National Park Bum: Summer 2012

The Arrival

It’s been a long time since I have wrote, perhaps for the better or for the worse. A lot has gone through my mind and if I were to specify what may be going through it, it would be life. Time here in Yellowstone is summarized by one day being one week, one week being a month and one month being a year. This is the truest statement in my writing. I have been in Yellowstone for two months and 14 days and can say that it has felt like more than a year. I come from a town of 2,104 people last time I checked; you probably can add or subtract a few. The grape vine back home during high school traveled at the speed of sound…Here in Yellowstone it travels at the speed of light. A lot has happened to me while being here for an eternity.

On May 3^rd of 2012 I arrived with five others in a short bus to Mammoth Hot Springs. Our bus driver, Jim, is a tourist guide year round with a lot of knowledge of the park. While making are way from Bozeman’s Greyhound’s bus station to Gardiner Montana we were given a beautiful scene of what we were driving through. Jim introduced me to my first elk, bison, wild sheep and pronghorn. We arrived in the town of Gardiner where the Yellowstone National Park Human Resource office is located. All five of us walked in a single file line into this shady building that I believe has not been remodeled since the 1900’s. The building was of old factory style architecture to my opinion and had really old glass windows; from the outside, you couldn’t tell where the first story ended and the second story started. After my paperwork I stumbled upon one of the fellows who drove up with me who was talking with head of security. I casually smoked my cigarette and listened in about how some 38 year old guy had died from a sudden heart attack. They talked about how tragic it was and how great of a man he was. The deceased was the friendliest person in the park. He always made it his job to invite you into his life and tried to get to know you. I thought to myself that is how I wanted to be known in Yellowstone, pretty much like I’m known back home, friendly to all and no person left behind.

The ride from Gardiner is 5 miles which is equivalent to 10 minutes in a car or bus. As we took the road I was told about the boiling river. The boiling river runs into the Gardiner River which then meets up with the Yellowstone River. All that water eventually goes into the golf. During the winter times it is very soothing because it’s warm, obviously by the name. During the spring and summer the river runs high and is too dangerous so I have yet to venture into that part of Yellowstone.

Jim dropped off the other four because it was their second season. He proceeded to give me a full tour of Mammoth. The full tour consisted of driving from the entrance to the General Store turning right and heading back towards the entrance/exit to the personal office; two maybe three minutes. After all the boring stuff with personnel on the rules I got a ride from Jim to my new home, Juniper. Juniper is a two story 52 room dorm with 2-3 beds in a room. The men’s bathroom and shower room are downstairs and the girls are upstairs. Co-ed is available if the two are a registered couple…Don’t ask me what it takes to be a registered couple. According to a co-worker it requires stating that you want to share a room together and that’s good enough for the company. Whatever works, I guess.

I walk into my dorm with my man purse and two suitcases full of luggage looking for my room. At last! I found my room and open the door and a very potent and distinctive smell of body odor drifts from the door into my nose that makes me want to vomit. I see one roommate sleeping so I leave the lights off and drop off the luggage and go outside for a smoke. I met a bunch of people that I would be working with but couldn’t find my other roommate. I continued to meet new people and still no luck in finding the roommate. So after searching I think to myself, I probably should find my boss and check in. The head chef asks me if I have experience with breakfast at all. Knowing that I could have said yes with my past cooking experiences, I said no knowing the life style that I have lived for the past 5 years of waking up at 10am and working a noon to midnight shift. He said to show up at three the next day. I have the day off and decide to jump right into Yellowstone with some new friends.

We went hiking for about ¼ of a mile before a black bear strolls down the path we were trying to hike up. The other two people freak out about this black bear, which I think is the least fearsome of bears and I said not to panic. I try to get a couple of pictures before it wondered its way over. I would say we had to ford a river, but it was more of a slow moving creek that wasn’t more than three inches deep, it was more or less getting my Adidas wet on this hike in the wilderness. We ford the creek and now we had to hike up hill on an unmanned trail trying to keep a distance of 300 feet; I’m sure we kept a distance of 4-500 feet. Being that this was the first time I encountered a bear in the wilderness without bear spray, I didn’t feel like taking a chance. We climbed this wooded hill straight up and then made are way back keeping an eye on the bear. No matter how far we paralleled hiked it seemed like the bear was moving at the same pace. Finally there was a nice patch of green grass for the Black Bear to hunt in and let us get ahead down the mountain side. We made it to a bridge we had to cross earlier in the hike. Curiosity struck and the three of us ventured up the path a little to see what the bear was doing. We saw the bear creep on us so we crept down the mountain at a faster pace than the bear. After five minutes or so we felt we were out of danger and turned our back and walked back to Juniper.

The next day I get a knock on the door from the Food and Beverage Manager saying I needed to take some classes. I’m used to being up at 11 or Noon and this guy knocked on my door at 8:30am expecting me to be ready and awake. This is when I knew I would have a problem with this guy. You don’t poke a rooster to wake people up, the rooster wakes you. So after 3 or 4 hours of my classes about recycling in the park and sexual harassment, I am notified by a chef that I am now an A.M. Line Cook and have to be at work at 5:30A.M. I quickly respond and say thank you and I’ll see you in the morning. Guess who had a party in their dorm room until 3A.M., this guy. Needless to say the elevation got to me and I didn’t show up until about 6:15A.M. Thanks for a cool boss! I was still able to work and have no write-ups. You can also bet it was the second to last time that I drank before a morning shift. Ooops. I have been late twice since employment here but it takes a third time to get written up. Can you imagine me, MacKeag, to show up late for a 3P.M. shift? It happened near the middle of the season.

Joy Ride

It was late in the evening but the sun was still above the mountains and the Assistant Food and Beverage manager and another friend had asked me if I would like to go for a ride and see Yellowstone before the tourist take it over. After pondering about work the next day they assured me I would be back before 10pm so I went. They didn’t know much about me and vice versa so we had nice conversations on the way to our destinations about getting to know one and another. The first place we stopped was Swan Lake Flats. There we saw the American Buffalo and five ravens stalking the dead carcass of and animal that lost to a Grizzly. This was my first Grizzly sighting and we were quite a ways a way. We watched for about 5-10 minutes before the Grizzly took the carcass into the woods. Right off the bat I was thinking that this drive was a success and couldn’t get any better. We drove off to Sheep Eater Cliff.

Sheep Eater Cliff is a small cliff of no more than 50 feet high but is made of Square cubes. A sign in front of the cliff had this to say about the tribe of Indians that once roamed the area and the cliff itself.

This cliff was named for the Shoshone Indians who lived throughout this mountainous region. Their use of bighorn sheep earned them the name “Tukadika” or “Sheepeaters.” The cliff is basalt lava that formed “columnar Joints” when it cooled nearly 500,000 years ago.

There is a river nearby that we took a quick stroll by to admire the beauty of Yellowstone and then jumped back in the car to make our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. After 15 minutes of driving or so we ended up find a traffic jam but we weren’t angry about this traffic jam. We were sitting 40 feet from a big Grizzly who was searching for some bugs and eating some grass. It was the closest any of us have been to a Grizzly. We all stayed in the car unlike the tourists who were using their flashes on the cameras like idiots. I snapped a bunch of photos and took a video of this majestic beast. We broke free of the jam and were back on track to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

The car ride to GCY was about 90 minutes with the stops of the two grizzlies and the Sheep Eater Cliff. We drove down to the South Rim parking lot which was as empty as Wally World in National Lampoons Summer Vacation. We walked up the path and just before the sun ducked below the mountains I snapped as many photos of the waterfall and the Grand Canyon before my light disappeared. Surely enough we arrived back in Mammoth around 10PM so I could make it to work on time.

Time to Explore

It was an early morning for me, close to noon and after I ate my breakfast my buddy Patrick invited me to go on a hike with him and three others. Being so early in the season I was eager to jump into the park so I grabbed my camera and headed out to explore the park. We stayed near Mammoth due to some of the people having to work around 3PM.

The first stop was Wraith Falls. It had just opened up due to bear activity that occurs during the spring. The hike itself is ¼ mile with a dead end. As we followed the trail we passed a bull elk that was either dead or taking a nap and a marmot. As we crossed over a bridge we headed up a hill to a staircase. I thought that was quite nice to see but at the same time I think it took wilderness away. Wraith Falls to me looked like a very steep rock wall that had a massive amount of water flowing down it.

From Wraith Falls we headed out to the self-guided trail that was just up the road. The trail was a wooden board walk that would be in the middle of a land preserve so that you don’t damage the wild. On the walk were information boards that had something to say about what was in front of it whether it was a rock that came from a volcano many years ago or the skyline of the mountains in the backdrop. To the north of the trail was a fairly large hill; I am unaware of the name if it has one. We all agreed that we should hike up it. After 45 minutes of hiking up the steep vertical we were finally there. This exploration happened on the second day of being in the park and with the high view of seeing the plains; we all stared in silence. Two friends mediated while I snapped photos while the other two just looked and admired. The two things that stuck out the most besides the open miles of vast land were a marmot sunbathing on a rock and a cool looking dead tree hanging on the side of the edge. Once the mediators were done we walked back down the hill and headed back to Mammoth. On the way down there was a ledge that stuck out of the hill with a tree at the end that we all admired for a minute or two. Continuing on the way down my friend Ashley tripped over a rock and scrapped her leg and knee but laughed about it for quite some time. I didn’t know it then but I had three great friendships form out of this one quick trip.

The Fall of a Cook

Morning shifts were interesting. One hour to setup for breakfast, one hour to tear down breakfast and setup for lunch, and about an hour to prep for the next day and tear down lunch. I started on breakfast buffet which is the “vacation station” (meaning the easiest position) when I started. Quickly we found our weak link in the team and I was no longer on the vacation station; I was now flipping over easy eggs. With the vacation station out of reach work became stressful. I worked 5:30 in the morning to roughly 4 in the evening 5-6 days a week. The second week in, a co-worker decided to drink more than any person I know and called in on my days off. One day he managed to show up for work but did not wear the proper uniform and then decided to talk down to the sous chef. He was told to take a break and change into the correct uniform. Our breaks tend to last 32-40 minutes. After 45 minutes I made the sous chef aware of the situation and it turns out he took the day off. I’m pretty sure he was still drunk from the previous day. I can say that I learned how to flip eggs better than before, but don’t count on handing me the last two eggs and say over easy, they’ll probably turn out over hard. From the mornings I know how to make hollandaise from scratch; tiring on the arm. The other morning cook that wasn’t on vacation station was a very stressful person to work with. He and I were on the line for two maybe three weeks before we got another person to help us out. The new guy said that he never cooked before but the chefs and I believed that he was born for it. I showed him how to do everything once and he remembered how to do it after that without taking shortcuts or corners. So after he was trained up we finally received some days off and stopped working 6-12 days in a row.

The coworker I mentioned before that started when I did is a character. He has very few teeth and drank Redbull like it was water. He considered the cooking position a career for himself which in reality it was just a summer position. He believed that he was the best morning cook in the world because he had been doing it for so long. I thought he was a good cook and he could handle 5 tickets at once which I had a very poor time doing; but I did get better. I don’t think he can read. He pronounced names wrong all the time and sometimes they’re not even the correct name. He more or less guessed each name. For someone who is 38, he should have been able to tell the difference between ALAN and ASHLEY, KADE and KID and CARTER and CODY. When we would get in a busy rush he would freak out and not compose himself for someone that said they had been doing this job for 20 plus years. Prior to Yellowstone, he drove a taxi in Idaho. Where was the cooking experience in that? The meth in his trunk?

Before we received the cooking prodigy, I was worked the 6^th day in a row and had one day off before another 6 day work week. I was looked forward to it. On that 6^th day, three cooks got fired or had quit. So now the kitchen was short staffed and they asked a lot of people to pull through and work on their days off. When I agreed to this I had quite a few drinks in me and it was about nine at night when I said I would work at 8am. Eight came quite early and I went into work on the breakfast line. I sent the other cook on break and handled about 3-4 tickets in the half hour and the cook returned. During that half hour I had to read each ticket over and over again do to the fact that my brain was overworked, (I was not hung over). I had made up my mind that I couldn’t work that day and told my boss who cussed me out and said for me to go home. I got back to my room and changed into my civilian clothes and relaxed outside. The executive chef rolled into the kitchen and came back out 20 minutes later. He pulled his red truck up to me and waved me over. I was expecting to be cussed out maybe even written up. He asked me what my deal was and I explained to him that if I were to work today that I would have worked 13 days straight.

“MacK, you are a great cook and I don’t want to see you leave this season before your end date. Go tell the food and beverage manager I told you to enjoy your day off.”

Those words were encouraging and very nice to hear. Sure enough, I walked to the front of the house and waited for the F&B Manager to come over. I explained how I agreed to work the next day while I was under the influence of alcohol and that I could not work today because my brain was fried. Then I said, the executive chef told me to tell you that I should enjoy my day off. This manager was furious and puzzled for words and then exploded on me telling me that this was my one freebee and that if I were not at work on time tomorrow that I would be out of the park the next day. I was there 5 minutes early and worked a flawless shift. What did I do that day? I don’t know but it felt awesome knowing the executive chef had my back and I walked out of work and didn’t get in any trouble for it. People were shocked to hear that I didn’t get in trouble and I tell them when you work hard, it pays.

Lamar Valley

I drove out with my friends to see Lamar Valley. My friend went out a couple days prior to our drive and told me about the mass amount of Bison. He said there were 100’s out there and I could grasp the concept. In Mammoth we had one Bison that considered it his home and after a while we took that for granted until he was hazed out of town by the rangers because a tourist thought it was a good idea to get in petting distance with the wild animal. It was a sad day for the workers of Mammoth. He was our pet like the ducks that would show up every spring at my parent’s pool and have a little vacation.

As we hit Lamar the bison number’s started to show. After a few minutes of stop and go traffic as the bison would jay walk across the road I knew this was their home. We went on a small hike off trail up to a small cliff where the sun would sparkle off the river that flowed through. With the vast amount of space and the little amount of trees, it was paradise for Bison to graze.

We were about a half hour from Mammoth on our way back when a car in front of us was a slow creep with a hand pointing out the passenger window. We didn’t want to hold up traffic so we went a few hundred feet up the road and parked at a pullout and walked back towards the car. A medium size black bear appeared from the hill on the side of the road and started to sniff some cars that were stuck in traffic from the person we had passed. One friend decided to keep walking towards it before they got scared and turned around. We watched the bear go up to a couple cars and sniff them before it decided to cross the road and head up the hill side back into the woods.

Undying Falls

My friend asked if I wanted to go for a quick drive so we got another person and drove to Undying Falls which was about 10 minutes from Mammoth. Undying Falls can be hike or just a tourist hot spot during the summer due to the easy access. There is a massive pullout with parking spots on the side of the road for the sightseeing spot. We got out of the car walked over to the stairs and the lookout point was right there. I have no cool or interesting facts about it. Picture is to the right.

Bushwhacking VS Trail Hiking

The last two hikes I did were completely different from one another. I went hiking with three friends and we went bushwhacking on a 7 mile hike. We went with our instincts and where ever we looked that looked interesting we went. We saw a pronghorn but that was it. We started off in a parking lot and ended up finding Black Tail Plateau Road which was closed for cars and two miles away. It was bushwhacking at the best. Starting from one manmade object and hiking through uncharted territory to find another manmade object. When we found the road which was atop of the mountain the view was rewarding knowing that the only people who were to see had to take a car. We followed the road south for a bit and decided to climb up a hill (mountain side). The slope of the hill was at least 60 degrees and we were on all fours climbing up the side. When we reached the top we learned there were more hills to climb but the view from the bottom was still rewarding. We thought to ourselves, if we climb to the top how much better could it be from another 200 foot climb? At last, we were at the top of that hill only to find the view better and another hill to climb. To that hill we climbed. The view continued to grow as well as the mountain. Did the mountain have a top? We found it 30 minutes later after passing a natural pond surrounded by trees. After the group photo in front of the pond we headed to the top. The top of the mountain reminded me of the scene in The Lion King where Simba is held over the cliff above the animal kingdom. We hiked our way up there and the reward was breath taking; now the excitement of finding our way back home. We started down the mountain and went to the North. The downhill climb was considerably easier than the way up, obviously. We were at the top of a ravine that we noticed before and knew we were going the right way. I thought to myself we should just go back the way we went but the group decided to fully bushwhack and explore some more. Good choice. We came in to some heavy woods followed by what I considered a cliff or a dead end. The hill we chose to go down was 65 degrees at best and for about 150 feet one wrong footing could have sent one of us into a tumble that would result in horror. We heard cars and headed for that sound and arrived back to the parking lot. To sum it up it was a great experience with great friends with tremendous views that you may have seen in my photos.

The hike after bushwhacking I went on was rushed. We had a certain time we had to be back and we followed a trail. The hike up with the three fit people was quick. I felt like if they went on the bushwhacking expo we could have done it in half the time. The thing with trails is there isn’t natural beauty in it until the top, to my opinion. Everyone has seen it and everyone rushes to the grand view. With the bushwhacking, every view is the grand view until the next one. We made our way up Bunson Peak in an hour, a two mile hike that elevates 1500 feet from beginning to end. The view was great but the adventure to it was all work, rushed and no play. There was a snowcap on top of the mountain. I thought to myself, how do I get down? Shall I walk or shall I sled? I have a video. It wasn’t pretty. I started with a run and jump, its snow, it’s soft…Oooops. So if the snow was even it would have worked out. It wasn’t. It was kind of like a triangle. You go too far left or right you could be calling yourself an idiot. I’m an idiot. So, run, jump, slide, rocks! I have it on video. It brought a lot of laughs. I think trails are just a way for people to enjoy the big things in life. I don’t like to follow in footsteps in life or in nature and I that’s why I enjoy life and bushwhacking more than others. Perhaps hiking with different people or not have a time frame could make a difference.

Above: The top of Bunson Peak looking east towards Swan Lake Flats.

The Hoodoos

Early in the afternoon I went with two friends to get away from Mammoth so we hopped in my friend’s car and went south of Mammoth to the Hoodoos. As my two friends colored, talked and listened to music I took time to adventure the fascinating rock formation. At one time the Hoodoos were part of Terrace Mountain but the hot spring dried up and a landslide occurred causing the side of the mountain to fall and form unique shapes with large boulders. With the boulders that fell, it created the largest jungle gym for adults to my opinion. Most rocks are too big to move but some of the smaller ones were on a tilt.

The Week of Turning 25

The work schedule goes from Thursday to Wednesday. My birthday was on Friday, June 22^nd. My regular days off were Tuesday and Wednesday. I requested Saturday and Sunday off for my birthday and it just so happened to work out that I received Thursday off as replacements had come in for people that were about to leave for the season. Sweet! I did nothing on Tuesday but Wednesday I did a hike with three people and ended up sliding down a mountain. You read about that earlier. After the hike I borrowed a car and drove around the park with Kelsey and Dylan. We saw the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which is still very outstanding to witness. Not just for the size of the Canyon but also from the sound of the water falling and crashing into the river below. So after that we headed back to Mammoth for dinner and got ready for a camping trip. We all headed out to the east side of Jardine in three cars.

The east side of Jardine is a very rough road where you would like a car with high clearance and four wheel drive. We had one truck and two cars. One car was more successful than the other. The car that I was not in bottomed out twice and got stuck once. After the car got stuck we continued to go a little further up the road and decided that this was as far as the cars could make it.

We set up camp, opened some beers and got the fire going. My friend Kent has a large camping flat pan to cook in. He heated the pan up and put some jalapeños with some Dr. Pepper in and soon later through some brats and hotdogs in. Dr. Pepper has some surprisingly great taste to it once it reduces and caramelizes. The next day was for recovery due to the fact that I was going whitewater rafting for my birthday.

YSP has a recreational department that will plan trips that are available at a large discount for employees. They also supply transportation to and from the location that is included in the price. As for food for these trips, employees can grab sack lunches as long as they are preordered the day before at the Employee Dining Room. The day came early and the van was packed. My friend Chris was head of the Recreational Department who drove, and then Jess, Carter and Melissa were with us as well. The downside of the recreational department is that sometimes there are people in the trip that you don’t want to hang out with; goes with the price I get. My coworker, Steve, who worked the vacation station during breakfast was a part of the trip as well…

We get to the rafting location and put wet suits on because the water was way too cold. Everyone got in line and then received a vest and helmet. Everyone but myself received helmets with great padding; mine was plastic with what seemed to be paper as padding, I went with it. It was my special helmet for a special day. After the long safety talk we all got our raft guides who put us in the rafting positions. Since I was a “big strong guy” I was put on the front left with my friend Chris who was to the right of me. Behind me was Jess and to the right of her was Steve. There were two unknown men behind them followed my friends Carter and Melissa with the guide in the middle directing the boat. I found out days later, but Melissa and Carter had a big part in my rafting experience.

As we made our way down the river there were class two and three rapids for us. I was splashed a lot more than Chris do to the girls giving orders to the raft guide on which side to hit. Needless to say after twenty minutes, my man part felt no longer existent, Chris felt the same way but a little later. After about an hour we made it to a bank and took a break…While we were on the bank we were informed that the rapid ahead of us was a class four and right next to a rock. The raft guide, the owner, informed us how to take this rapid on and sure enough, we conquered it. The rapids began to thin out and get smaller as the river continued but there was one more rapid for us to hit. For once, I planned my next move and decided not to paddle as much as everyone else and as the bow of the boat went down I leaned to the far left and the water shot right over me soaking Jess who had one of the biggest coldest smiles on her face. The crew on the raft continued to laugh as she just sat that shivering and wondered what just happened.

Throughout the whole trip, Steve would point out every rock that seemed dangerous to him. It got rather annoying so I mentioned something in the middle to him. After that he continued to say “ROCK” but chuckled every time thinking it was funny. So finally at towards the end of the experience we had one final rapid to go over and Steve didn’t say a word. We hit the rock. He didn’t live that down for quite some time. After we got back we had some food and headed back to Mammoth. I slept for about an hour and a half and woke up as we were making it up Gardiner Road just outside Mammoth. We headed to the dorms and took showers and got ready for the final part of my birthday, another camping trip.

West side Jardine is one of my favorite places to camp. They have two different sites that you can pull your car into and setup right there. It may only be 15 miles from Mammoth but it’s far away from Yellowstone and so remote that no one knows that it’s free camping. Sure there’s no hiking involved but really it’s more about hanging and grilling out and forgetting that work is down the road and having a good time. Ten friends made it out to the camp area and we all had a really great time. We stayed at Bear Creek which has a nice river that flows about 30 feet from the site which creates a nice tranquil sound to fall asleep to; until you have to use the bathroom. I was lucky enough to have a summer birthday in a seasonal job where within a month and half I had great friends to celebrate such an unforgettable day.

Promoted

When I got back from my birthday vacation I was promoted to the night line where things were different from the morning shift. When you’re part of the morning line you cook eggs and for lunch you make parmesan sandwiches with burgers and chicken that are cooked ahead of time. No skill is needed to work that shift, just patience and making orders on time. When you’re part of the night crew you need some skills and more patience than that of the morning line. Also you don’t have to do as much prep on the nightline, we have prep cooks for that. We have four stations; sauté, flat top, broiler and the wheel. Each section has some pros and cons.

Flat top is the vacation station by far. You cook Trout Parmesans, Tilapia, Bison Burgers, Trout Tacos and Rice and Corn cakes. You help where you’re needed. Broiler to my opinion is the hardest/least favorite. The station cooks burgers and bison steaks to order, kid burgers, pizza, chicken, lasagna rollups, artichoke dips, meatballs and prime rib. In sauté you cook Farfalle and Linguini to order, Tai Curry Muscles, Coconut Chicken, hot wings, chicken tenders, and junior pastas. The wheel yells off the order to the other three stations and makes bison tacos. As well as yelling the order, he plates up all orders and garnishes them while regulating the night. Each station may have 50-100 plates come out of their section but the wheel will see 150-300 plates inspecting each one and makes sure that the wait staff picks up the order in time.

I started off on flat top like any newbie. I branched to sauté, and worked the broiler three times before asking not to be put on it again unless a shift needed to be filled. I worked the line for two or three weeks before trying the wheel. I’m a big fan of the wheel. A good wheel is someone who is organized and detailed in a fast paced environment. I’m not the best by far but I’m making my way there. The key to my success in the cooking industry or any position relies on two things. Not trying to be better than anyone other than you. Secondly, work as if every customer is a VIP or if the boss is looking over your shoulder. I may not be the best but I’m considered a hard worker who knows what I’m doing.

On Tuesday July 24^th it was Tour Bus Tuesday. The night started off slow but 5:30 hit and the tickets started to roll in. Sure enough, the F&B Manager ran to the kitchen to announce a tour bus had arrived. The four of us looked at each other and yelled some sort of battle cry as if we were going to go to war to pump ourselves up. A wait had started at 7pm and another tour bus arrived. The hotel was at 100% and we continued to knock plates into the window and continued to roll more plates out. It was 10:20 and we were done. 302 plates were served and the longest ticket time was 25 minutes. Guess who worked wheel. Me. It was a good night.

As far as people that I work with go; the nightline is more enjoyable. The nightline is filled with young energetic guys. The age range is 21-35 as to where the morning was a 25 year old and a 45 year old. There are more people on the nightline to work with who understand the meaning of teamwork and that it’s a summer job. The nigh crew has the same interests as myself and can read and speak proper English. I work with my friends and that’s pretty cool.

Days off are okay but I would get so drained from work that I wouldn’t have any energy to go on a hike. I would go camping and enjoy the night sky outside of YNP. Back home I would work far away from work whether it was five minutes or a half hour, but here I worked and slept seven days a week; keep in mind that a standard work week was 48 hours. When I would have a weekend off in Wisconsin or whatever state I lived in, I tended to just stay at home and tried to enjoy it but here I needed to escape the work area in fear of being called in for some reason. Sure I had the right to say no but it was all about team work. If I wasn’t around I couldn’t feel guilty for not knowing.

Abandoned Cars

On the west side of Jardine is an old mine and rock quarry. The mine was shut down 15-20 years ago due to the miners using arsenic to pull the gold and silver out and washing it into the eco system near YSP. As for the rock quarry I am unaware of the reasons that it has been abandoned. We went camping up there once when the fire alert was near high so we used the rock quarry as a preventive measure with little grass nearby. My friend brought his and another friends guns’ up to the quarry where we shot them far away from civilization. Down the road was odd site. There were abandoned cars from the 50’s along with a new car that were just dropped off in a ravine. There were also some kitchen appliances as well. As far as fire arms went, we had two 9mm, two 12 gauge shotguns and a 1937 sniper rifle. Seeing that the only firearm that I had fired prior to this was in Boy Scouts and I had to shove gun powder down the barrel of a musket; I was looking forward to shooting some real guns. There weren’t any real targets besides the side of a mountain but it was fun none the less. The next morning we ate breakfast at The Two Bit in Gardiner and went back up to the quarry to finish the rounds off. This time we went to an open field and put a cooking pan just smaller than a hubcap on top of a rock and went up the hill about 200 yards away. We each had five shots and took turns shooting once and passing. Kent made two of five shots and I came in second with 1 of 5 shots. Others were close but there were no contenders for third.

The Return of MacK

Early in the season I got caught giving a beer to a minor, which led to a $250 ticket, one year non-supervised probation and getting kicked out of the employee pub for the rest of the season. I really didn’t mind too much because I worked mornings and it saved me money. I was promoted after my birthday to the nightline and started to do some real cooking.

It was a rough week. I had been on the night line for about a month and the thing to do after work is go watch cable and kick back a couple at the pub. For days straight people would ask me sarcastically if I would like a beer at the pub and then laugh a little. I would come up with some good comebacks on smooth days.

I was getting ready for work one day and I heard a knock. I put my clothes on and open the door to where the head of HR was waiting for me. He handed me a new employee card.

“I have only seen this done one other time since my employment here 15 some years ago. Don’t blow it.” Then he left. I held the card in my hand and was speechless. Just a week before I was down at HR fighting for this day and it sounded to me that they just didn’t care. So I stopped fighting and then, BAM! I was allowed back in the pub. To this day I still have not given a beer to a minor on company property. When the door shut I stood and thought for seconds, looked at myself in the mirror and looked to the card, mirror, card, mirror, card and then I did a Tiger Woods hand victory. I went outside for a victory cigarette and told some people. I finished changing and went to work. (When I say finish changing, I didn’t answer the door naked nor did I have a cigarette naked…I had pants and a shirt on). While swiping my number in on the clock I looked around with a smile waiting for a coworker to just ask me what I’m doing after work. I proceeded to wash my hands and saw the coworkers prepping the line for the night. While drying my hands I couldn’t handle the news anymore and ask what they were doing. One replied with going to the pub and I responded with can you buy me a beer. Someday I’ll buy you a beer he said; it happened to be that night.

Adventures

My friends, Chris and Sam, and I took Chris’s car out for a stroll on a nice sunny day to go explore, hike and maybe find some trouble. Okay, not trouble, some decent wildlife was what we were hoping for. We headed south towards Old Faithful and saw a nice little parking lot on the side of the road and decided to see what was in store for us there.

The trail was only 2.5 miles in so we figured 5 miles wouldn’t be so bad. This was another new adventure for me being that I haven’t hiked with these two before so I was unaware of the pace that they would have and what they stopped for. It turns out that we were all on the same page with enjoying the little things on this hike so we stopped and Identified mushrooms, chipmunks, bugs and a lot of wild flowers.

The trail started off in the woods and would open up in to some brush and then head back into the woods. The trail ended at Riddle Lake which was filled with many lily pads. We were warned about a large bull elk by fellow hikers heading back to the parking lot. One thing I like about Yellowstone is the surprise. With the vast amount of land that is not covered by road, you really have to explore for the true wilderness. I have traveled the road that leads to the parking lot plenty of times but never assumed that a lake would be a couple miles away.

On the walk back I was ahead of Sam and Chris and one yelled for me. I turned around and my friend Chris said that Sam was going to eat an ant. He got an ant to crawl up a stick and as he lifted the stick to his mouth, the ant escaped its doom by jumping off. Sam thought that it wasn’t meant to be and we continued the walk back to the car.

At the time, Chris owned a Chrysler Le Baron which is a soft top convertible. We were about a mile from the car when thunder had started to become a worry. The wind had picked up a little bit and little drops of rain would fall. The whole time I was waiting for a downpour because Chris left the top down. No worries. We got back to the car before any major rainfall would happen. In the beginning of the season we were warned about the weather. We were told that if we were going to go hiking to plan for summer, winter and everything in between for weather. That hike was easy so we were not too worried about weather changes but there are hikes that change in elevation, and when that happens, the change in temperature likes to drop.

From Riddle Lake we head to the south entrance of the park and look for Moose Falls. We left the park and asked a gas station for directions and found that Moose Falls was in YSP. So we turned around and found the parking lot and headed down a slight hill to see the falls.

I was told that Moose Falls was this amazing waterfall that has a great swimming hole and that I would really appreciate it. The waterfall was about 20 feet high and had a nice little pool of water where it would fall into. The water would clash on top of a boulder and throw the water back against the wall and then slowly empty 40 feet away in a 3 foot water fall. It sounds nice and amazing but wasn’t all that. The three of went in and swam behind the water fall.

I swam in after Sam and touched the wall behind the fall for guidance. The water would slam on top of me creating a nice stress relieving feeling but when I touched the wall I felt my fingertips go numb. I shook it off and continued to enjoy the sound of the water and ended up sitting on a rock behind the fall. I looked at my hands and they looked bruised. With touching the wall and the fingertips going numb, I figured that this was not my place and swam out and took some pictures while Sam and Chris swam around and explored the area. 20 minutes later we headed our way back to Mammoth with some stops along the way.

West Thumb Geyser Basin was our next destination. We got and walked on the boardwalk and did a nice loop. Within minutes of looking at the first hot spring a deer was off in the distance enjoying its stroll through the basin. The basin was right on Yellowstone Lake and the boardwalk went right over the beach. There were hot springs on the shore which was just a weird and strange look. The picture posted is of one of the springs looking east. Behind me to the west is land filled with a large hot spring followed by smaller ones like the one in the picture but on land. This was the first time for me to see a hot spring that was surrounded by water. Throughout the whole season, all the springs I saw were above so I never really thought about seeing one in water. It really just blew my mind. Besides all of the hot springs, there was one other little thing that made the three of us laugh. We know birds like hot springs because it’s like a large birdbath without the controlled heat. There was a duck that kept its head down in the hot spring and we continued to watch it for a minute or two before its head came up. We all thought it was dead but realized it was just enjoying its bath.

While we were on Lake Yellowstone, we headed towards Lake. We were going to go to the employee pub and grab some food but just picked up dinner at the general store. We all agreed that their food was horrible for the price and to never eat at the general store again. After our snack we walked out of the general store to see that it was a perfect time for a sunset on the enormous lake. We enjoyed that before heading back to Mammoth. On the way back we managed to see a bison cross a river. To see a 2000 pound mammal swim is quite a sight. It’s like a dog in the sense that they keep their nose above the water and “doggy paddle” towards the other side. The big difference is the sound that the bison created was loud enough to hear from about 75 yards away.

The next day my roommate Jody and my friend Carter borrowed Chris’s car and went towards Old Faithful. We had lunch there and headed towards a secret swimming hole that Jody knew of when he worked there 10 years ago. We went to a parking lot that was open for hikers and bikers. We walked down the path for a while and took a left to where a path seemed to have been. We continued on this path and then it just disappeared. Jody claimed he knew where he was going so we continued to follow. A little ways down we were within 5 feet of a mud pot. The whole was about four or five feet deep and there was muddy water that was so hot that it would just boil, make bubbles and pop at a fast rate. It sounded like listing to a hungry man with a stethoscope.

After 10 minutes of walking, there was a river on our right with a vast amount of land to the left covered in hot springs. Across and down the river were a couple of hot springs that were so hot that steam would be coming from them. They were in the distance and looked like smoke vents from a factory. This was the first time Yellowstone didn’t look like actual modern day earth, not saying the things I have described do but with the amount of hot springs, the sparse amount of trees and grass, I felt like I was in the live action Flintstones movie.

I’m not one for knowing laws all that well, but I believe the law states that you are not allowed to be in a hot spring by its self, and that there has to be a fresh water source running into the hot spring in order to enjoy the spring. Either way, we stayed next to where the river met the hot spring. Jody went in, Brandon forgot his swimming trunks and I just enjoyed the scenery.

“Nothing like a bunch of dudes by themselves in a hot spring”-Jody

After Jody was done relaxing we continued to hike carefully making sure where to step. Known fact, the earth around the springs can be brittle and collapse with enough weight applied to the earth. With that being said Jody led the group and I watched where he stepped followed by Brandon. The amount of springs that we saw in this one area was outrageous. It was also very nice to witness due to the fact that we were the only ones out there. It was nice and remote and not a single tourist was in sight.

After the hot springs we headed to the Grand Prismatic. The temperature started to cool down and the looks of rain were in the distance. We got out of the Le Baron and headed up the ramp to the colorful spring. As we walked up the wind started to gain speed and the temperature continued to drop. When you see the Grand Prismatic driving from a distance all you can see is the steam that it produces. I can say the visibility and smell that day of the spring were not the greatest but the wind helped a little bit. There was an Asian woman who had a 15 foot pole attached to her camera with a remote to take pictures. I can only assume that her pictures turned out better than mine. Behind the spring is a small little mountain that according to Jody was the best spot to witness the largest hot spring in the world. That adventure was saved for another day. The Grand Prismatic was not the only hot spring on the boardwalk; there were some small hot springs and the Excelsior Geyser Crater.

We left the springs and headed back to Mammoth. As the road went downhill and curved to left a sign pointed to the left stating a 6 mile scenic drive was ahead. With a quick vote we made a left hand turn into Fire Hole Canyon. It was a one way road that was steadily up hill. To the left was the side of the canyon that varied in hills and cliffs, to the right was the river with a straight vertical mountain side that lingered over. We made three stops to witness the waterfalls that it had to offer. The falls were nice but were in no way swimmable. The canyon does offer a swimming hole near the end of the drive but we were on time restraints with the sun going down.

No I’m not a werewolf; I don’t like driving at night in cars. There was a time I drove a friend to Old Faithful and hung out for the day and started to drive back around 8 or 9 at night. The road had a lot of curves and a bison was in the middle of the lane. By the time I saw the dark haired creature in my headlights, my James Bond skills and for a brief moment I stared in the bison’s eye witnessing my life being spared. From that day on I try to drive while the sun is up for the safety of myself and for nature; mainly myself.

The last adventure occurred with Jody and Sam and we ended up picking up a hitchhiker. He happened to be from Delevan and just got fired for drinking too much. From there we went to Lamar Valley and headed to the North East entrance. Out there was Mt. Thunderer, (spelling is correct…), and went down a trail in front of Barronette Mountain. Down the hill was a river that was very low so we walked around there to see if there was anything cool. We went back towards Mammoth for dinner and headed over to Steam Boat Geyser in Norris. If you ever find a map and look at the places we went on each separate day minus the first, you’ll see that a lot of area is covered in one day.

The Boiling Picture

In July I went to go see a movie that I actually had to pay for. I saw The Dark Knight Rises with three of my friends. We had to travel an hour and a half to watch the movie but it was worth it. I had some real fake food from Wendy’s and Tacobell, I passed on popcorn and soda. I have never felt so afraid watching a movie. 24 hours before I saw the movie 70 people were shot at watching the same flick in what is now called the worst massacre in U.S. history. So not only did the voice of Baine scare me, the fact that I just didn’t feel safe watching the movie added to it for good or for bad, I don’t know. Minus the fact I thought I was going to be shot at, keep in mind I have flown after 9/11 and never had a problem, I’m not sure what my head was thinking. Needless to say I lived and enjoyed being scared at the movies. The next day was enjoyable. I started by not doing anything and was invited by a friend to go to the Boiling River.

The Boiling River is a hot spring that flows underground for some amount of mileage and comes out and connects with the Gardiner River which then meets the Yellowstone River. The Gardiner River pours over a manmade rock wall and merges with the Boiling River creating a very nice and enjoyable time. The temperature ranges from 70 to 115 degrees; like one giant Jacuzzi. The most enjoyable part was with the current. The depth of swimming/relaxing was about two to three feet. So you would just sit down and let the current bring the hot and cold water to you. The current was weak that day according to others but I think it was still pretty strong. We hung out there for three or four hours and called it a day.

Bushwhacking 2

My friend and I planned a hiking trip since we had the same day off. It ended up being four of us like the time before and went just outside of Mammoth. When I woke up that day I was asked to come in to work and said that I already had plans and told Rob, Nick, and Kaylee that we had to book out of here before one us get called in. We went to Swan Lake Flats which was about a mile or two from Mammoth and parked the car.

We started off on a trail that if followed, would go through the Hoodoos but we ventured off trail and went above the Hoodoos. Through the woods we went up the hill and entered a dense pine forest. The trees were about 7 to 8 feet tall and reminded me of healthy Christmas trees. As we neared the edge of the trees the wind started to pick up and we were about 10 feet from the cliff that over looked the Hoodoos. One wrong step would have let us to a fatal end but we were successful.

We climbed out to a rock peninsula and hung out for a bit taking the scenic view in. From above we could see a couple hikers going on the regular trail. Rob whistled out to them and they looked for a moment or two and then saw us waving. It was our way of saying, “Way to take the low road”. The cliff was just the start of the scene that we would see. We headed back to through the pines and into the open woods and made our way north following the ridge.

As we walked we came up to the higher part of Terrace Mountain. The initial hike to this point was up hill gradually but then we hit THE mountain. It was a good 45 degree angle up for about 2-300 feet. Once we on top of that the rest was downhill. The mountain ridge at the max height was about 1/5 mile long. On top there were cracks and openings that looked like they could have been made from the landslide. It seemed like a natural gutter for the mountain to my view. As the cliff came to an end and the mountainside started to look more like a hill, we took a final moment to breath it all in. We looked out and there was a tree that was just a little taller than us. If we had nine lives one of us would have taken a running jump and latch on to the tree and shimmy our way down. None of us were Jackie Chan so we continued down the mountain side.

This side of the mountain was much steeper than I expected and we all walked down sideways do to that fact. This side of the mountain was filled with trees and we used those to our advantage on climbing down. The weather started off sunny like most hikes I have had but once again changed to a dark rumble in the sky. Just like the rest of America, Yellowstone had a very dry summer. With that being said the bugs in the woods were rather hungry. We managed to keep a good pace but we were still bit for part of the hike.

We continued hiking in the one direction thinking we knew where we were going but couldn’t quite tell if we were going northwest, north, or northeast by a couple degrees but we figured we would run into a real trail and get our bearings when we got to that point. We followed some animal trails and found one of the trails. We all agreed that this was going to be a bushwhacking adventure and crossed that path without looking back.

We ended up climbing over some pretty big downed trees and climbing up the side of another mountain. We were on the curve of the mountain that had an opening and looked in the distance. Below us was Mammoth Hot Springs so we knew exactly where we were. We continued north and were looking for a creek/river. Once we found that we would cross it and head east because it flows east towards Mammoth.

While on the search for the river we went through more woods and found a nice size field of grass. The blades of the tall grass were all bent down in small circles and we concluded that elk have been here using this as a place to sleep and or eat. During our investigation of the grass we found elk bones upon elk bones and then thought this could be a bear’s restaurant. Being in the wooded area we drew our bear mace and continued on our hike. Another 10 minutes of hiking we saw more bones that were as old as the others. Up ahead was the creek we were looking for and the three crossed upstream but I went downstream and took some pictures and then crossed. As I emerged from the hill I looked out to find no one.

I walked in the general direction and my buddy Nick came back looking for me. I had to explain that I wasn’t in a rush and I was looking for some pictures to take. We caught up with Rob and Kaylee and fount the path of Beaver Ponds. They went off trail and said they were going to come out behind the dorms but I followed the path back to the Hot Springs.

This Bushwhacking experience was just as good as the first time. The ups were that it was up hill for only a small amount of distance and then downhill. The views were not as impressive but none the less, each view has its perks. All in all, a hike with good friends and good conversation without getting mauled by an animal is always a good time in Yellowstone.

Demoted

The season was filled with some great times and some horrible times. The horrible memory is when I was demoted. There was a decline in staff as two line cooks left the line. The two cooks left without notice and left the team working 6 to 10 days in a row. During that time the Chefs were looking for someone to fill the spots. We had a promising culinary student move onto the line and he did a great job. Unfortunately his second day on sauté was a bad day. I was calling tickets and he was not properly trained in the area due to poor management. The man working on the flat top had been on that position for 80% of the summer due to not being able to cook. Since he was so good at flat top, they decided to train a Polish kid with poor English that same day. Meanwhile on the broiler was a man who had good days and bad; it was a bad day. Tickets started to come in and I would ramble them off like an auctioneer but in a tone that could be understood. Sure enough orders were missed and long ticket times were coming in. I yelled for the Chef to help out on the line and she came by and took the wheel. The rush was over and we began to clean and stock up before the next rush of tickets. So tickets came in and I wanted to make sure that what I was saying was being heard by everyone. I asked for a “heard” and no one responded. The flattop had four or five orders but they were only cooking three. I turned around and asked what the hell is going on and the two looked at me like I was crazy. I repeated their orders and it was like looking at a stoned deer in headlights. I knew that the night was not going to go well and told my boss that I couldn’t handle work today and that I was sorry. She told me to go home and the head chef knocked at my door and asked what the problem was. I was sitting on my bed with my hands over my head stressed out and replied that I had too much going on today and it was personal. He said that he hoped that it would sort itself out and that he’ll see me tomorrow and I nodded.

The next day I walked in and asked if I could explain what the problem was and I was told to go to work. So right there put me in a bad mood for the first part of my shift. I had the line set up and everything was perfect before I went on my dinner break. I came back in and put food in the oven and have everything ready to go and then I was called in the office. I was given a pink slip and told to report back at 3pm tomorrow for my new position to be determined by the head chef. Sure enough I go in at 3pm and the chef had no idea about the removal of my position and was even more pissed about it than I was. He had a talk with the F&B manager and sous chef and told me that I would be in dish pit for two weeks. On the third week fires started to hit Yellowstone and now for the first part of my shift I would cook for 35-60 firefighters, clean up and go to my dinner break. I did that for about two or three weeks. When I would come back from my breaks they would have me prep up the specials for the dining room for the next day. I may have been making minimum wage but I learned a lot more being in dish than being a robot on a cooking line; I also did half the work.

September came around and another line cook quit on the spot. Too late in the season to hire someone else and the only place that was overstaffed was dish pit. I stepped back on the line and ran everything smoothly for the next five weeks; the third day of cooking I was put back in position.

Let’s Go Backpacking, It’ll Be Fun They Said

I experienced my first backpacking trip of my life. It was the last week of August and Craig asked what my plans were for the next two days. Turns out I had the days off and went with him and a couple of his buddies from around the park to Hell Roaring Creek. The name is scarier than what it entailed. We started high up and worked our way down the side of a mountain. We were still pretty high as the water below us was about 100 to 200 feet down. We eventually had to cross a river but that was for a ways. The total trip to the campsite was 6 miles in. The first mile was really easy due to being all downhill and in the shade. At the second mile we had to cross a suspension bridge. The view and sound of the river was roaring. Hence the name I guess.

After the bridge we made our way up a slight hill through some wooded area. The easy part was done. After the woods we made into the plains and valley. No trees were insight; just sage brush. We hiked for another mile or so and made it the Hell Roaring River which was had the max depth of 3-4 feet. Craig crossed first, then myself, then the 6 others followed. I didn’t bring a pair of extra shoes and the fact that the sun was blistering hot made me not care that my shoes were soaked. I pondered taking them off to cross but the river had plenty of slippery rocks to stub toes on so I took the safe way and forded the river like a champ. Others were more considerate of their shoe apparel and took the time to change their footwear and then crossed. We slowly lost the path after the river and magically found the path. It leads us up a hill and from there we had a better understanding of what we were looking into. Miles of open plains with the only trees in the distance were on top of a cliff and mountain. So we continued our blistering walk to the mountain we saw in the distance. That mountain led us up a fairly steep incline into which I had to stop once or twice to catch my breath. It was Craig and his friend Jacob that then start to lead us into damnation.

Once the incline ended so did the trees. Welcome back Sun! The trail finally leveled out and leads downhill for a very short incline; a handicap ramp decline if you will. Two trails diverge in and open plains and sorry I could not travel both…I lost sight of Craig and Jacob and had to make a decision; left or right. So I looked down at the ground using my tracking skills and saw two sets of footprints leading to one direction. I went with my gut. The trail continued downhill at a decent decline, one of such steepness that I couldn’t wait to walk up this stupid hill. Now that it leveled out again I was walking on the side of the mountain with no room to miss a step and fall a LONG way down to the left. While walking I kept looking for tracks and making sure that my eye was right. I could have waited for the others behind me but just wanted to get the hiking over with and relax by the river. Needless to say for about ½ a mile the trail went up and down, but more down than up.

The terrain started to get very rocky with massive boulders all around. As I walked up this other hill I was given a view. I pulled out my camera and started looking through the zoom to see if I could see the two in front of me. After a couple of minutes I saw two people hiking at a much quicker pace than what I was doing. I snapped the picture and took a look and it seemed to be the two. I proceeded down the last and final mountain and enjoyed the fact that I couldn’t see any more mountains and the river was only a 25 foot hike down from where they were.

Once I was at the spot the two had been when I snapped the picture I took a look at the time stamp and found I was only 10 minutes out. I came across a campsite that didn’t ring a bell and continued the hike looking for prints. After 20 minutes of hiking and looking in front and behind me for someone or a sign of life I stopped to enjoy the view of the river. A deer ventured down to the river on the other side for some water to drink and then took off. Screaming was heard in the distance so I turned to my left and looked and saw two people swimming in the river. I took out the camera and snapped a picture and took a look. It seemed to be two old Buddhists swimming in the river. So I continued hiking and looking for Craig and Jacob. I turned around and thought to myself what two old Buddhists were doing swimming in the river and then I saw 6 others swimming and said “SHIT”. So I started my walk back to the campsite sign and saw everyone’s bags and headed to the river. Craig came up and told me he was just about to look for me. Apparently he thought I was with the others and they were playing some type of joke on him saying that I wasn’t with them. It all worked out. I showed my evidence that him and Jacob looked like old Buddhists swimming and he rolled with it.

We all swam and filled our bottles up with Craig’s portable water filter system which is no bigger than a bottle of water and does wonders on a backpacking trip. So then we setup camp in a dried out river bank. I borrowed Jody’s backpack and tent which is made for someone shorter than 6 feet. I woke up with the tent pretty much smothering me. We had a lamp for a campfire do to Smokey the Bear saying it was unsafe for a campfire. We all ate our dinners and had a beer or two and called it a night. Craig and Jacob left at 7AM and others said they could fit me in later in the day so that was pleasant. I hiked back with three other people and the others continued on with their hike which followed the river.

Remember how I said that I went up and downhill a lot? Well the hike back sucked. I went up and up and up and a little down followed by up and up and up and then finally down to where the only thing separating me from the river was a mile and half of open plains. Thankfully it wasn’t too hot out. When I crossed the river this time I took my shoes and socks off and tried to ford the river. The rocks that I said were slippery were worse than I thought. So I started to cross and my foot slipped and three of my toes went one way and the other two went the other. That hurt to walk on for about a week or so. After the river it seemed like I was walking on a treadmill for two hours. For the third hour the treadmill slowed down and went to the highest incline imaginable. I took many breaks going back up the steep mountain side because it felt like my legs were going to snap. We made it to the parking lot and I got a lift back to Mammoth where I took a nice long shower, started my laundry and went in the employee dining room for some chicken cordon blue and mashed potatoes. After that I put my laundry in the dryer and went to bed to where I woke up at 8AM the next day.

Visitor

Cooper came and visited for two days. We went to a lot of places that I have never been in the park. A lot of people were pretty jealous of Cooper and his findings on his first day in the park. We managed to see a coyote, two wolves, pelicans, swans, a black bear, a moose and of course bison. My friend Sam worked in the park since June and left in October without seeing a bear in the wild. Many people have left Yellowstone without seeing a moose. For Cooper to see those two shy animals in one day was pretty awesome. In fact, Cooper’s first moose was my first as well and I don’t care if it’s a grizzly or black bear; they’re fun to watch.

When Cooper came into town the lawn was mowed that morning which makes all the elk leave town for a couple days due to the loud machinery. On the second day we went down to Gardiner for food and drinks and he got to see the elk by the river on the drive down. To see the elk by the river and to see them by the building are two different things because they’re just aren’t as close to you when they’re by the river.

On the second day we also saw Gibson Falls which is on the way to Old Faithful. You just pull your car into a parking lot on the side of the road and step out of your car and it’s right there. We went to Old Faithful and waited about an hour or so for the eruption. In that time we walked around the information center reading about science and then went for a small hike surrounding Old Faithful. When that went off it was cool but I really don’t plan on watching it again on purpose unless there is someone who is dying to see it.

After Old Faithful we went to the hill behind the Grand Prismatic. We made it halfway up the steep hill and looked at the beautiful colors that were formed in the hot spring. Cooper convinced me to go up higher on the hill so we did. We thought from there the view only gets better and we should just go up all the way. We were right. After that we made our way back north and stopped at the Hoodoos for a quick look at the large playground. We went to Gardiner for some food on the river which Cooper thought was one of best views he has had a restaurant, especially for the size of the town.

After dinner we made our way for the second appearance at the employee pub. The first night we owned the pool table and couldn’t loose. It turns out we forgot how to play the second night. After the pub closed we went to my buddy’s room and drank for a little bit and Cooper called it quits due to having to wake up and drive back to Wisconsin. The time was great and I’m glad he enjoyed the journey.

Playing Tourist

Towards the last month of September my days off were playing tourist. Male elks would herd up their ladies and try to get what they could before it was too late. Where there was one bull there would be another within ¼ a mile and they would bugle over the territory and more importantly the cows. One day I went out for a smoke and on a hill 500 yards away were two bulls, one much older than the other play fighting or practicing. They rubbed their antlers against each other and would push back and forth; it was all play. The best part of runt season is the tourists.

“I’m not saying kill the stupid people. I’m saying take the warning labels off everything and let it sort its self out.”-???

The only time I don’t cheer on an animal is when it’s near someone I know or me. During runt season I’m like Jack Nickelson at a Laker’s game and the bull elk are the starting five. I didn’t see any person get hurt but I did see people being STUPID. If a ranger is telling you not to stop your car, you should continue to drive and not stop. But people paid $25 to get in and if they think their protected because they’re in a car and want to get a great camera shot; more power to them…Okay, so the ranger says to keep the car moving to a bunch of people, meanwhile the bull is looking pretty pissed off. I don’t blame the bull, he’s trying to get laid in peace and all these people are slowing down using their flash. Not sure about you but if a bunch of people walked into your room while things are getting hot and started to videotape and flash photography is going on, you’d be upset. Okay maybe not Ron Jeremy or Pamela Anderson but the rest of us would be. So this bull just guns these cars down. His record was 52 cars. 52! 52 cars were dented or scratched because he was MAD. Watching this from afar was quite amusing and made my days off memorable.

The Grand Experience

The Grand Teton Experience could have been grander than what I experienced with my buddy Austin. The night prior to leaving there happened to be a beach party at the employee pub. It was fantastic to be able to get off work at 10:30 for a change and enjoy my time at the pub; typically we would only have an hour or sometimes even 30 minutes to hang out before they would call last call and or close. There were at least 30 or so people and the night ended with people dancing on the bar and just good old shenanigans. So right around bar time Austin came in and asked if I wanted to go to the Grand Tetons. Keep in mind we also had snow flurries that night and Austin is asking me to camp out with him on the side of the mountain. I had the day off the next day and figured that it would be my last adventure for the season. If anything, I would come back with a good story for all to hear. You welcome.

5:30AM came very soon as the dorm had parties in every other room. So with my two hours of sleep I was awake and ready to go. Sure enough Austin didn’t wake up until about 7… Good start to the day. We made it to Old Faithful at about 9AM and we grabbed some food to eat and continued south for the overwhelming hike. It takes typically takes the average person 8 hours to hike up and three hours to hike down. We were thinking that we could do it in 9 hours altogether. We pulled up to the Grand Tetons around 11:30. We followed this nice gravel road that was a single lane that had plenty of turns. So Austin thought he would be a speed demon and once we got to the parking lot he slammed on the breaks and turned the wheel hooping to be cool and land in the parking spot like a stunt devil. Nope. The parking lot was lined with 3-4 foot boulders. He managed to land on top of one and had his antifreeze go all over the place.

So now were sitting in the parking lot and I was trying not to laugh but he almost looked like he was about to cry. He ended up calling his dad and using 50% of my battery, (keep that in mind), and the police came and did an accident report. We kept looking at the mountain as if it were impossible but still had some optimism in us. As we waited for the tow truck to come, I called my friend at the park to see if we could get picked up 4 hours away. Sure enough she said that she was lending her car to Rico who was going to take a nap. So we started to climb the mountain in front of the parking lot, not the actual hiking trial. We made it 4/5 of a mile before we turned around to look at the view. The panoramas that I have do not justify the beauty of what could have been the most badass hike I could have done for something to end on. So we think we saw the tow truck in the distance and headed back down the mountain. About 20 minutes later the tow truck came and towed the car away. The front bumper was hanging and it looked like a sad car that was very disappointed in us.

From the crash to the tow was about 3½ hours. We thought with a nap and the drive we could expect him about 1½ hours. Time needs to be killed. He is into Parktour (Par-core). Essentially it is a way of getting from point A to point B but jumping over obstacles to get there instead of running around them. So he was jumping rock to rock. Meanwhile for myself to pass the time I decided to throw rocks at a skinny tree, rocks at some boulders and some decent size rock shock putting. We all know I’m easily amused. So after an hour or so of lameness I found a nice rock and sat next to it using it for a pillow. I’m not going to lie to you; it was an amazing pillow for a rock. It were as if someone like myself had done this over and over for 1000’s of years and made a nice dent in the rock to where my head fit perfectly into place.

I woke up two hours later as the sun had fell behind the mountain causing a dramatic decrease of about 10-15 degrees in seconds. I turn my phone on and try to give a call and my friend’s phone died. So we decided to walk. As we made our way out of the driveway a crazy old man in a Rangerover slowed down to talk to us unfortunately. He reminded me of Billy Crystal in A Brides Tale. CREEPY. He seemed to have a stutter and I’m not fully sure that he could speak English. We asked if the ranger station is nearby and it sounded like he said it was closed. We thanked him and he drove 300 feet before he stopped the car. He opened his door looked behind him and put it in reverse. He said something about a cabin ahead and that we might be able to stay there. Joy. It’s about 8PM now and were wondering where our ride is 7 hours later. We turned my phone back on and tried to call, no response. I called my buddy Chris to inform him of the situation and to notify Mimzy about all this. Sadly he was 45 minutes away from Mammoth so we kept on walking hoping for someone to pick up two hitchhikers in the pitch black as well as not trying to get mauled by a bear or anything. After 90 minutes we got picked up by two gay guys who were heading near the South Entrance of the park.

I don’t remember the names but the driver did a lot of talking on his life. He was a teacher of Social Studies and History for a grade school and left that for better money. So he makes fire trucks and sells them to Lebanon. In his spare time he works for the fire service removing burned trees in the northern states from Idaho to North Dakota. After 40 minutes of driving we arrived at a camp site and turn my phone on to where it’s at 8%. Thinking to myself that I’m going to be sleeping in the laundry mat onsite I quickly call Mimzy and see what the deal is. Sure enough Chris was still 10 minutes out of Mammoth. Phone was turned off. I let 20 minutes go by before turning the phone on and finally get ahold of Mimzy and tell her that were 20 minutes south of the South Entrance and for Rico to pick us up at the Gas Station. She got the message to Rico so we walked for about 10 minutes and waited on the bench at the gas station. Two or three cars drove by giving us false hope. But that fourth car, that was the victory car on when I realized that I didn’t have to camp outside in the subfreezing temperature and that I could sleep in my own bed and have plenty of rest for work the next day. Turns out Rico had been lost for a solid 3 hours and didn’t even know we were in the gas station and pulled in by a feeling. Sometimes you have to trust the gut.

Overall the trip was 75% fun and 25% worriedness. There were two times that I used my camera to record “pod casts” which we both think are just hilarious. You know the feeling when you are sleep deprived and so bored you say some of the dumbest things imaginable. I have 40 minutes of that between us. Once the video is edited I will post it which will hopefully give me some hits on youtube and I can retire early.

Campfires

In the final week of the season we held some campfires above mammoth. Throughout the season any employee can go to the visitors center and request a fire permit for the campfire free of charge; a small perk. Once the permit is processed you can have as many people as you would like attend the fire but whoever has the permit is responsible for the people and the fire; a lot of responsibility. The rangers would check in on the fire once maybe twice per burning.

For the final week we had two campfires a day apart with no interruption from the rangers. We would tell jokes, stores, sing and recall past memories from season. There was a lot of drinking involved and thankfully that would help us at the end of the night. The person who had the permit forgot to bring water so we had to act as human fire trucks for the sake of safety.

Going into Town

Seeing that working there is like a prison, (Work, eat, and sleep. If you were quarantined for being sick you were not allowed to leave your room unless it was for a bathroom or cigarette break), when someone would go into town they would tend to ask their close friends if they needed anything. The general store was a tad bit more expensive then the gas station in town and the employee pub was highway robbery compared to the bars.

Gardiner had two gas stations three main bars, four to five popular restaurants, grocery store and a Subway. Needless to say the grocery store, bars and gas station were the most popular. Once a week sometimes twice a group of people would go to the bars; especially on days off to get away. The two main bars, The Goose and Two Bit, are owned by a family from Fontana Wisconsin.

The Goose is a small bar with some seating, two pool tables and some gambling machines. The machines were filled with slots, keno and poker. Above the bar was a bar on the roof. The roof had nice seating overlooking the north entrance of the park with a mountain back scape. The bar itself during the slow times was filled with older people ranging from their 40’s and up. During the weekend it would be filled with all sorts of ages like its neighbor, The Two Bit.

The Two Bit was a much bigger. The actual bar was smaller in size but their basement was a club with an entrance to a beer garden as well as having a pool room with two tables connected to an upstairs beer patio where they would serve and cook outside, weather permitting. This was the place to eat breakfast. They have a giant breakfast burrito that I could just barely finish in one seating. My lunch/dinner favorite was the Philly cheese steak. Jody and some others would get the shrimp tacos all the time but I feel like they didn’t look filling enough. Needless to say this was the place to meet younger folk on weekends in a club style atmosphere with live DJ’s.

My most memorable time at the Two Bit started off with a car ride down the hill. Sam said he didn’t have much money and I lent him $10. He asked if that would be enough and I stated that he was with me and it’ll be fine. We get down the hill and walk to the bar and Jarod is working the bar tonight; good news for me. I ask for a beer and hand him a twenty. He waves the money and says it’s on him. Sam asks for a beer and puts the ten out. Jarod asked if he was with me and he responded yes. Jarod said it was on the house and Sam just looked at me, smiled, and drank his beer.

Another thing about the Two Bit is where they get their employees. I’m not sure if it just happens or if they plan for it. The employees in the beginning of the season are family of the owners and then a month will pass by and their employees are the ones that failed to make it at Yellowstone. So one friend will be working at the park and within a week of being let go or quitting, they’ll be working at the bar. Being next to a seasonal place of employment, the Two Bit and other places of employment have room and board included and have a shady place to live. All places are better than Two Bit City.

Two Bit City is where the current workers work if they do not have a place to stay. Sure it has a bed, running water for a toilet and a shower…but the rooms were separated by bed sheets. Some rooms had 4 walls and a door but not all. Back in the Two Bit’s heyday, Two Bit City was a brothel. In the later years big time artists and musicians would stay there when they played a gig. If it’s worth saying that you stayed at the same place as some famous musician then go for it, but that’s about saying I once stayed in the same hotel as Tom Cruise when he was making the movie Top Gun…

The Final Week

As the work days drew into the single digits and as the time flew by, more and more people had bigger smiles then when they saw the hot springs for the first time. People were envious that others were leaving on the tenth but they had to stay until the fifteenth. I was envious of many people due to the fact that for some dumbass reason I extended until the 20^th of October; my contract like many was the 15^th. The dining room closed on the 7^th for the night crew and the 8^th for those who had to work breakfast. What did we do for 8-10 days while the restaurant was closed you may ask yourself? We cleaned the shit out of that kitchen. Okay well my buddy and I really didn’t, but others did. It was four long days of cleaning. How clean can one kitchen get? Well pretend that Obama was walking into the kitchen and was going to eat off the floor. That’s how clean it was by the end. The first day my roommate, Jason, and I spent 8 hours cleaning the broiler. It could have taken us three but that’s how it went. There is standard microwave that my buddy josh cleaned that for six hours. How is that possible? Well, after three hours of cleaning he failed an inspection and failed the second one three hours later. He passed on his third inspection. By the way this bench at greyhound in Portland sucks.

The night of the 8^th was the survivor party. Every employee in Mammoth Hot Springs was invited to the employee pub where the Location Manager and Assistant Food and Beverage Manager bartended for the night while a DJ played music. What could a survivor party really mean? It means we survived that season, didn’t quit or get fired, wasn’t mauled by a bear or wolf, speared by a bison or elk, drank ourselves into a coma and that our ankles weren’t bitten off by the furious whistle pigs of Yellowstone. I have never seen the employee pub so packed. They had door prize drawings. A select few won some items. I happened to win a Pabst Blue Ribbon cap. Cool.

The next day came quite early. Who would have thunk it? As I clocked in at 12:30PM I walked around for about an hour or two dodging people and questions. Then my buddy Jason was cooking up a vegan option for a function that night and had me help him out. I managed to waste another hour peeling carrots and cutting those up along with some squash and zucchini. Before I could ask Jason where he wanted the food my boss turned around and asked if I was hung over. I asked why he would ask such a thing and he responded that my bad eye was closed a bit. I told him that it was still early and that I’m still waking up. Then the funniest thing happened. Jason turned to him and said,

“Hey man, he shot his eye out 6 years ago man. Like, why would you even bring that up?”

I just rolled with it. Jason couldn’t really keep a straight face for too long after that. We all knew I was hung over due to the fact that I drank with all of them until about three or four in the morning. The day was long but still filled with fun and shenanigans. The day was filled with jokes of people hiding in ovens after cleaning them to snapping rags at each other. It wasn’t your stereotypical cleaning crew that would walk in your house, that’s for sure. We had a total of three days of nonstop cleaning. It was quite joyous when it was over.

But MacKeag, that only takes us to the 11^th. What happened for the next couple of days? I worked in the employee dining room for six days. That was awesome. I would come in at 12:30PM and serve for 30 minutes. After that we would throw the food out and/or put it away, sweep, mop and it would be about 2PM. So between 2 and 4:30PM I would play games on my computer and look stuff up on youtube. Did I mention that I was still being paid? I can only imagine that is how employees at Facebook work.

The Road

The final day had arrived and it felt like Christmas. I headed to my roommates parent’s house on the 17^th and we ended up catching a ride with our friend Heather. I thought we were going to be out of Yellowstone in 10 minutes and leave through the North, but we ended up going out of the West entrance which happened to be about an hour and half ride. We stopped in West Yellowstone for breakfast and coffee and headed to Oregon.

On our way we stopped at Craters of the Moon and Crater Lake. Craters of the Moon was cool to see once. There were three craters with massive amounts of lava rock surrounding them. Crater Lake is exactly what it sounds like with a great landscape. At any point while driving around Crater Lake you can see 99% of the lake. I guess Xanttera operates the park and I could transfer there if I wanted to. We also ventured off to see the Pinnacles in the park. In a canyon on the south side are these cones that are made out of clay, dirt, ash and lava. To me they represent very large stalagmites. During the adventure we also found the old main entrance to the park that was torn down. All that was left was a stone column that held the welcome flag to the park. The downside is besides a couple trails there wouldn’t be too much to do besides repeat the trails. Unlike in Yellowstone, I have plenty of more adventures and exploring to do.

We made it to Bend by 11PM and got a cheap hotel that only cost each person $20. We went downtown in Bend for some drinks and found a bar that seemed suitable. Turns out it was Karaoke Night and a rather large man and a very skinny man were singing the song that Tom Cruise sung in Top Gun. I’m not sure who sings it or what the name of it is but the chorus goes something like…

You’ve lost that love and feeling. That love and feeling. You’ve lost that love and feeling and now it’s gone. Gone. Gone. Whoa whoa whoa.

It was quite hilarious to see the two sing that song. The big guy had some weird way of dancing. He would bring his head and right shoulder to his left knee and then swing back to the right. It was very strange and weird. We woke up the next morning and booked it to Cave Junction and arrived close to dark. The next day we headed to Jedediah Smith State Park and visited the Redwoods. Upon arrival I couldn’t help to just look up. The trees were 3-350 feet tall and ranged in width. The largest tree there was 367 feet tall. According to the park’s website, the top 10 feet of the tree died a while ago. It was just huge. After walking around the park we went to Crescent City for some delicious Spanish food along with some Sushi and the movie Argo. After that we went back to Jody’s house and Heather went to her friends place nearby. We never saw her again. She ended up being accepted to teach English in South Korea; she leaves early December.

Going Green

So Jody found me a job trimming marijuana. Before I get to that I do have to explain the living situation. Jody’s parents are big time hippies. They live in the boonies. Upon arrival to Jody’s driveway, we parked the car in what seemed to be a parking lot. We walked further down the road and into the woods. There we walked on a suspension bridge over a river where his dad waited for us in a golf cart. We drove for five minutes and finally arrived. From his house to the parking lot is a solid 20 minute walk which is about ¾ of a mile. The next day Jody took me out in the woods to show me an old mining camp. They really didn’t mine much; they more or less blasted the side of the mountain away with water and ran that through a series of trenches that would lead to a filter of some sort. We continued walking and saw the old cabin in the woods where Jody was literally born in and just past that was a river where they still receive their water. I was told that they set up the water system in the 70’s. They found a waterfall and put a series of tubes and filters under it, catching the water. The tubes lead into a shed about a mile away and help power their house as well as produce water for the toilet, shower, sinks and sprinklers. Did I mention that three other couples live in three separate cabins on the property and are self-sufficient? They use propane for their oven and solar panels for additional electricity. I think the only thing they pay for is their phone and internet along with taxes of course. It was definitely a cool way to live for two weeks. There were fresh apples, eggs, tomatoes, garlic, onion and lettuce every day with a quick trip to the garden.

It was a couple of days before I was hooked up with the shady criminal job but it was worth it; kind of. There were ups and downs to this job. The ups were that you could drink, smoke, hell do heroin if you wanted to while trimming the drug. It was really easy and we could also listen to music and what not while we did it. The last pro was that you were paid by how fast you could do the job. The deal was that for every pound you trimmed you would receive $200 cash. It took me three days to get a pound done in one day. Everyone has their own way of trimming and some are fast and then some are real slow. So I just had to find the one person who was trimming close to 2 ½ a day and sure enough, I got a pound done the next day. Everything was measured in grams so it came out to $2.27 a gram. For those that are not familiar with marijuana it is a very light drug. We would trim and put the buds in a brown paper bag that you would get from the grocery store, (seriously, we went there and got them) and the brown paper bag would have to be about ¾ of the way full, or ¼ empty, of the buds to be a $200 bag. The last, last pro is that you could start whenever and finish whenever. So you could work all day all night and bring in as much as you wanted. It typically takes, pending the quality of the product, 8-10 hours to get a pound.

Not too many cons when you enjoy the work that you’re doing. The quality of the product could be a con. If it’s too light or really “bushy” than you could pull a 10 hour day and only have half a pound. Most of the people working there were hippies that loved their magical mushrooms. Still a drug that I have never tried, but I was offered plenty of times. No thanks. They loved acid as well. Crazy people. This 40 year old hippie was talking about how her kids were named after trees and what have you. Then asked if I had any kids which I replied with a no, I’m on 25 and don’t want to bring a kid into this mess. Meanwhile there was a pregnant 22 year old trimmer who didn’t take too kindly to that. But she didn’t say much about it as she would have a beer or an occasional bong rip. Smart girl. Sarcasm. So when they sat next to each other and would talk about drama this drama that while some crazy music from India was on in the background. I learned to bring headphones on the second day and every day after that. So this old hippie girl tries to grab my attention while I’m listening to music and tells me to turn my headphones down. So I turn them down and I still can hear the Indian music over my headphones so I turn them back up. So once again, the hippie taps me and says she can hear it again. So I explain my taste of music and try to let her know that the Indian music isn’t cutting it. She told me to go to another room if I don’t like the music. I told her maybe she should sit so close to me and maybe you wouldn’t hear it. She just got up and left for a while. She didn’t really talk to me for the rest of the week, which was kind of nice. Stupid hippies. Then there’s the Canadian. He was friendly like all Canadians but he was quite weird. Some guy started to talk about Aliens and the Canadian charmed and told his story about abductions. Apparently the Canadian was in California and one night got abducted by aliens. He said that he saw this bright light in the sky and that it paralyzed him. He then started to shake which led him up to the light and then woke up in bed the next morning. I say too many Magic Mushrooms for that guy. So really the con is that I worked with stupid, crazy, rude and stinky hippies. I forgot to mention that 9 of them lived in tents and the old hippie girl lived in a teepee. They would shower and do their laundry in the river that ran through the property.

The man that owns the farm would show up once a day and check in to see how everything was going. He is more or less just running the business, he didn’t even grow the plants, he has a guy for that. That guy we will call him Joe. Joe has a crazy life. He has been growing for over 30 years and has done so in Russia, Costa Rica, California, Mexico, Oregon and Jamaica. While in Jamaica he ran his own kitchen down there and served none other than Mr. Bob Marley. He had a stand next door to a Rastafarian place that BM would go to on a daily basis and after visiting that, he would then eat right next door. I guess when BM was sick they asked Joe to cook for him but according to Joe BM was too sick to really eat. Joe offered to cook one night because our food storage was low do to slacking of the property owner not running out for supplies. So we ate one of the best meals I have had in a while and I’m not even sure exactly what it was but it was good. I think it was a Tai or curry stew. I forgot to mention that we were also given free food to prepare for ourselves. Towards the end I cooked two meals for everyone and then in return they gave me some buds to fill my brown bag. It was as if I was trimming the whole time. I made a homemade marinara for a pasta dish that happened to taste just like tomato soup. I didn’t have too many seasonings to work with…But I stepped up on the last day and made brown rice with a spicy soy chicken stir fry. Everyone loved it! It was kind of nice to create a dish that everyone enjoyed instead of having to follow a menu.

From Portland to Wisconsin

So after trimming I thought it was about time to go home but not until I make a stop in Portland. Upon my arrival I felt like it was going to be a good time. The air was clean and there was a nice comfortable feeling all around. I made my trip up on Election Day and heard the news from my hotel room that Obama had won. I wasn’t angry or happy. Just “blah”. I went down the street to a bar and it was quite packed. Portland has regular bars, stripper bars, gay bars, dive bars but most importantly…what could be more important that stripper bars? BARCADES! They have bars with arcades in them. It was like a clean “Gameland” meets “Champs”. The bar was filled with 8 pinball machines, two skeeballs, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Dungeons and Dragons, Area 51, Buck Hunter HD, and Rampage. All the good old classics. Maybe not all of the good ones but they were the ones that I played back in my early days. On top of those they also had two pool tables and Pacman. When Romney went on T.V. he was severely booed and was being flipped off. Drunken democrats know how to party? I actually felt bad for Romney who happened to just lose the election and had to give a failure speech to America. I would have probably cried if I just lost an election for presidency and have to give the speech. None the less, same president, Wahoo?

The next day I went downtown and just roamed around. It was quite nice to see so many buildings and manmade structures reassuring myself that there isn’t just wilderness around. I noticed that they are very green. Their bike path is about four feet wide and green. Then they also have a Tran that runs on electricity. It has two rods on top of the car perpendicular to the ground that is joined together by another rod that is parallel to the ground. That rod is then pushed upwards to a cable that hangs over the street that I think is what powers the Tran. It looked like a big bumper car on tracks if you will. They also have green cabs which are starting to get big all over, but noticeably larger in Portland. They also have a ridiculous amount of coffee shops that are independently owned and not a chain like Starbucks. Those were around too but not as many people in those as the others. They also had a lot of sushi places too. I went to one on my last day and was overwhelmed on how delicious the food was.

Pawn Stars is a decent show on the History Channel but not accurate to what the business is really like. I had never been to a pawn shop until Portland. You could say it was on my list of things to do just so I can say I have done it. I wasn’t too impressed by it by any means. I did manage to get a decent watch from Fossil so it was worth the trip. There were also a ton of VHS tapes but I didn’t bother looking through those because…well they’re VHS and its 2012. My friend Ashley and Melissa met up with me on my last night for Ashley’s birthday. She was pretty intoxicated rather early in the night but it was her birthday. None the less we all had dinner and went to the barcade for some fun.

I also made my first trip to a barber shop. That was quite an experience in itself. Usually I would just stop at some big chain or a salon and be in and out in 10-20 minutes. Not at Bart’s Barbershop. They take their time cutting and shaving making sure you don’t go out around town looking bad. I had just got my new coat and shoes when I was in Portland and figured why not a new style. I told the guy to give me a haircut that he thinks would fit me but something short. Sure enough I walked out of the shop about an hour later looking like a million bucks. The crazy thing is, it only cost me $20 with the tip. Also, they cleaned the back of my neck with a straight razor and warm cream, which was a first and it’s going to be hard to find a place that does that in Wisconsin. Maybe I’ll have to go down to Chicago for it.

2 comments:

BaychickDecember 21, 2013 at 3:00 PM
If I'd known you make holland arise sauce from scratch, we would have been eating Eggs Benedict when you were here!
UnknownJune 4, 2014 at 4:23 AM
You provide best office identification & access solutions.Thanks for taking the time to discus this.

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Friday, December 20, 2013

Summer 2012

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