Disallusions, but what can you say?

It's been a while since I posted and several things have taken place since I did. Last time I was in here I was still in Henderson, Nevada at my brothers place and was about to head north to Yellowstone. So let's update, shall we?

Headed north and stopped off for the night in Salt Lake City to see my niece Bethany. She and her daughter Emma met me for breakfast and had a wonderful time. It was over all too soon as I needed to get back on the road and we parted ways. Bethany always gives me the best hugs ever, lol. You never doubt you are loved after one of those.

Heading north into ever increasing altitude began to take a toll on old you know who. After some 37 years at altitudes of no more than about 400 feet above sea level, at most, heading into thousands of feet was very telling. At first, not that bad, just noticeable as I found it harder to get enough air, lol.

I stopped in Bozeman, Montana for the night, at the Holiday Inn there, very interesting place, then the next morning headed to Gardiner, Montana, just outside the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. I was scheduled to check in with Xanterra, the company who hired me, the next morning so I stayed the night at the Best Western in Gardiner. I got there pretty early so I unhooked my trailer from the Jeep and spent the rest of the day riding around inside Yellowstone, or at least the Mammoth Hot Springs area. It was good to be back.

I checked in the next morning and got all my job materials, headed on into the park and got a room assignment and found out where I was supposed to report for training the next day. I also met my roommate. I did not win the roommate lottery. That's all we'll say about that for now, more to come later.

Yellowstone was beautiful, as if I need to say that. It is just unbelievable. There was snow on the ground when I arrived, then it went away, then it snowed again, then it went away, and even up to today, that has been the pattern. No snow yesterday, then we woke up to a nice layer of snow on everything this morning. I have taken a series of pictures that I am going to name, "So you think the weather changes a lot where you're from???? HA!". It is something else every day. But beautiful nonetheless.

Lots, and lots, and lots of animals. Bison on the lawn right outside the window of my room in the dorm. Elk along the roads, with antelope in the fields beyond. Mule deer wandering here and there, with Bighorn Sheep up on the sides of cliffs between Gardiner and Mammoth. And it's every day. All the time. When we come out of buildings we have to look around to ensure there are no bison nearby before heading on. I detoured around two of them on the way to breakfast this morning, lol. I've seen fox, coyotes, prairie dogs, marmots and a couple of unidentifiable small varmints here and there. So far, no wolves or bears, but I'm sure that's coming. Or would be.

I say, or would be, for only one reason, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to stay for the entire season as originally planned. It's great and wonderful to be here at this location, but it seems the company treats employees pretty poorly with the excuse, "But you get to live in Yellowstone" for any policy that is not to the best interest of the people. If this is what working for a large corporation is like, I'm glad I stuck with military and police work, which was by no means huggy feely, lol. So there's that.

In addition, the "greenies", or "Eco-Nazis" have taken over here big time. I don't mind recycling, that's fine, I'm able to go along with that, even to the extreme degree they are taking it, I can do that. I don't mind people having different opinions that I do about some eco-issues, I know that's going to happen, but my having a differing opinion is not acceptable to them. This is an extremely liberal crowd. An example: One of the other employees, a male about 25-27 was walking toward me from the cafeteria the other day and on his shirt it said, "I support the troops", which as I approached was kind of surprising to me as I'd seen NO such thing since I'd arrived. As I got closer I saw that the "troops" on his shirt were Imperial Storm Troopers and this was a very sideways insult since these particular troops were mindless clones supporting the evil empire who's Emperor was a megalomaniac and ruled through the use of the dark force. So, this is what I've said all along. Liberals do not really support the troops, they just pay lip service.

Anyway, that's a mild example of the constant ranting of these greenie goons. My roommate, for another example, has made the comment, several times, that people should just be killed off and turn the earth back over to the animals. Which, of course, my reply to him is, "Okay, you first." He never seems to think that is very funny for some reason.

So, between the food being just okay, the beds being uncomfortable, the hours being long, the altitude kicking my ass, still, after two weeks or so, I am seriously considering heading on out and finding something else. I will probably wait till the end of May when I had a built in break anyway for a trip I needed to take, but after that I may just not come back. I don't know yet. While the location is certainly worth much trouble to be in, I'm not sure it's worth this much trouble. If I get two months out of it I will consider it time well spent just to be up here enjoying the locale. I really do like this area, I'm just not fond of what I've found here. There may be other alternatives and I'm looking into them, so maybe I'll find a way to stay up here and also do so in a more enjoyable way.

We'll just have to wait and see.