YNP - 101 Days in Paradise!

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7:49 am - Sunday - September 24th - 35º F, humidity 82%, wind 6 mph out of the north by northwest.....feels CALM to me.  Gray, leaden clouds greet me this morning, but according to the weather guessers there is ZERO chance of rain.  Forecast high for Gardiner, MT is a blistering 47º F, and 45º F for Mammoth Hot Springs, WY.

With the end of Saturday, September 23rd we completed our 101st day of living in and around Yellowstone National Park.  When we began our trek north to South Lake Tahoe in late March the thought of spending the summer in YNP was no where to be found in our thinking.  Sure, we had talked often over the past few summers about the fact we had not yet been to YNP, as well as a number of other National Parks, and I was concerned that we were effectively cancelling out any possibility of that happening as long as we spent every summer in South Lake Tahoe.  Certainly, spending each summer in the Lake Tahoe Basin is not a terrible fate by any means, but that means we will not be spending the summer in any number of other equally fantastic places around this amazing country.  Spending 3 months in YNP has changed our worldview a lot, and now that we have retooled our thinking we are embarking on one new adventure after another with a really cool destination for next summer (2018), which is currently in the works!  For now I will keep that under my hat, so to speak.

Saturday, not surprisingly, was very unbusy once again.  We had the 'CLOSE' shift which had us arriving around 11:15 am.  On the way into Mammoth Hot Springs I stopped to take this picture.....the fresh snow really changes the view a lot..

........just across the street I spied a bull elk in repose......just his antlers are visible.......

........I spent the entire shift on the register, but I did scoop an occasional scoop of ice cream.  Our friends Roscoe and Geni, whose last work day was Friday, stopped by for their last portions of Wilcoxson's Ice Cream before they depart for new adventures on Monday........

 Roscoe and Geni stopped by for one last helping of Wilcoxson's Ice Cream

.......Taylor and I closed the fountain on time at 7 pm, and had it cleaned by 7:20......spent the last minutes of my shift 'counting down' my drawer, and then stepped outside to snap a couple of pictures of the hot springs in the fast disappearing daylight and a crescent moon.......

......TLE spent the summer working side by side with Steven (pictured below), and Saturday was his final day of work.......he is from Atlanta, so TLE wanted a picture with him whilst wearing her Atlanta hat........

......yep, Steven is a tall guy.  He is a high school teacher by trade, but spends his summers working in YNP.....I will miss hearing his booming voice every day, and being around his positive attitude.

We were home by 8:30 (TLE's shift ends at 8:15 pm)......one more day (Sunday) and then we transition to a 9 am to 6 pm shift (starting at 8:45 am and ending at 6:15 pm) for our last week in YNP.  Including Steven, we said goodbye to four more co-workers......Steven, Ron, Mark and Denise.......a few more tears were shed as we exchanged our 'until next times'.......things are rapidly winding down!

We have one more 'CLOSE' shift Sunday, then three days off work before we begin our last 5 days working in the General Store.  We will begin to pack up our 'stuff' on Monday.

Thanks for stopping by!

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