Good news!

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9:15 am - Wednesday - September 27th - 39º F, 85% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast.....clear blue skies with contrails......forecast high for this day is 59º F in Gardiner, MT, and in Mammoth Hot Springs, WY 59º F, also.  Headed out to do some more site seeing today!  Slept in until almost 9 am today.....wow.....double wow!

Well, TLE and I have very big news to share this morning!  I alluded to a new adventure awaiting us for the summer of 2018 (next summer!), and now it has been confirmed.  After submitting our resumes and then doing a lengthy phone interview we have been accepted to work at an RV park just outside the gates of Acadia National Park in Maine!  We will be living about 12 miles from Bar Harbor, and in the middle of one of the most beautiful places in this country for about 5 months.  We're going to keep the name of the RV park 'under our hat' for now, but suffice it to say that this could not have worked out better.  We will be in a location which enables us to explore New England at our leisure, something we have wanted to do ever since we hit the road nearly 6 years ago.  We will be paid $11/hour for all hours worked, and if we complete our contract we will receive a $1/hour bonus for every hour worked at the end of the season.  Now we must fight the temptation to get too far ahead of ourselves.......May, 2018 is still 7 months into the future......there is a lot on our plate before that time.  Nevertheless, we are happy to know we will finally be able to tour New England!

Tuesday was a very, very laid back day for us......we were off work, of course, so we slept in...... 

.....when I stepped out the front door I was greeted by 4 deer who had taken up residence on my artificial turf once again......my presence, of course, startled them, and they quickly made their way to another site.......

.......around 12:30 we began our drive over to Chico Hot Springs for one last soak.....on our way we changed things up, deciding to continue all the way to Livingston for a late lunch at Katabatic Brewing Company........after a brief 5-10 minute stop at a construction zone we arrived in Livingston around 1:30 pm.........

A signal controlled construction zone

.......Katabatic was relatively busy when we entered, but we were able to find a table and quickly ordered.  You may recall that they are directly next door to a good Mexican restaurant, so we ordered from them.....I had their Chile Relleño, and TLE had their Mexican Hot Dog......to chase those entrees we both ordered the Katabatic Scotch Ale, which is still the best of this title I have every sipped!  I love it when we make things up on the fly.....what a great lunch, and I am so happy we were able to visit Katabatic one more time before we depart.

On our way back north to Chico we stopped off at the RV park where we will be staying in just a week to check out the site they had reserved for us.....it is a long 65' pull through, which will be perfect for us.....we won't have to drop the trailer!

We arrived at Chico Hot Springs around 2:45 pm and were soaking in their hot pool within 10 minutes......we only stayed in the hot pool for an hour, but we emerged totally relaxed and refreshed.  On our way home we were stopped once again at the construction zone, but we didn't care......we had received our Maine job offer while eating at Katabatic, and we had just soaked in a hot mineral pool for an hour......no need to worry about a 10 minutes rest stop along the way!

We were home before 5 pm, and relaxing shortly after that......what a great day of pretty much doing nothing, but in the end so much was accomplished!  One more piece of good news......I was able to cancel my DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket without penalty, and received a full refund of what I had already paid.  Apparently DirecTV (AT&T) has decided that they don't want to be on the opposite side of millions of Americans who are fed up with the injection of politics into sports.  Normally, if you cancel in the midst of the season there is a penalty....usually you continue the monthly payments whether, or not you are watching.

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In My Life......

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8:27 am - Tuesday - Septmember 26th - 41º F, humidity 81%, wind 1 mph out of the southwest.......cloudy from horizon to horizon.....forecast high for this day is 52º F in Gardiner, MT, and in Mammoth Hot Springs, WY 51º F......no rain in this forecast.

Slept in Monday until almost 8 am.....I love slowly waking up as it gets lighter and lighter inside the Newell.....no sudden jolt of adrenaline caused by the sudden clanging of an alarm clock....it seems so much more natural to awake with this feeling of contentment which comes from a good night's sleep.  As I slowly reach a conscious state I reach across the bed to touch TLE, and the contentment I feels grows stronger.  We have a good life......a life being lived on our terms.  As each year of our nomadic existence passes slowly into the rear view mirror of life we find we are living more simply, and in doing so are learning to appreciate the small things in life that bring true contentment.  

There are no police, fire, or ambulance sirens waking us up night after night as was so often the case when we lived in our 'sticks and bricks' abode......in fact I do not believe I have heard a siren in the past 3+ months we have been living in Gardiner, MT.  There is no continuous hum of traffic in the background anymore.....just the occasional semi slipping into town riding its 'Jake' brake as it slowly decelerates to the local speed limit.  Sometimes it is so still and quiet my ears begin to 'ring' a little.  There is little ambient light at night enabling us to see the Milky Way and the trillions of stars that fill the night sky.  We see antelope, elk, rabbits, and deer on a daily basis in our campground and on our way to and from work each day.  We go to sleep at night to the sounds of the Yellowstone River as it makes its way slowly to ever lower elevations......I feel the breath of the night breezes on my cheek as I drift off to yet another peaceful night of sleep.  Yes, it is a good life......a life filled with like minded folks at each stop along the way.  Some become very good friends......some touch your soul in a profound way.....some teach you to look at the world in a new light.  All of those with whom I have worked this summer are now apart of the fabric which makes me who I am.....I am not the same person who arrived here on June 15th......I am all the richer for this experience.

Will we return to work in Yellowstone again?  I can't say right now.......there are new horizons still unexplored in this country that require our attention.  Will we return to Yellowstone again as visitors?  Absolutely.....there are still 900 miles of hiking trails which beckon us.....how can their call be ignored for long?

Within a very few days now we will be changing our view again........we will attend the wedding of our youngest, Tim, to his wonderful, beautiful, intelligent Laila.  The cycle of life continues unabated......weddings, new grand babies, birthdays, anniversaries, new vistas, new experiences.  Yes, it is a good life......it is our life.

"In My Life" by the Beatles

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Boycott.....

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8:22 am - Monday - September 25th - 29º F, humidity 95%, wind 1 mph out of the south southeast......clear BLUE skies.....forecast high for today is 50º F in Gardiner, Mt, and 49º F in Mammoth Hot Springs, WY......0% chance of rain.

Sunday was a very emotionally turbulent day for me.......if you have read my blog for any period of time you know that I love to watch both college and professional football.  Over the past couple of seasons a few NFL players began to protest during the National Anthem first by sitting during the anthem, then kneeling.  This practice escalated significantly this Sunday with, in some cases, entire teams refusing to stand for the National Anthem, and others remaining in the locker room until after the Anthem was finished.  I have become increasingly disturbed by this show of disrespect for our national symbols, which in my opinion, is entirely based on a false premise.  They have the Constitutional right to protest.....it's called 'Free Speech'......they do not have the right to be respected for their form of protest.  I was faced with a difficult decision......do I continue to watch, and therefore lend consent by my silence, or do I stop watching?  I wrestled with this decision the entire day at work, and by the end of the day decided I would also engage in my own form of protest.....I will no longer watch NFL games as long as this disgusting display of disrespect continues.   Politics continues to encroach into every aspect of our lives.....is there no corner of refuge from the political?  I cannot turn on ESPN anymore without being deluged with political opinions by the nattering nabobs foisting their politically correct opinions upon my soul.  I am boycotting ESPN, and I am boycotting the NFL.  When they decide to leave politics at the door of the studio and stadium I may return.....I don't know.....that is a decision for another day.  Until that day arrives I now have Sunday's free once again.

Our Sunday shift was the 'CLOSE' so, as is our custom, began our drive up the Gardiner River Gorge around 11 am arriving at the General Store around 11:15 am.  Including myself we had 4 workers in the fountain when we could probably have gotten by with 2, or even one for 99% of the shift.  I'm not complaining.....it is the nature of this time of year and the 8 am to 8 pm hours......once we begin our new store hours (9 am to 6 pm) and only work 4 days per week that, the over staffing, will disappear.  

There were brief flurries of activity during the day, but for the most part we, the 'Fountain' folk, spent our time talking about 'cabbages and kings' 95% of the time.  I spent my last 'CLOSE' shift working with Taylor.....we work well together, and when it comes to closing the 'Fountain' and doing the required cleaning we have it down to a science.  Once again it was 7:30  and I was saying good night to Taylor for the last time.  I had to wait about 30 minutes for TLE as her shift begins and ends after mine, but we were on our way home by 8 pm......not watching Sunday Night NFL, but the finale of Master Chef, which was won, deservedly by Dino.

We are off work the next three days, and we are awaiting a phone call from a possible employer at our exciting summer of 2018 destination.  They have read our resumes and want to talk to us......crossing our fingers that all goes well!

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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.

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Until the 12th of Never......

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8:06 am - Saturday - September 23rd - 31º F, humidity 90%, wind 2 mph out of the east southeast.......heavy, heavy cloud cover.....forecast high today for Gardiner, MT is 46º F, and in Mammoth Hot Springs, WY 44º F.

We awoke to a little snow on the ground and picnic table Friday morning.......the forecast indicated we would probably get snow in Gardiner overnight and we did.......

.......however, I was totally unprepared for what awaited us up the hill......

This happened minutes after we passed through.....photo by our friend Sandi Wescom.....that rock on the right is as big as a car!

......a winter wonderland.........

......no sooner had I parked the car and turned off the ignition than I began to think...."What if it keeps snowing......how am I going to get home?".  We arrived at the General Store around 10:15 am (shift began at 10:30 am) so I walked outside to get a few perspective pictures........

 The 'Grill/Restaurant'

 Directly across the street from the General Store

........then it was time to report to the 'Fountain' for my work day, which could hardly be called 'work'......the 'unbusy' trend continued Friday in spades.......I spent most of my shift talking with my friend Roscoe, and many other co-workers.......

 Sandi, Susan and Kathy....fellow cashiers

 Our zany co-workers (TLE managed to photo bomb)

......many 'selfie' pictures were being taken in anticipation of more people departing our ranks again.  It was Roscoe and Geni's last work day, too.  Our ranks are shrinking rapidly, and the bittersweet feeling of interrupted friendships hung heavy in the air.

Around 5:30 pm (an hour before our 'MID2' shift would end) we were released to go home early.....I was relieved to find our Beetle free of the snow we encountered 7 hours earlier.......

 By 5:30 pm the snow was mostly melted out of the employee parking lot

......I stopped briefly to take a picture of the Federal Courthouse which is the first building you see as you turn the corner into Mammoth Hot Springs proper.......

Mammoth Hot Springs Federal Courthouse

.......and there is also the original U.S. Post Office in Mammoth Hot Springs.....

.......the Medical Clinic........

......and the employee dormitories just to the left of the Courthouse.....

.......and then it was time to make the plunge back to Gardiner for the evening.....

  View looking down towards Gardiner, MT as we drove home Friday night

......we made arrangements to meet our very good friends, Roscoe, Geni and Dodge, at the Rusty Rail at 8:30 pm after they finished their 'CLOSE' shift......

 'Last call' at the Rusty Rail with Roscoe, Geni......

.....and Dodge (Kristen)

......we got a table, then ordered a bunch of appetizers and spent the next almost 4 hours reminiscing and laughing hysterically at times.  Every workamping experience we have had we have made some very special friends and Roscoe, Geni and Dodge (Kristen) are no exceptions.......we will love them "Until the 12th of Never"........

......of course there are many co-workers we will also miss terribly.......Bryan, Caitlin, Paul, Susan, Thomas, Sandi, Kristal, Patsy, Steven, Taylor, Peter, Anthony, A.J., Kathy, J.R., J.J., Chuck, Susan, Mark, Denise, Addie, Jonah, Ron, Richard, and Christina......you have all left your mark upon my soul, and if I had never met you I would be the poorer for it.  Our friend Thomas wrote this great blog post......'Don't You (Forget About Me)' which perfectly describes how we all feel about each other......please take time to ready this beautifully written piece!

So, until next time, or the 12th of Never........whichever comes first.........

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