YNP: Day 2 at Mammoth Hot Springs General Store

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

7:49 am - Sunday - 54º F, humidity 60%, wind 3 mph out of the southwest......cloudy....forecast high is 72º F.

As I wrote yesterday we moved to sites 17 (Newell) and 18 (trailer) and here is a picture of our new configuration.......

I was up by 7:30 am eager to begin the slow process of setting up our sites for the next few months.  It feels like we have been in a state of flux for about a month, but in reality it has been just 7 days since we left TVC (June 10th).  We have been so busy getting here, then learning a new job and meeting many new folks.....by the way 'meeting' new people is the easy part....the hard part is remembering everyone's name, but I am getting there.

The mighty Yellowstone River

Our home is about 70' from the Yellowstone River......had we arrived earlier in the season we may have been able to snag a back in site right on the river, but, nonetheless, we are happy with our location and situation.

I spent a couple of hours getting things out of the trailer, and then it was time to begin to get ready to go to work.  Our first two days have been on the 'CLOSE' shift which ends at 9:45 pm.  Our next two work days, including Sunday, will be on the 'MID' shift which runs 11 am to 7 pm, and then next Wednesday we will begin a two day stint of being on the 'OPEN' shift, which requires us to be there from 7:15 am to 3:15 pm.  We are not quite sure yet whether we will settle into one particular shift, or be moved around throughout the summer.  Everyone else seems to have the same shift each work day.

We left for work around 1 pm, and arrived a little after 1:15.....it's only 5 miles up to Mammoth Hot Springs, but you just never know how long the drive will take as the density of the traffic varies a lot from day to day.

TLE's shift at the Fountain began at 1:30, whereas my cashier shift began at 1:45 so I had to wait to 'punch the clock'.  I continued to shadow a couple of my fellow employees for the first part of my shift, then I was tasked with preparing some large pretzels for the Fountain folks as they were running low.  It's  a pretty simple process involving spritzing the pretzels with water, then dipping them in kosher salt, then  putting them in a pizza type oven to warm them up for 5 minutes at 675º.  I made up 3 batches before returning to my shadowing activities.  

Finally around 6 pm I was allowed to pull my $300 cash drawer, and sign into a register for the first time.  It was the perfect time as the foot traffic in the store had decreased, which took a little pressure off me.  As I have written previously, this POS system is very intuitive, and I only had a few instances where I needed help.  Being able to work at a register seemed to speed up the last 3.5 hours of my shift, and before I knew it was 9:30 pm, and time to close the doors for the day. 

Actually, the hardest part of the job for me is counting my $300 in cash (coins and paper) to begin the shift, and then 'counting down the drawer' at the end.    What we do is simply count out $300, put in back in our  'safety deposit box', and then drop the rest of the cash in a drop box.  I was able to 'count down' my drawer in about 10 minutes, and then TLE and I were on our way home after day 2 on the job.  

The Yellowstone General Store at Mammoth Hot Springs (where we work) was built in 1895....obviously, it has been remodeled a few times over the years, but you can see the age as you walk through the basement and upper story areas.  

 Internet pictues of Mammoth Hot Springs General Store and a map of our location in relation to the rest of  YNP......

Thanks for stopping by!

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