6-9 (Tues)

I had ½ day on the phones yesterday and now I have a day off. I went to the clinic this morning and asked if I could change my appointment from next Monday to this afternoon. They gave me an appointment for 4:00.

Jenny and I went on the Lava Creek Hike. The pictures on this page are of the wildflowers and rivers we saw. We hiked for three and a half hours. I kept telling her I had to be back by 4:00 for my appointment. When we were almost back at our place one of the park employees in a truck gave us a ride to the dorms. We were gone so long we missed lunch. I had some cereal in my room so I didn’t starve. We left Jenny’s car at the trailhead so she will have to get a ride back after dinner to pick it up.

When I got back to my room I saw the van dropping off a bunch of new people with all their luggage. I thought “Oh no, here comes my roommate.” But it was not to be, I dogged another bullet.

I went to the clinic this afternoon because I had something gross on my leg. I was worried it might be melanoma but the doctor said it’s a fungus. I felt much better hearing that. Now to try to find a ride into Gardiner to get the medicine.

After dinner tonight I met some of the new people that that came in today. Two couples are in my dorm and they are going to be doing reservations. I felt sorry for them when they told me that.

Notice the bridge high above the river.

Notice the low white patch near the middle of the screen. We hiked from before when this picture was taken to that area -where we live.

6-8 (Mon)

We had training for the first part of the morning and then we went into the phone room and listened like we did yesterday. After lunch the trainer came by and told the person we were listening to to let us take the calls. The woman that I had been watching told me that I did great. I knew better. I wouldn’t have had the confidence if she hadn’t been sitting right there.

All the young people from my training class are already on the phones by themselves. One guy in my class, Spencer, had his head down most of the time and was acting totally bored. Yet when the trainer called on him he knew everything. He must have a photographic memory - when we went into some of the rooms for a look he would know the price of each one. He is incredible. When the trainer gave us a task he would be finished with his before I even got started.

Tomorrow I have the day off and then I go on the phones by myself. I don’t have any trouble talking to the people it’s trying to think while they continue to yap. One call I took today the woman must have asked me about every tour in the park. Then she relayed everything to her sister. I must have been on the phone with her for 45 minutes and then she didn’t book anything.

Some young guy that lives right above me in my dorm told me he’s going to come to my room tonight and get me to come upstairs where they play games. I told him I wasn’t coming unless they play “spin the bottle.”

The guy from LA is really rubbing it in my face about the Magic not winning any games.

It was very cold when I was walking home from dinner tonight. It looks like it might rain or snow again. If the weather is nice tomorrow Jenny and I are going on a hike.

The 11 pounds I lost before coming here are returning. This isn’t a place where you can keep your weight off.





It's mainly the computer. It isn't windows based. It's DOS. You don't do anything w/a mouse. Mostly you are using the F keys. F-7 can mean more than one thing. then you have F-13 through F-24, Try to figure out where that is on your keyboard!
Yes Jenny is also in reservations. She is VERY independent and marches to her own drum.

6-7 (Sunday)

It’s back to getting up at 5:30. When I got up I peeped outside in hopes that we had gotten a lot of snow overnight. The cars had some on them but not a lot.

Today was another training day. I did much better today than I have in the past. As we looked out the window it began snowing again. This time is covered the ground and the trees. It was so beautiful. I wish I had had my camera. They closed many of the roads and passes in the park.
After lunch the training class went into the room where all the phone people sit. We each sat down beside one of the experienced people. The woman I sat next to, Lois, is from eastern TN. She told me she was so scared when she first started that she didn’t sleep at all the night before. Then when she got on the phone her hands were shaking so hard she could hardly type. She kept trying to reassure me as has everyone else.

By this afternoon the sun was out and all the snow was gone. After dinner I took a walk around our area. I bundled up with my hat and earmuffs. They wind is still very cold.

6-6 (Fri)

After breakfast I went over to reservations to practice for about an hour and a half. Lu, one of the supervisors came in and talked to me. She is the nicest person. I know she will help me in any way she can. I had a question for her about one of the things we are supposed to do. She didn’t know the answer so she said she was going to go ask one of the other supervisors. She came back and said none of them knew! That made me feel a lot better. She said it isn’t anything I will have to worry about.

I walked over to the post office to see if my medicine has arrived. If it has they don’t have it or at least they don’t know where it is.

I got back to my dorm by 11:00 in time to meet Jenny. We took off in her car to go animal spotting and hiking. We wanted to explore before we went to a cowboy cookout at 4:45 at the Roosevelt Lodge.

Along our way we saw three bears and a moose. We also met up with a couple and their 18 year old son from France that are traveling around the world. They shipped their self customized Land Rover in a container from France to Perth, Australia. Then they flew over there and toured around. So far they have been on the road for 10 months. After they did Australia they again shipped the car in a container to LA. They are touring around the western part of the US then will go to Canada and Alaska. Next they will drive down through Mexico and Central America until they get to South America. They will again ship their car to Africa before returning to France. There they are going to drop off their son who is studying to be in the circus (they have his unicycle strapped to the back of the Land Rover) in France and continue on with their travels. If you are interested in seeing any of their pictures especially of what they did to the Land Rover you can go to their website, It’s all in French so you probably won’t be able to read it but you can look. The site is tourdumonde.charlet.free.fr

Jenny and I didn’t get to hike because it started raining. We spent some time in a gift shop instead! It stopped for awhile and we walked down to the Tower Falls which were beautiful.

Tiny cabins at Roosevelt with NO running watwe

By then it was time to head over to the Roosevelt Corrals for our covered wagon ride to the cowboy cookout. This was for employees only. It won’t be open to the public until tomorrow night. Employees from all over the park came. We rode in a covered wagon with the group we work with so I was in with the reservation people. For the public it is $60 a head. It is one of the most popular activities in the park and we all understood because it was so much fun. We took nine wagons out to the cookout site in Pleasant Valley. They had a big fire going and made cowboy coffee over it. There was a singer singing cowboy songs and then we ate steak, baked beans, cold slaw, potato salad, apple crisp and watermelon.

On the way back to the corral we saw two buffalo head butting. They say it really gets rough near Sept when they are ready to mate.

One of the girls from reservations was telling me that that she was charged by an elk today when she came out of the employee dining room. She ran back inside when someone yelled to her to “look out.” They are ready to drop their calves now and aren’t in the best of moods.
Another young girl on our wagon told us she lives in and grew up in Gardiner, 5 miles from the north entrance. Her family hunts and kills all the meat they eat: deer, elk, buffalo and some other kinds. She said in high school they would have to stop the football games many times because buffalo would wander onto the field. They would have to have a time out until security could move them off the field. She also said when a kid got detention the punishment would be to spend an hour shoveling buffalo dung off the football field.

It got really cold when we were at the cookout. Thankfully I was wearing a sweater, my fleece and over all that my Arctic jacket. Plus I had on gloves, earmuffs and a hat.

When I got back to my dorm I stood in a hot shower for a long time trying to warm up.

6-4 (Thurs)

After breakfast I went to the training room and practiced some before class started. Today was a little rough. Yesterday was better. It seems like I have one good day and then one that isn’t so good.

Tomorrow is my day off. I asked one of the boss ladies if I could come in and practice some in the morning. She told me I could.

It rained most of the day today but by dinner time it had stopped and I walked down the road to see if I could see the baby owls. There are two of them and they are huge. The mother has been trying to coax them out of the nest. They have walked out on a branch but haven’t gotten up their nerve to flap their wings and leave security yet. I didn’t see them tonight so maybe they were in the nest trying to stay warm and dry or maybe they have made the big flight.

It is supposed to turn cold tonight. Tomorrow night the trainees in reservations are going on an old fashioned cowboy cookout at Roosevelt Lodge. We are going to ride to the cookout in a covered wagon. There is a chance of snow. Apparently it is snowing in Billings right now.
I really don’t know what is happening in the outside world because we have no radio or TV. I usually don’t know what day it is.

Thanks to all of you who sent me such wonderful words of encouragement. Things were better today. It is way late so I have to make this short. Thanks again to all of you.

6-3 (Wed)

I went in to work at 7:30 so I could practice for an hour before class started. Lu Ann one 0f the big bosses came in and encouraged me she was so nice. When I was at breakfast it was all I could do to keep from crying.

Before we could get on the computers the electric went off so no one could work. We went in a conference room and read things out of the manual. I actually did a little better today. Annie, our trainer, kept complimenting me. I didn’t do great but a little better. I feel a lot better than I did yesterday.

Jenny and I went back to our dorms then met for dinner at 5:15. We started on the Beaver Pond hike at 5:45 and didn’t finish until almost 9:00. She has bear spray so we took that along. Thankfully we didn’t have to use it. The hike was beautiful from start to finish. Jenny know the names of all the plants, birds and ducks.

One of the beaver pondswildflowers on the Beaver Pond hike

Another view of the same pond.

6-2 (Tues)

It was cold last night but not freezing, This morning it was raining, actually sprinkling but just enough to make it miserable. Dunn Raven Pass was closed this morning due to snow but opened up around noon.

I am truly afraid I am going to lose this job, I have no idea what I'm doing. Everyone else has caught on and I'm still trying to figure out page one while they are on page 101. It’s awful. I feel like crying.

Still no roomie. For that I am so thankful.

I am going to try to study tonight but I really need a computer in front of me. I can’t do much without one.

6-1 (Mon)

I went to exercise before breakfast this morning. While we were eating an elk looked in the dining room window! He put his head down and ate some and then looked in the window again. It was so funny.

Training went slightly better today. I still don’t know what the heck I’m doing but I’m trying.

Tonight it turned cold and is supposed to remain that way for a couple of days.

Still no roomie but I’m expecting one tomorrow.

5-30 (Sat)

This morning at breakfast Jenny said she might go into Bozeman to the Walmart and asked if I would like to ride along. I jumped at the chance. I have been dying to get in there and buy some supplies.

We left at 10:00 for our 86 mile one way ride to the Super Walmart. I was so excited I could hardly stand it. An hour and $135 later we were ready to head over to Subway in Bozeman for lunch. Then it was back to Yellowstone. We stopped just inside the park and watched some mountain goats. These were all females so they didn’t have the big curled horns like I was hoping to see.

We got back home at 4:30. The elk were all over our yard again. Some of the females are ready to drop their calves. We’re hoping they will do it somewhere around here but they will probably go to the back country. We’ll see.

I have training all day tomorrow.

5-29 (Friday)

We had one day of training and now two days off! I messed around here and didn’t go to breakfast until 7:00.

After breakfast I did my laundry. Then I walked down to look at the owl family and then I walked up to the terraces. When I was about half way up I ran into Gale coming down. She is roommates with Jenny. I think they get along just fine but Jenny is VERY independent. She constantly takes off and does her own thing. I think Gale would like someone to do things with. She’s going exploring in her car tomorrow and I would love to go with her but she has never once said I word to me about going along in her car.

It was very hot when I was walking today. I stopped in the general store and bought some sun screen. At 4:00 I met up with Jenny and Pat (from Deltona) and we did part of the Beaver Creek Hike behind our dorms. We didn’t go that far when Pat started making sounds about turning back. I didn’t pay any attention to her and kept walking. Maybe after a mile and a half she got us to turn back.

After dinner tonight I sat in our dorm lounge and visited with some of the residents.

5-28 (Thurs)
I was up at 5:30 trying to clean up before my roommate arrives. I got to breakfast around 6:30 and ate with Jenny from NC. She had already been to the gym and worked out.

After breakfast I walked around the old fort area down to the chapel. We didn’t have training until 10:00. I talked to some people from my dorm: sisters Loretta and Barbara from Arcadia, FL and Bruce who used to live in W. Palm Beach but now lives in northern GA.

One kid, Spencer, from AZ didn’t show up at training until 10:30 (it started at 10:00) and that was after they sent someone to wake him up. At lunch I saw Loretta and Barbara - one of them asked me to go to the Lamar Valley with them tonight. I was thrilled.

We had an hour for lunch (when we start working it will be 45 min.) Our afternoon training was from 1-5. In the morning we had to interview each other and then tell the group about the person we interviewed. I did Gale from AZ Afterwards she told me I made her feel so good with my introduction of her.

I met up with Barbara and Loretta at 6:45 and we took off for the Lamar Valley looking for wildlife. We saw antelope, buffalo, a beaver, deer and a baby buffalo who was separated from the herd. It was standing very still at water’s edge. A coyote was standing right above the calf waiting to attack. We didn’t stick around but there were an army of people there watching. We didn’t get home until after 9:00. It stays light a lot longer here than it does at home.

5-27 (Wed)
I was awake before the alarm went off this morning at 5:30. I went to breakfast at 6:30. I went over to Mammoth Hotel and met my group in the lobby. After clocking in we took a bus tour of the entire outer loop of Yellowstone. People who are going to be working the front desk were also on the tour.

Tamarack, the driver who brought me from Bozeman yesterday was our driver. We saw the Mammoth Terraces, Old Faithful Inn, the eruption of Old Faithful, Yellowstone Lake, the Lake Hotel, the Canyon, fabulous waterfalls, Roosevelt Lodge etc. I loved the tour but the thing that surprised me the most was that Tamarack, the driver, was a girl! I never would have guessed it in a million years.

We got back to Mammoth at 6:00 -we all ran to the EDR (Employee Dining Room) to eat dinner before they closed.
When I got back to my room I had a note on my door telling me to expect a roommate in the next couple days. Boo.
Tonight I met two sisters (living in my dorm) from Arcadia, FL which is about 2 hours from Orlando.

Checking into Yellowstone

5-26 (Tues)
I was awake most of the night - I was hot and then cold plus I was anxious about today. I finally got up at 5:30. I was in the lobby by 6:15 but no one else was there. The Yellowstone people showed up at 6:45. Besides me there were two boy cousins from
Ecuador (with US citizenship) and a boy from Bulgaria. We went in one van there were two) to the Greyhound Bus Station where eleven more young people were waiting. I don’t mean this to be ugly but one girl was so fat her rolls were everywhere, Her butt looked like two basketballs in her pants. Thankfully she rode in the single seat next to the driver.
We drove 84 miles to Gardiner where we checked in. the scenery along the way was breathtaking. Check-in consisted of signing many papers and writing your name, address, date of birth and social over and over. When that was completed everyone but me went over to get their uniform. I don’t have to wear a uniform because I’m in reservations.
We hung around Gardiner until about 11:00 then we loaded all the luggage into a big us and the driver took us into the park (Mammoth.) Everyone got off to go eat lunch except me. They are all going to work in other areas of the park. The driver took me to get my room assignment. I am in Aspen dorm. I have a shower, sink, and toilet in my room instead of down the hall. The room is very small with a double and twin bed. It has two minute closets. There is a tiny bar, maybe 12 inches long to hang your clothes on, unfortunately there are NO hangers and I didn’t bring any. There are two small drawers at the bottom. I just measured the width of the “closet” and it is 26”. My roommate isn’t here yet so I moved into the bed closest to the window which is also the bigger bed. They do provide sheets and a blanket but no towels - thank goodness I brought mine. There is no maid service - you have to clean your own room and wash your own sheets! What kind of joint is this anyway?
After lunch (a grilled sandwich and some sort of Greek dish for me) we had orientation for an hour. After that the people who are working reservations went upstairs in the Mammoth Hotel (where we will be working) and saw where we will clock in and had orientation on safety. When we finished there we were free for the rest of the day. I went back to my room and tried to put away some things. There is REALLY no where to put anything - a lot of my stuff is still in my suitcase.
There are many international young people working here - kids from Europe, Asia and SA. I heard someone say that next year they aren’t going to hire internationals because od the US economy they want to give the jobs to US students.

5 -25 (Monday) Orlando to Bozeman

I talked to Betty and she said I MUST take sweat pants and a sweat shirt to sleep in or 4else I would freeze my tail off. I stuck those two items n my suitcase plus a couple other things - I weighed it and according to my calculations I was over 50 lbs. I decided to leave the4e sweat stuff at home. Then I had the4e brilliant idea to wear the pants over my jeans and the sweat shirt over my t-shirt.

When I got up at 5:30 I got dressed, unplugged everything and ate breakfast. P.
Patty picked me up at 7:00. She couldn't tell that I had my jeans on. We weighed my suitcase again and decided it was okay

Because it was Memorial Day we had the highway to ourselves. Before I got out of the car I put on my sweatshirt. Besides my suitcase I had my backpack with my camera, computer and a million other things. Attache4d to my pack I had another duffel shaped pack with my travel pillow and all my meds. Those two it4ms weighed 20 lbs! Oh my aching back! In addition to all that crap I had my coats. I was originally going to take my fleece and a fake fur lined vest but Robin called the night before last and said it was 26 degrees in Yellowstone. I dug out my down filled jacket that I took to the arctic circle. I had to figure out how to take all that stuff so I put the vest inside the fleece and the fleece inside the arctic jacket and zipped it up Then I tied plastic around the middle. I was probably carrying as much weight as I had in my suitcase. I was worried about getting through check in so I did curbside. United charges $15 fdor one checked bag. Bummer. I had the guy weigh it right there andit was 46.6 lbs. PERFECT! He didn't say aword abut my coat or my pack. Patty waited to see if it made it thought okay. Just as I was giving her the"thumbs up" a service van backed into the front of her cr! She tried to run up to his van and stop him but it was too late. Thankfully he didn't do any damage.
I got through security just fine. I forgot to take my laptop- out but they didn't stop me. When I went to a bench to put on my shoes I took off my Mickey Mouse sweatshirt.

I stopped and bought a sweet roll (not on my diet) but I was worried I wouldn't have time to eat in Denver. When I got to the gate I panicked again when they announced that you could only take one bag on board. Then I looked around and saw people with everything but the kitchen sink. The girl didn't bat an eye when I went past the last check point with my boarding pass.

I was in the very last row on an aisle seat. I always request an aisle seat when I'm flying in daylight. A family got on after I did. The father asked if he could sit on the aisle to be near his family. I HATE the middle seat but I gave him the one he wanted.

When I arrived in Denver I must have walked a mile from a gate in the 20's to a gate 86. We landed 40 minutes ahead of schedule which was a good thing because I didn't have any time to fool around before they were calling the Bozeman flight. We went out on a relative small plane. I was afraid a teenager would be flying it but he looked at least 23.

As we approached Baseman I saw beautiful mountains and they were covered with snow. I was so excited. I was less excited when we landed and it was raining. I rode to the hotel with a crew from Compass Air. I have never heard of them. By the time we got to the Holiday Inn it had stopped raining. Doesn't that sound like Florida?

My room was $116 but when the girl heard I was going to work in Yellowstone she said I could get a discount - $69. That was a wonderful surprise. After I checked in I went across the street to Walmart where I bought some grapes and water. Then I went to a BBQ place because I was starving. I got something to go and brought it back to the room to eat. I was feeling better after food so I walked probably a mile down the road and then back stopping at Kmart and a grocery store. I went to the gym at the hotel and worked out for a short time.

The girl at the desk said there were several people at the hotel that would also be picked up by the Yellowstone bus in the morning. We are supposed to leave the hotel around 6:30 and go to the Greyhound Bus Station to meet the Yellowstone bus.

9-29 (Monday)
We had a lovely breakfast in our lovely hotel. We were living high on the hog - just think, a bath mat!!!Manuel arrived at 7:05 abut wasn't due until 7:30. Barbara wasn't ready so he drove around. We got to the airport at 8:00 for our 9:30 flight - enough time for Barbara to do some more shopping.
We really hated to leave Cuzco today. It was so beautiful and warm. We needed at least 10 more days added onto our trip.

9_30 (Tuesday)

Will write a little more later. We leave the hotel at 3 a.m. Wed morning for our flight to Miami.

Today we visited the museum of Inquisition and Parliament. We have just gotten home from Para gliding out over the sea and up close to buildings. Barbara shopped and we had dinner.

last night I slept under two wool blankets and in my fleece jacket.

We're had a great trip even thought Barbara's feet have smelled the entire time!!!! (She says this everyday and I keep telling her that I was going to put it in the blog.) Thank goodness my nose has been stopped up and I haven't smelled her feet once.

When I get home I'll try to include some pictures of us paragliding.

9-28 (Sunday)

Finally, a computer that has the same keys as the one at home!

The electric went off this morning while Barbara was in the bathroom. It got cold in the room but didn't last too long.

We had breakfast, checked out ($90) and then took a cab to the bus station. We're on our way back to Cuzco.

They put the wand over us again before we got on the bus. When it buzzed they didn't pay any attention to it. They just told us to go on. They videoed our faces again.

We stopped twice. At the first stop some guy had an assigned seat next to me so I got up and moved so I'd have two seats. At the second stop someone tried to sit next to Barbara, she told him to get lost.

We stopped at some unauthorized places and they let people ride underneath the bus. It also appeared that we were carrying counterban of cigarettes because right before we arrived in Cuzco the bus stopped and they quickly pulled at least 10 large packages out from the belly of the bus and hurriedly loaded them into a car. We could see through the plastic and could see they were cigarettes. We thought there were at least 20 cartons in each package.
It took six hours to get from Puno to Cuzco. That's longer than it takes to get from Lima to Miami. Manuel was at the station to pick us up.

We checked into our new hotel. We felt like we had died and gone to heaven. The room was beautiful. Not only did it have a key card entry BUT we had TWO rolls of toilet paper and a bath mat!!! We're paying more than usual but we deserve it. We repacked and then went out to dinner. It began raining. We're hoping for good weather in the morning when we fly to Lima.

Puno











Riding in bicycle taxi














Writing in my journal in our coooold room

Colonial Sacramento in Uruguay

Argentina



Iguazu














Iguazu Falls