Day 1

Hi, soooo it is actually day six in the Tetons, I arrived on August 14th, and did not get this blog going until today, so I am going to play a bit of catch up.  I went to work at the gift shop the day after I landed.

 I have been pretty busy since, work 8 hour days, 5 days a week with 2 days off.  Here are some pics on my walk to work the first day: 

This first week I have been getting my room organized, figuring things out, for instance it takes me 7 minutes to walk to work and from there 3 minutes to the employee dining, AND how can I easily get coffee in the morning?  Do I really want to get out of bed and trek 10 minutes to get coffee?  then 10 minutes back to sit and enjoy it?  Where can I get reception to make phone calls, (not in dorm room and not standing outside dorms.  Not at work, hard to find cellular service!  I did find one spot that works pretty good if I don't move around too much and that is out by the basketball courts, in the middle of all the dorms.  You can see the court off in the distance.

Another thing is when is a good time to take a shower (shared bathrooms) When is a good time to get your laundry done?  You know the important things we take for granted :0)  Anyway, my first day off is today, August 20th, so I went out and about exploring, picked up a map for hiking trails and took this pic of Jackson Lake.  

This is in Colter Bay where I work.  They had to close the Marina because the water is so low. Here is what is going on:  https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2021/07/water-woes-force-draw-down-jackson-lake-grand-teton-national-park

I did 3.25 miles checking out the area and decided to take a break, going to check out the corrals later and get supper.

Okay, now on to day one.  I got a new smart phone for the trip because I wanted to take pictures and have GPS.  I upgrade from a slide phone, yeah, I know, about time.  Still learning this new phone.  Lesson one learned -  Example:  when you pick your location from the options it gives you look at the full name.  I want to get from Spring Grove to the airport so put that in and Minneapolis Airport, all is good, all set to go. 

We are nearing the cities, I am driving and because my GPS was not "talking to me"  as I didn't know how to set it to that, Dugan was navigating by looking at the phone as we were going.  I know, no comments please, :0)  hahaha, All of a sudden there is the exit to the airport that we see on the road (not the phone) and I am not in the lane to go that way.  I said that's fine we will just keep following the way the phone is taking us, all is good.   

Where we end up=Minneapolis Airport Car Parking, not even close to airport, I didn't even see what my phone was telling me I had arrived at.  Pull over, reprogram (look at the whole name of the place you plug in to go to) and we are off.  Arrived at airport, yay!  Busier than busy, just to pull up and drop me off.  We kind of felt we had to say our good-byes quickly as so many people were trying to do the same thing, so said our good byes and kissy, kissed, and at the last minute I thought, I am going to grab that shirt of Dugan's in the back seat that he threw back there on the way up and take it with me:

Glad I did ❤ 

also brought this: 

The lines at the airport for checking bags were very long but made it on the plane with time to spare, flight was non eventful and arriving at the Jackson airport was good. 

 Waited at the airport for the GTLC (Grand Teton Lodge Company) shuttle to come pick me up for about an hour.  The driver's name is Rafe, he was a boat Captain at the Marina, but since that shut down he told me he is now a land Captain.  :0)  There was only one other gal on the shuttle with me and she was sound asleep, if we rounded a corner she rolled with the flow, sometimes almost tipping over, she wasn't laying down, I was wondering if she had over indulged, but when we got to the dorms, she got up and out, no problem.  Guess she was just very, very tired.

It is 5 p.m. when I arrive to see this: 

Rafe said he would drive me to employee dining so I could get supper (served from 5-6:30) and drive me back.  Which was very nice of him as I had no idea where to go.  Supper was very good, it was Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, veggies, nummy! 

He said they should be back at six as the sign says, so he dropped me off and I waited.  

6:00 p.m. doors open and I check in, and there is no record of a room for me.  The worker says, "are you staying in the RV campground?"  I said no and that I am supposed to have a room here.  He does some checking and somehow my stuff fell thru some cracks in the computer system, but I got my room and found out I would have no room mate which is a good thing :0) Here is the entrance to dorm:

  I would take a picture of my room but I have not fully organized yet, because my room was not cleaned before I got here, so need to clean the dressers and put stuff away.  

I got my bed made that evening, got a few things out to get ready for day 1 at work.  There were of course the new noises and sounds to deal with, but first night went just fine.