Home on the Range

Well so far Doug has told you a lot about our adventures on our days off. This time, Lorraine is writing about everyday life here in the park. I know there’s some interest in the details about how all this works. Let me start by saying, anyone who is interested in working at Yellowstone should check it out online at www.yellowstonejobs.com.

In brief, we live in dormitories (older folks in separate dorms from the young party crowd) and married couples get the rooms with private baths. All our meals are provided at the Employee Dining Room and the food is plentiful and actually very good. We obviously don’t come here for the money, as we are paid minimum wage. Excuse me, I’M paid $7.25 an hour; Doug makes $7.75 an hour because he’s a “lead”! From that they take out $71 a week for our room and board. It’s not a bad deal. The real reason we’re all here, of course, is for the privilege of living in Yellowstone.

Life is very simple here. It’s a lot like summer camp. You wake up, put on your uniform, eat breakfast in the dining room and then go about your “activity of the day”, which for 5 days a week, is work. Everyone does work very hard here and for most of us that’s close to a 40 hour week.

But lest you should feel too sorry for us, did I mention that the sky is brilliant clear blue most every morning, temperatures can start out in the high forties and get up to the 70’s now during the day, breezes blow most days and the humidity is very low? Because of our latitude, we have more hours of sunlight, starting before 6am and extending until almost 10pm. Living among a herd of elk families has its own unique pleasures and meeting and working with people from all over the world everyday is fascinating. We don’t even miss the fact that we don’t have any televisions or stoplights.

But as for the pictures (and these are mine!), here goes:

1) Our dorm – we’re on the back side looking out on Mount Sepulcher.

2) Doug at work on the hot food line with his Thai sidekick, Indy.

3) The Employee Dining Room where an average of 700 meals are served each day.

Doug is the “Lead” on his shift and is quickly learning what all is involved in running a cafeteria – a lot!

4) Freddie and Clara, more new friends, from Georgia.

5) Lorraine at her cash register in the gift shop. I am learning what is involved in being a cashier, a lot, and even sold my first condoms the other day.

6) Lorraine and her sidekick, George, at their registers.

7) George and Jenny restocking the gift shop.

8) Main Street in Gardiner, MT, 5 miles down the hill from Mammoth. There’s not a whole lot more to this little western town than this and this main street looks pretty much like it did 45 years ago. The next closest town is 50 miles away.

9) Our pharmacy, which is a counter at the back of this little variety store. The current hangout for the younger crowd, The Blue Goose, is to the right.

10) Our grocery store which has everything we need, including wine and bourbon, but the doors don’t open automatically.

11) Our internet café where we spend some time almost everyday, doing the blog, paying bills, getting the latest “Grandbaby Jake” videos, etc. because, as they warned us before we came, internet service in the park is “flawed to non-existent”.

12) The Sawtooth Restaurant, a nice little place for lunch in downtown Gardiner.

13) The Two Bit Saloon and the Black Raven Restaurant, a good place to get a steak cooked and eaten outside.

14) The K Bar, one of our hangouts 45 years ago, still serves a great Reuben sandwich.

Till next time ... Happy Trails to all!
Lorraine