than the Inn.  The grand opening will be in August.  Alas, I won't be there for the ribbon cutting.

 This is me staring down the road, thinking about hitting the trail.

Not an exciting day, but the best I could do.

Here's what I do at work, just to give you an idea of why I gotta get out of this place.

These are the phrases I repeat eight hours a day, standing behind a counter in a silly uniform with my "Judy Ohio" badge.

"What credit card would you like to use?"
"Would you like to contribute a $1.00 to the Yellowstone Park Foundation?"
"Would you like an open account?"
"The bathroom is just down the hall."
"No, we do not have wi-fi in the Park."  (liar, liar, pants on fire.)
"No, we do not have a work out room."  (walk the trails, idiot.)
"Old Faithful goes off in 90 minutes."

OMG!  I might as well be saying, "Do you want fries with that burger?"

I have become a McDonald's employee and didn't realize it. 

That about sums it up.  Just to liven things up, one of my 20 something bosses comes along and points out a mistake I made.  Please, criticize me some more.  There is a shred of dignity left that needs to be stomped on and ground into the dirt.

By the time I got out of work, the snow was melted and the temperature was mild.  Of course, I was too tired to do anything.

At least I have a great view.


Before I go to sleep early like a first grader, I need your help.  I want to continue my blog when I return home.  Here are my thoughts.  Please give me yours.

1.  I plan on joining some walking clubs.  I can take pictures of my adventures and nature along the way.  The negative is that I may not be able to do it every day.

2.  Not a light topic, but I was thinking of interviewing people in my area who have been affected by the economy.  They all have a story to tell about the jobs they lost and how they survive.  The downside is that it isn't funny and I like funny.

3.  Hubby wants me to do some writing for the local hospice that my friends started.  We were thinking about telling the stories of hospice families.  Of course, they have to agree to this.

4.  Here is a crazy idea that needs a lot of help.  Has anyone written their novel on-line?  I have a great idea for a novel, but lack the drive to get it done.  I really want to do it, but I need immediate gratification.  Could I write a chapter at a time in a blog format?  How could I make money doing this?  Could I let you guys read it for free, but charge other people?  Help me here, my creative friends. 

Leave your comment and if you have been following my blog, please sign up to be a follower.  I have been stuck at the 37 mark for some time.  I know you're out there.  Don't be afraid.  I don't have enough money to show up on everyone's door step.

Oh...I promised hubby to give our business a plug.  If you need medical uniforms, check us out at www.scrubsdirect.com.  You happy now, dear? 

Until tomorrow, Judy in Yellowstone Park is signing off.

Spring/Winter in Yellowstone Park

Today was the first of my two days off.  I woke up to this.  Spring in Yellowstone Park.

Now do you understand why I have no idea what month or season it is?

It has snowed all day off and on. 

As my wonderful Montana dentist said, "There are three seasons here...winter, construction and company.  Usually the construction and company come at the same time."

Since the days in Yellowstone last longer than anyplace on earth, I was determined to get out of my room and do a little exploring.  

I decided to drive to the West Thumb Geyser Basin which is about a half an hour south of here. 

I thought the snow looked interesting against some trees that were burned in a fire last year.

Don't worry, there are plenty more trees in the Park....gazillions of trees if you must know.

It's a short hike around the board walk, but a lot is going on.

Yellowstone Lake has 110 miles of shoreline.

That's a big lake, right?

Right now, it is still frozen.  So am I, for that matter.

The West Thumb Geyser Basin is fascinating because hot bubbly things are right next to the lake.

Ice, snow, fire, water.  What more could you ask for?

Follow me down this boardwalk to see the strange and lovely sights.

There were some elk grazing by the lake.

They seemed harmless, but I think everything around here could kick you to death if it wanted.

The boardwalk goes right along the lake.

Those three tourists slipped on the ice and were swept away, so the next photo is awesome and will win me some prizes.

You know I'm kidding, right?  And I wonder why no one wants to hang with me.

The hot bubbly stuff just flows into Yellowstone Lake.

There are geysers right out in the lake.

Trust me, they are everywhere. 

I'm surprised that there isn't one right outside my bedroom window. 

May be one tomorrow.  Nothing surprises me here.

That's ice hanging down from the cliff.

There was ice hanging from my nose too, but you aren't getting a picture of that.

More boardwalk as I walked back to my car.

It was starting to snow again.

A pretty branch with some moss on it, just because I was tired of geysers.

Have I mentioned that the geysers smell like rotten eggs?

It's the sulfur making that odor, and I will always think of Yellowstone when I have deviled eggs in the refrigerator.

This bus was in the parking lot when I left.

There was no one in it.

I didn't see any hippies on the boardwalk.

You can make up your own story about this if you like. 

So that's the end of the adventures for today.  I have walked a couple of miles around the Old Faithful Geyser Basin, had dinner, done my laundry and it's only 6:30. 

Someone has to get me out of here.  I'm not shaving, my skin is getting scaly, I spend a lot of time alone having dangerous thoughts, I'm starting to talk to the German guy who has finger puppets (I will get a picture of him before I leave) and the employee dining room is starting to serve chicken nuggets pellets.

I still have some movies to watch, but when they're gone, I don't know what will happen.  Hubby is coming to get me toward the end of June.  The pictures will continue.  Until tomorrow.