We finally had a couple days off and we are feeling renewed and refreshed!   We spent the last two days absorbing the incredible beauty around us! This photo was taken yesterday just about 10 minutes from our campsite on our way to Cody, WY. This guy was just chillin' on the side of the road waiting to give me some foreground photo perspective to the glasslike reflective lake we were driving past.  It takes almost two hours to drive from our spot here to Cody and it has to be one of the most gorgeous drives we've taken! Here are just a few pics from our drive. Sorry for the photo dump - even though the photos don't really do it justice ---- we were awed by the variety and the beauty around every curve!   Cody, WY is a fun little town -- we enjoyed restaurants, Walmart and the Sierra outlet store  (which nearly ate up my whole check! :) Today we drove down to the Old Faithful area (about an hour) and I had fun reconnecting with a friend from high school, Tom Mann. We ...

 Some of you have asked about our work - what we do, how many hours we work, if we find it difficult - so here goes. We work for Delaware North at the Fishing Bridge General Store, which is located pretty much in the middle of Yellowstone National Park. Our store is quite large and has LOTS of t-shirts, sweatshirts, all kinds of souvenirs, a camping section, a small grocery store and a fountain/grill (food & ice cream).  I work as a stocker in the apparel/gifts area which means I take note of things that are missing and I find them in the storage areas and replace or restock them. It's not difficult and doesn't take a lot of brain power, but it is quite challenging physically. All of the apparel storage is located upstairs and all of the extra gifts/souvenirs are stored in the basement, so any time I need to get more stock I have to walk up and/or down a flight of stairs. The store is VERY busy so for example, once I have inventoried and fully stocked all 25 racks of t-shi...

SO ... yesterday we woke up to this!  Remember this photo I shared in the last post of my kitchen window view? No more green. But as we crossed the bridge on our way to work - this was our view!! The day before - our first official day of work at the Fishing Bridge General Store - turned out to be exciting. We were scheduled to start at noon and when we arrived there was no electricity (not uncommon, I guess). After about 30 minutes, the fire alarm starting going off and everyone was ushered outside. All employees ended up standing in a field behind the store (see photo below) while we waited for the National Park Service and Fire Department to arrive.  After about 30 minutes it began snowing so they moved us into the employee dining room and fed us lunch. Shortly after, they announced that the sprinklers were leaking, they were closing the store and we could go home!  We were actually just fine with that as it gave us an opportunity to catch up on laundry, set up our sit...

  We spent our first day doing paperwork, getting our uniforms and sitting in Orientation Meetings in West Yellowstone. We left there excited to drive to see the Fishing Bridge General Store where we will be working and get our camp spot in the Employee RV park. Although it was only 55 miles, they said it would take at least 90 minutes (maybe more depending on the number of bison gaper blockages - which we soon experienced).      The bison are everywhere and I'm sure we'll get so used to them (and the gaper blocks) and we may even become annoyed by them, but there is something so astounding to be so close you can almost reach out the window and touch these massive animals.  Many babies have recently been born and it was easy to pick them out with their light colored fur - adorable! After connecting with our manager at the store, we drove to the RV park and our "home" for the next two months and started settling in. Note the snow banks behind the truck and out my...