Quick trip to town

There is no such thing as a quick trip to town from here.......Here's how it happens.

First, you get up early..6AM and get on the road by 6:30 or 7. Drive 45 miles to get to Jacob Lake and then another 32 miles or so to get to Fredonia. (This morning a log truck had tipped its second trailer over and lost all the logs so that was a slow go there for a bit.) In Fredonia you can get gas at $4.29 a gallon (I got mine at $3.33 in the Park before I left). You can also get lottery tickets and other things that gas staion convenience stores offer. You can get a motel room and if you can catch the only resturant open, a meal. We continue on through town to go to breakfast in Kanab, UT. only 7 miles more. Then we come back to Fredonia and take a right to go to St. George.

I had a podiatrist appointment at 1:30 (UT time-different from AZ time) in St. George, UT and after stopping in Kanab, UT for breakfast we get there 1 hour early, just enough time to fill out paperwork and look around abit. I love this Dr.! He took very good care of my feet and made casts of my feet for new arch supports, I'm a very happy person by the time I leave his office. Of course when I go and buy the shoes he has recommended I take a deep breath at the price, but they feel soooooo good!

So, Gary and I decide that we deserve a night in a hotel and go to Holiday Inn. Very nice. We get all checked in and then go to find the movie theather. We have missed the movie we want to see by half an hour, oh well ,lets just go cruz'n around town. Never did find another theather but did find Olive Garden so we stop for some supper. Yummy! We continue to drive around and now feel comfortable that we can find most things so back to the hotel we go.

Very nice nights sleep. We get up and go to the Palms Resturant in the hotel and was thourghly disappointed. They failed the Keysar surprise shopper test! My order was all wrong and Gary's was half wrong. Yes, we did fill out the comment card!

So now I have a Dr. appointment in Kanab at 11AM for my test results from last week. We get there just in time! But great news...all my counts are right on the $$, right where they should be. Dr. Hernan tells Gary "looks like she'll be around at least another 30 years!"

Is the day over? Can we go home now? NO! Now we have to continue to Page, AZ to get our prescriptions from Walmart that we missed getting by 2 minutes last week.

So off we go. We have been on the road about 20 min. when we hear this really loud engine and a HUGE shadow pass over us!! It's a C130 military cargo plane about 50-75 feet above us going the same direction as us. (Good thing too, cause I'm sure we both would have peed our pants if we had of seen it coming at us that low!) Our first thoughts were of course-is he going to crash? But no he just keeps going following the road to Page. He dissapears in a couple of minutes and we never see it again. We stop at the BLM Visitors Center about 20 min. later and that guy never heard a thing. Finally we make it to Page and stop for a bite and then go to Walmart. We get our prescriptions and a few other things and NOW we are on our way home.
125 miles later (and about 30 deer) we reach the RV and unload the car. Finally home, sweet home! But the price of gas here in the Park is now $3.99!




















That was our weekend, how was yours????

Got snow?

May 24
It's been snowing for 2 days now and we still can see the grass!! Off and on it snows all day and night with a bit of sleet now and then. Today is nice and sunny but still it snows once in awhile. Got our new hot heater and boy does it feel good to have running hot water again. Haven't seen many deer lately, they must be out in the meadows more now that the tourist are here and in thier way.

Our weekend (Tues & Wed.) is already full. Tuesday we go to St. George to see a foot doctor and get me new lifts and Wed. we go to Kanab to get blood work results. Maybe we can spend the night in Page and go to the dam again and actually get to see the tour of the inside of the dam.

Not much else happening today, just work as usual. Slowly we are getting more items in at the gift shop. But sadly for the tourist no winter hats or gloves :(. Lots of sweatshirts though.

The season has started.....

May 10
Our hot water heater died. I've been heating water on the stove for dishes and a sponge bath while waiting for the new one to arrive. (Just like growing up in N.H.!) The big wigs are here and finally setting up the store, it's looking really nice. Since I am mechanically inclined and rather strong compared to the rest of the girls, I have been choosen to help put shelving together and do destructive work too. There's some wood shelving in Building 500 where the UPS driver leaves all our packages every night that need to come out so today I get to get really dirty tearing them out
What a day! My boss Terri had me working like a man all day! First I got to move all the trash with her, (she's about half my size if even that) and we really should have had the big strong young men doing the trash. It was all the display units from the gift shop that the big wigs didn't want to reuse, then she had me ripping out those shelves. That took me about 3/4 of a hour if that. Nancy, 1 of my co-workers, invited me to take a shower at her dorm room--what a shower!! Lots and lots of hot water. Oh how I've missed my showers. Can't wait for our water heater to arrive!! I got a few bruises today but it did feal good to be doing physical work again.

May 15

We open today! When I walked into the gift shop this morning everyone stopped what they were doing and just awed at me. I had my make-up on (I hadn't worn any since arriving) and my crisp white shirt under my navy blue pullover sweater vest and my best instantly-slims-you kakhi pant and black shiny shoes. I was a show stopper! Everyone said "Edie you look great!" my reply "I do clean up pretty good don't I!" And John our 19 yr. old says "you smell really good too!" Just goes to show that being 50 isn't that bad after all.

May 19

Tonight is that start of our weekend! So I thought we would take a picnic supper out to one of the points. Theses are a few pictures from Cape Royal.

Notice this window (hole) in the rock? We also went up on top of there but it was to dark to get any good pictures.

Now for some sunset pictures!

And some full moon pictures!

And now for some random Grand Canyon pictures.

This was Sunday May 11, 2008.

May 20

We have the worst luck. Today we went to Kanab, UT for our first doctors appointments. That all went fine. Gary now weighs 161 and I have gone down to 198!!! That's why my shorts are almost falling off me :)! We were so looking forward to eatting at Houstons Resturant. We had breakfast there last week and it was great. Lunch today was a big disappointment. We got an order of wings, 5 little, tiny wings for $8. Definate rip-off. Then we go to Page, AZ and stop at the Glen Canyon Dam to take the tour of the Dam. There was 1 ticket left for the 2:30 showing so Gary got it and I got put on the waiting list. We thought since Gary got the last ticket that I was 1st on the waiting list-NOT. There was 6 before me so Gary just didn't go without me. And of course by then the 3:30 showing was full so we didn't get to go down into the Dam. So we go to Walmart and do some shopping and then remembered we have prescriptions to get filled and wouldn't you know it we didn't here them call our name and when we went to get them at 6:03PM-the pharmacy was closed. Keep in mind we live 125 miles from this Walmart. I go back to the doctors next Tues. for my blood work results so maybe we will just wait and go back to Page next week or maybe Gary will decide to go tomorrow, I don't know. All I know is that it is a really long ways off just for $18 of prescriptions!

May 21

Another day off and so much to do, wash, clean the RV and of course more exploring of the area. The Grand Canyon National Park opened for business on the 15th. It was a busy day and has slacked off a bit every day since. But 1 more week and it will be full blown crowds every day until Sept. The gift shop is a very expensive place with lots of Native American made pottery and jewelry. We have alot of different tee-shirts too, which we constantly have to refold. We have to restock the shelves all day long as most items we have only a few or even 1 of the item on the floor at a time besides tee-shirts and jewelry. We sell a chocolate bar for $3.50 and it's not very big! Employees get a 40% discount but not on paper goods (books, postcards, ect.) and only 10% on food items. I certainly won't be spending much $$ there. The Lodge let the kitchen staff practice on all the employees for dinner the night of the 14th. It took 3 hours for some to get there meal and I over heard a couple of guests yesterday say that it was still just as bad of a wait. We in the Gift Shop are quite good at getting the customer out pretty fast except Monday all the computers went down and of course our registers are computers and we had to do everything by hand for almost an hour. Most customers were understanding but a few were not, oh well, we did our best. Hope it doesn't happen to often but I'm afraid it will all summer.

Maintanence has been very busy since April. For the most part now they have everything caught up and taken care of but every day brings a new problem too. Gary still has to get back up on the roof of the Lodge and finish the shingle work he started last week before opening and snow. I'll get some pictures of that when he gets back up there. He'll be the talk of the town when he gets back up there, everyone will be taking his picture because he will be on the back side of the Lodge where if he falls he will most likely go down into the canyon! He won't fall though, he wears the safety harness and is very careful. He also loves the view from up there.

It looks like rain may come today. We better get the tarp back up on top of the RV since the roof still leaks. Slowly we are getting things fixed but I don't want to sink a lot of $$ into this RV cause we are planning on getting a better one maybe this coming year if we can. Someone told Gary that in Yuma, AZ in the fall you can pick up a really good one for about $5000 from people who just don't want to live in them any more for one reason or another.

Well it did sprinkle a very small bit this morning but mostly it has been snowing off and on all day. I didn't think it was cold enough for snow but sure enough that is just what it has been doing. We may wake up in the morning to a few inches!

Our days so far....

April 17, 2008
What a day! We made it to the North Rim today. The road was plowed but not all that good. We got the camper all parked, leveled and most things back in there proper places. We start work tomorrow. I have the hard job-going back to Jacob Lake (45 miles) and letting people in the gate on Rt. 67. We had a super supper! They were having a steak BBQ at the Lodge tonight. (Just for us!-no not really) It was the best steak I've ever had I think. We had a hugh fire place with a fire going. How hugh? Well lets see the measurements for this outside fireplace were about 9'high x 11'wide x 5'deep. And on top of all that we got to look at the Grand Canyon the whole time we were there. What a sunset that was! We just love it here. We're back in the woods and it's really dark at night and quiet too.

April 22
It sure is pretty up here but....things are moving slow. We just got sewer and running water today. Gary & I and all others in campers had it easy compared to those who are in the dorm rooms. Most of them have had to use outside port-a-pottys. There was one building that had 6 dorm apartments of which one was used as the kitchen to feed everyone and let people take showers. Of course that building was 1/2 mile away from where the other dorm rooms are and the main building for all the offices and the real dining room. So after finally getting the water on late this afternoon everyone is now happy, clean and sweet smelling once again. There must be about 100 people here tonight. Then you have the National Park people and the Forest Service people and we still have less than half of all the personel that will eventually be housed and working here for the summer.
Yesterday Gary & I had the day off to go to St. George, UT. I had to go to the Social Security office because someone in the main office wrote my number down wrong and Homeland Security sent a letter to HR Office saying I had 8 working days to go take care of everything. We got there 10 min. after closing (and $50 in gas), so I still have to go back this week sometime. But this time I'm taking the company car and getting paid for it, after all it was not my fault or HR's fault for the screw up.
We cannot get a cell phone signal unless we go 1 mile away to the Lodge which is right on the rim of the canyon.

April 26, 2008
Today Sam was baptized but we couldn't go, I really need tires on my SUV and they are now 6 hrs away 1 way. Chris's parents made it and Kristal posted a picture on her blog. My best friend, Penny, is now in Las Vegas visiting her daughter. Tanya is having twin girls any day now. Can't wait to see them all.

April 28
Got a call from Penny! The twins were delivered today and all are doing great. Guess we will have to take a trip to Vegas soon!

May 4
Things sure are moving slow still....Last night we found out the hard way that the water had been shut off. Luckily we have our reserve tank in the RV to use. Those in the dorms just can't flush! Lets see what has been happening since last I was able to write. Gary is in maintanence so he's working very hard along with 4 others to get everything working and all the water turned on but they keep finding leaks and what's worse is they don't find the leaks, thus we have to have the water turned off at night now. We also now have about 200 people here. We had a little over 2 million gallons of water when we arrived April 17 now there is less than 1 million and only 600,000 in the waste facility. Where did the rest go???? Out on the ground! And the pipe going down the canyon to the spring that fills the water tank is busted so we can not get any more water until that is fixed. Gary has had 2 days off since arriving here, I've had each weekend off. So what do we have here? We have a dinning room that feeds everyone in the dorms and any RV'ers that want to pay $3.00 per meal, unless you are a manager or suprvisor, then your meal is free. We have a camp store, a general store, for us and the general public that comes to camp. A laundry and shower house for the campers and all the cabins and buildings for the park service, and of course we have the stables for the donkeys. 4 dorms (with 3 washer & dryers in each) for the Forever Resort employees (that's us) and about 50 RV sites for the Forever Resort employees. A mile down the road is the Grand Canyon Lodge, (over looking the canyon), and the Book Store, the Gift Store, Saloon, Post Office and all the cabins you can rent as a guest-all of these at the rim of the canyon. It is very beautiful here and we get to see mule deer grazing every where. I've also seen 2 porcupines and 8 open range cattle while driving the 45 mile road into the park. We also now have WiFi hooked up in the dinning hall for everyone free of charge. So when I have time & energy to get there with the laptop then I can update things.
I will be in the gift store and because it is under a new company we have been loading, unloading, moving boxes, inventorying new supplies, ect...and still have not put any thing in the store! The floors were waxed on Fri. and supposedly the big wigs will be in this coming week to set up up the displays and teach us everything. Fri. I was told to enjoy my weekend becasue I may not get another day off until after the 15th-opening day. Of course if the pipe from the spring doesn't get fixed we won't open then either. Got to have water! We were told if we run out of water then we will have to move to Fredonia (about 70 miles away) and everyone in the dorms will get hotel rooms and we will have to take our RV with us. This just might be more of an adventure than I had expected!!