Positive energy.....

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

7:34 am - Saturday - 53º F, 71% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the east southeast......partly cloudy with a forecast high of 86º F.  It was breezy all last night, and is still breezy as I write this morning.

Life moves along pretty quickly, and here we find ourselves waking up July 8th in a completely different place than we thought we would be a couple of months ago.  Yellowstone was not even on our radar back then.......well, in hindsight, all I can say is Miss Serendipity smiled down upon us going back several years ago when we met our friend Art at Amazon.  When the chips were down Art was there to help us focus on what we wanted, and what was important.  Through his contacts at Delaware North we landed these wonderful seasonal jobs in Yellowstone, and TVC is now just a distant bad dream whose vortex we have been blessed to escape.

We have been hearing a lot of news out of TVC the last week, and it appears things continue to deteriorate.  Equity Lifestyles, Inc. encourages their customers to file reviews on Tripadvisor after their stay.  They strive to maintain a 4 star rating, and so far it is still there, but the negative reviews are beginning to accumulate over the past 14 days.  The biggest complaints are noise at night, filthy restrooms, and over flowing dumpsters.  The Yelp reviews lately are really devastating.  It makes us sad to see all the hard work we, and others put in the last three years being undone in one summer....really in just a few weeks.  By the end of the summer most if not all the long term seasonal employees will be gone never to return.....some will be gone within the next two weeks.  I haven't heard from any current employees who plan to return next summer, so it would appear that the new manager will have to start from scratch to recruit new seasonal workers for the 2018 summer season.

Okay, enough of the maudlin talk......we are in the midst of the warm season here in YNP, and Friday was another warm day.....high 80's interrupted by a couple of rain showers.  The time passes by quickly each day as we become more and more familiar with our jobs.  Friendships are developing, and the more time we spend with our co-workers the more we like them.

The customer smiles I see across the 'Fountain' counter, and unwavering positive attitudes, and senses of humor displayed by my co-workers make it easy to endure the 2+ hours of uncomfortable heat in the afternoon.  Thankfully, we did not get big crowds Friday, but business was steady and once again we achieved our sales target for the store.  We only went through about 12 tubs of ice cream Friday, but sold a lot of pretzels.  We are getting better at estimating how many pretzels to heat up, and ended up with just one unsalted pretzel at the end of the 'CLOSE' shift.

The moon has now reached its 'FULL' status as of last night, or at least it appears so from this picture.  We were off by 9:45 pm bidding our friends adieua, and on our way home down the Gardiner River gorge.  Looks like it's going to be another warm day today (Saturday)......we have been leaving our windows open 24/7, and it is almost always very pleasant inside by the time we get home at 10 pm.  We were in bed by 11:30......

Pictures of a couple of the large stuffed animals Delaware North has in the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store 

So, in conclusion, I will strive to spend each day thinking good thoughts and sending positive energy out to our friends still mired in the train wreck that has become TVC.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you need to buy something from Amazon, think of us.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission.