About half way

We are about halfway through our summer here at Yellowstone National Park. I think our ages, the altitude, and the 40 hour a week schedule is having an effect on us and sleep comes easy every night. We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves here this year which has been almost perfect. We have a group of co-workers that is exceptional. Except for one problem worker every one else is super to work with. I sure hope our supervisor realizes the significance of this dream team. Sandi and I have already decided that we want to return next year if we have the opportunity. Next year would be better that this year because I would already have programs developed for presentations. In the begining of this summer I spent nearly every waking hour developing my programs

Sandi works three 8-hour days one week and four 8-hour days the next. Two years ago, we split that schedule between us which gave us lots of time off. We got in a lot more fishing and hiking that year. I work five 8-hour days with every Wednesday and Thursday off. I have prepared a total of seven programs. There are four programs for youth at the Madison Junior Ranger Station, one Explore Yellowstone program to give visitors an idea on how to plan their visit here, one afternoon talk that I give at either the Museum of the Yellowstone or Grizzly Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, and an Evening Program. I have put in a lot of time into preparing these programs and most are developed to the point that I am quite happy with them. There are two that I think still need a little work.

This sure is a rewarding position. The pay leaves a bit to be desired. I'm a GS-5. Can't get much lower than that, but if I was looking for better pay, I'd be doing something else. If you have seen the recent CNN coverage on Yellowstone, the 77 year old ranger that they interview at Old Faithful Geyser says it very well. This is a labor of love. The kids and even adults that give us a sincere thanks for helping plan their trip, or after programs, is warming. We often come home after work on cloud-9 knowing that we have made a difference for someone. The appreciation they show is often quite moving and we have even received small, but meaningful tokens of appreciation and even letters of thanks. We love this place.

We now have a Skype acount and are able to communicate with our grandkids with both sound and video. What a treat! We will not get back to visit everyone until December, but until then this Skype should help considerably. It sure helps me.

Fishing has been wonderful. Catching has been a bit tough at times. The Madison, Firehole, and Gibbon Rivers are all fished very hard and the trout in them have seen a lot of flies drifted across them and are well educated. I tell people that the fish can not only tell that the fishing flies are not natural food but they can actully identify who tied the fly. We have only had one meal of fresh fish and my largest fish this season is only 12". I did miss a large fish a few days ago but we all know that it is the big one that always gets away.

Today is a relatively easy day for me although the 2:45PM - 11:45PM hours are a bit strange. I will probably try to put some polish on the two programs that I am not completely satisfied with and may try to tie some additional flies so I can match wits later in the week with these challenging fish.

With the season half over, we also need to start preparing for our next tour of duty in Sabino Canyon near Tucson, AZ. We will be volunteering there for about two months (october and November) and are really looking forward to that. Tucson is a wonderful town and Sabino Canyon is absolutely beautiful. Sandi will man a visitor information station and I will be doing nothing but kids programs - Have we gone to Heaven or what? I really do not know what we have done do deserve this life we are living but we sure have been blessed.

Live sure is good!