Day Trip

We have been learning that the pursuit of our volunteer career requires a little more than just showing up.  To get our first job as campground hosts we had to sign a release for a background check and sit through a safety orientation for a couple of hours.  For our next post as visitor center hosts we had to go through a deeper background check, this one requiring a print from all ten fingers.  And the training ballooned to two weeks.  Recently we have learned that the last, more in-depth background check has only a six month life span.  If we are to return to a position that gives us access to NPS cash registers and computers we have to submit to an even deeper background check.  But once this one is done it will be good for "life", provided we never have more than a two year lapse in a NPS job.

This latest background check requires a new, full set of fingerprints and filling out what seemed like a 25 page questionnaire, but was probably just shy of ten.  It was an on-line process so I don't know exactly, I just know it was a lot of questions.  And let me apologize now to the friends we were required to write down as references.  You will be getting a call from the gub'ment.  Family does not have to worry about it, they would not let us use your names.

The great state of Texas is also in need of a set of fingerprints.  Nothing to do with our National Park volunteering, just a continuation of moving all our Georgia legal documents and licenses we had there to our new domicile state.  And, of course, the national fingerprint system does not work for the state fingerprints.  The national system is old-school ink and paper, the state uses digital scanners.

But that is good as far as we are concerned, that means we have to take a trip to Alpine (closest town with a digital finger printer) which means that we have to have lunch at Reata and we have to stop at the Dairy Queen for a Blizzard. Yes, we have to.

We like going to Alpine, they have more than one full-service grocery store, an Ace True Value that is huge and has a Radio Shack inside it and Big Bend Saddlery.  If you like the smell of leather, you'll love this place.  And it is a university town too, home to Sul Ross State University.  Go Lobos.

Sheesh, I've been in a remote location too long.  When an Ace Hardware and Dairy Queen are exciting you know it is time to check in with a little more populated part of the country.

But for now we are continuing to be excited about our day trip to Alpine.  Just finding the finger printing office was an adventure.  You would think that in a dinky little town, and with an address in hand, you could find anything you were looking for in five minutes.  Not even close.  Turns out that our address of 7000 was between the blocks of 3100 and 3200, and that there was no (visible) signage.  After circling around for awhile we finally gave up and pulled into the police station.  Surely they would know where the fingerprinting office is.  Nope, not a clue.  Couldn't even tell us where the address was.  Out of desperation we went in a school that was occupying the block that we were trying to find.  It felt weird just walking in the door.  It was wide open, there was no security, no place to 'sign in' and not a soul in sight to ask us what we were doing there.  We split up, each trying to find an office or something where there might be somebody that could help us out.  We each did find someone and were told the same thing - just go down the hall, make a left and you are there.  Seriously, a fingerprinting business right in the school, just two doors down from the computer lab?

As we were walking I was talking and Cyndee was shushing me. "Quiet, you're disturbing the classes" she said as my voice echoed off the gleaming polished tile floor and granite walls (this place is the one they refer to when they say they don't build them like they used to).  But we turned the corner and there it was, a stark, partitioned room.  One side for waiting (three chairs and a miniature boom box tuned to a local radio station) and the other side with a desk, computer, and finger scanner.

The lady manning the desk would not take us both at the same time, we each had to stay in the waiting room while the other got printed.  But she was good at her job and we were out of there in no time, once again stepping through the halls of higher learning as we made our way back to Big Gulp.

While getting around town, just as we passed through an intersection, I caught a glimpse of something.  It made me take a second look, and there it was, The Cow Dog.  An infamous lunch wagon that ply's the streets of Alpine hawking its unique menu of hot dogs.  I moved over a lane so I could turn and go around the block.  Never mind that I had just finished a big lunch at the Reata and never mind I had already had my large Dairy Queen Blizzard with Oreos and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, I was going to have me one of those dogs!

I got out of the truck and approached the Cow Dog from its driver side.  I was so determined to get to the order window that I did not notice the absence of people.  Only when I got around to the other side did it become painfully obvious that it was closed for the day.  I had missed my chance at hot dog heaven by only twenty minutes.

My stomach was saying "Thank Goodness" but my taste buds were screaming "Nooooo".  Well, I guess we'll just have to make another trip to Alpine before we get completely gone.  But as a reminder of what is to come, below is a menu that I plan to have at least one of each.

Now that our time to depart Big Bend is drawing near, Cyndee and I have found ourselves making plans of all the things we want to do when we get back to civilization, even if we will only be in it for a couple of weeks.  But right now we are going to enjoy the drive from Alpine to Terlingua.  The sun setting on all the ancient volcanoes and mesas is quit a sight.