Still Learning Life Lessons

The first week was rough in more ways than one…weather was frigid…getting our bodies back to a full work week…personalities, that was a huge one…BUT, we made it through and then took some time to relax and enjoy ourselves.

We had several things to take care of due to getting Maggie ready for the continuous frigid temps and several of the quick fixes we have done throughout the years are all coming back to haunt us. That is what happens when you choose to put bandages on things instead of spending the thousands of dollars we don’t have on the proper repairs, eventually it all comes back to bite you in the ass and it t is doing so quite vengefully.

 

We had a hotel night in Rexburg, Idaho, we stayed at Springhill Suites and forgot photos, but we will be returning in a few weeks. This time was a beautification stay, haircuts…nails…room to stretch out…and long hot showers…LOVE our hotel stays.

 

Our second week didn’t get much better at work, so we began interviewing for other work in the area which allowed us plenty of opportunities, but we really like the place we were working. We love our coworkers, the work is easy, the hours are great, we get to work together with two consecutive days off to explore and for the most part we have fun. So why then you ask, do we want to leave? Because our manager, a son of the owner has no filters…he speaks constantly about religion and politics that we have asked several times not to do so in our workplace but it has fallen on deaf ears. He is highly opinionated about topics and has a loud voice that has cleared the gift shop several times of customers, all leaving with a sympathetic look and or pat on my hand whispering good luck to us. 

 

We both decided we needed to figure out just how to manage the manager so we could stay right where we were, and we think we learned a valuable lesson again. We can’t change anyone, the only thing we are able to change is how we filter what is coming in and then learn not to take it personally and speak up in a fun way so it doesn’t affect our time there and thus far it’s working.

 

On our last days off we headed to Bozeman on 191 and it was a fabulous drive. 

We stayed at the Microtel Inn & Suites in Bozeman, thank goodness it was a suite because it was a very small, but comfortable bed with a beautiful view and we enjoyed the hot tub for hours.

We planned a different route back to West Yellowstone but the weather was not cooperating, so we took 191 back which was a gorgeous drive but it was snowing…sleeting…or raining for most of the drive. We can honestly say the weather here has not been cooperative at all…Cold frigid temperatures…snow…rain…no sunshine for days. On Friday the skies dumped over 12” of snow on us…we had to dig the Jeep out to get to work. Then it rained all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday which took all the snow away and left huge puddles everywhere including causing some rock and mud slides in the park that shut down several roads. We are definitely looking forward to some dryer days with higher temperatures really soon.

We had another pizza from another restaurant in West Yellowstone, this time we picked it up on our way home from work from Pete’s Rocky Mountain Pizza located next to our work place. The pizza was good but not as good as Gusher’s was.

Our First Work Week

We arrived on the first and got our little area setup just how we like it. 

The weather has not been to our likings but we are told it will get warmer and all we can do is believe...

We usually stay out of these frigid temperatures for the most part, we’ve got caught a day or two which is alright, but this is going on for weeks. We do not have a heater hose so every night we, or should I say, Jerry unhooks the water hose so we don’t freeze. We looked into purchasing a heater hose but the price is just not worth it since we aren’t usually in the freeze zones. They are quite expensive, a few hundred dollars for 25 feet and we need 50 feet to reach our spigot. Hopefully, it will warm up soon. We tried trickling our water the night it went down to 14 and it worked. We didn’t want Jerry going out to hook back up in that temperature since our water pump went out and we needed hose water. We will be making a road trip on our days off to get our pump and a few needed other items.

We are working 3 days and 2 nights per week at Dancing Moose Gifts, which is the smaller of the two stores, Cradleboard being the larger located just a few doors away. It’s still a little slow, but it should be picking up soon…we really hope so since we LOVE busy.

We had a power outage on one of our night shifts, apparently a lightning strike hit a transformer and all of West Yellowstone and beyond was without power for over an hour. We got sent home early with pay, but it was scary because it was frigid and snowing and we hoped they would have it restored before it got dark and it did. There seems to be many lightning strikes here during snow storms…weird!

We ordered pizza at Gusher’s Pizza in West Yellowstone and they did not disappoint. We got the Lamar which is made with wild game sausage made from bison, elk, wild boar, venison, and antelope, fresh mushrooms, pepperoncini, red onions, and black olives. Their crust is light and crunchy but chewy at the same time with a wonderful flavor and all the ingredients complimented each other perfectly. We also had a pretzel stick which was soft and scrumptious. We will be ordering again this summer.

One more night shift before we have our days off to explore...this week is mostly honey do’s, but we do have a hotel stay reserved. We have some plans for future explorations already lined up but we are finding hotel prices to be enormously expensive, we have to get creative.

 

On the Road Again - Our Final 500 Miles

Our first day of driving got us out of a little town and into the bigger city of Provo, UT, just about a 100 mile drive, part interstate and part open roads. After a Walmart stop, we checked in at Lakeside RV Campground with a friendly inviting woman. It was a good choice, especially because she gave us an end site which was great because they have buddy sites which on one side, you are feet away from your neighbors and they were packed. 

We took a short drive through Utah Lake State Park and even though it was cold, there were many visitors. The views were spectacular.

 

Our next drive was under 100 miles to Century RV Park in Ogden, Utah and was all interstate. We would definitely prefer the roads less traveled, even on a Sunday morning traffic was high, roads were filled with potholes and construction, but we got all settled in for two nights. Our entire stay it rained and we had a few leaks but we survived.

 

All interstate drive of about 138 miles to Fort Hall, Idaho where we had a play day at Shoshone-Bannock Casino where we left with hundreds more than we walked in with…FUN TIMES! We stayed at Buffalo Meadows RV Park which is located on the casino grounds.

 

Part interstate drive and now off to the roads less traveled…we drove about 80 miles to our last stop before we arrive to our summer home. We stayed at Sugar RV Park in Sugar City, Idaho for 3 nights, so we could clean up, load up before our last 80 miles. This park is just a site, absolutely no amenities, no facilities, just a nice long level site, on gravel with a little patch of grass. We stopped at Top Notch next door for steak and Jerky and we were not disappointed!

 

We made it to our destination for the summer without any issues from Maggie or MayC, they were both great as usual. We will be working at Dancing Moose Gifts, the smaller of the two stores, Cradleboard is the bigger store. Our schedule is a few nights and a few day shifts with 2 consecutive days off during the week. We have all sorts of exciting plans of places to visit, which some will be shopping weeks, and others just sightseeing. Weather is a bit of getting used to, but it should warm up soon.

We are excited and happy with our spot too. There are several locations for workers throughout the area that hold 2 sites and we got lucky with a couple with no kids, no pets and friendly, with great WiFi too. Life is Grand!