I love a woman in uniform.
Today was orientation/training day. Being a government operation there was plenty of paper work to do and job safety training. They even had a section on safe walking. Once we got through all the bureaucracy it was time to get fitted for uniforms. It was simply a closet with a bunch of shirts and jackets and you had to hope there was the size you needed. Not a sure thing as we were coming in on the last half of the season. And it was particularly difficult for me since there were no tall sizes as part of their standing inventory. They just don't do tall. I just had to get an oversized shirt and let it hang on me. Even then the shirt tails are so short that I can't bend over without my back-end getting exposed like a plumber's butt.
Cyndee had a little better luck, she found both short and long sleeved shirts to fit. The only sun hats left were either gigantic or miniature but there were two baseball caps left and we each got one. Don, the other camp host ended up improvising. He got a patch from one of the rangers and Cyndee sewed it on one of his personal hats.
So there is Cyndee in her official green nation park service shirt and official khaki national park service hat standing in front of her official national park service campground host set of wheels. We be stylin' now.
Our trainer took us on a tour of the inner workings of the North Rim park. We saw the waste water treatment plant, the equipment bone-yard, park employee living quarters (their little cabins have less square feet than our camper), employee dining hall (brkfst $4, Lunch $5, Dinner $6), the horse corral, the mule corral, and all important to us, the hill where we take all the fire pit ash to be dumped. We have a little Chevy pickup with several 30 gallon trash cans in the bed that, when full, have to be taken about seven miles away to Lindberg Hill and dumped in the designated spot for ashes. This same hill has several different disposal areas for different kinds of biodegradable waste like tree trunks and pine straw.
Something else that is "official" we can't do without a cell phone signal! I spent a good part of the morning on my bicycle roaming all around the campground trying to find a hot spot. Almost everywhere I can get one bar but that will not support a voice call, just simple text and sometimes not even that. I tried all the places everyone said that they had some luck but none of them worked for me. Finally I got a wild-hair idea; if the nearest cell tower is on the South Rim where everybody says it is then I need to get where I can see the South Rim. So off I go to the tent-only camping area where there is a point that looks directly across to the South Rim, ten miles away.
Boom! Four bars and 3G, I'm in business. It is not the most convenient use of the phone but at least a phone call is now possible. So, family and friends reading this that want to call, you may have to send a text and let us know you want to talk so we can hike out to the point and make the call.
Our work schedule has us on duty Thu, Fri, Sat, and every other Sun. We are "on duty" from 7:00am to 11:00am and then 6:00pm to 10:00pm. It is a classic split-shift arrangement. So we have seven hours in the middle of the day to pretty much do whatever we want to. But today, on our very first day on duty we spent part of the afternoon helping a visitor from Great Britain with car problems. She had rented a car from Dollar in California as soon as she stepped off the plane and then drove straight through with what looked like about a 10-year old daughter to the North Rim. They got in so late last night that they could not find their site so they slept in their car in the parking lot by the camp store. When she started the car this morning to move to the camp site it started flashing a 'MaintReq' light and showing a high temperature warning.
She was freaking out but we got her gathered up and went out to cell phone point and called, using our phone, the Dollar folks back in Cali. I don't think the guy with the roadside service understood where we were. He was going to dispatch a truck immediately out of Flagstaff, which would have put the truck in here somewhere in the middle of the night. I was persistent, firm even that he should make arrangements for the tow truck driver to start early in the morning and get here during the day. Finally he agreed. About 8:00pm the tow company called to confirm the pickup. We did not actually get a call as much as notifications of missed calls. I got out where I could call the number that had been trying and we made arrangements to swap out the miscreant Yaris with another car first thing in the morning. I walked over to the tent where the mother and daughter from England were and let them know, much to their relief, that they were going to get fixed up in the morning.
According to the full-time rangers around here, we had a pretty exciting day today. They said that there is hardly anything that ever happens on this side. But the South Rim is supposedly a whole different story.
I'm going to try to get to some new spots and catch some early morning and late evening light with the camera tomorrow but if the duties keep us as busy as today it may have to wait until our days off.
One last picture for today. I caught this little guy catching some rays and he did not seem bothered by me poking a camera in his face. It is hard to see but look closely for his tail. It is long and draped over the edge of the rock, he and his tail are almost a perfect match in color to the rock. I guess that is how he keeps from getting snatched up by an eagle or something in such an exposed position.
Cyndee had a little better luck, she found both short and long sleeved shirts to fit. The only sun hats left were either gigantic or miniature but there were two baseball caps left and we each got one. Don, the other camp host ended up improvising. He got a patch from one of the rangers and Cyndee sewed it on one of his personal hats.
So there is Cyndee in her official green nation park service shirt and official khaki national park service hat standing in front of her official national park service campground host set of wheels. We be stylin' now.
Our trainer took us on a tour of the inner workings of the North Rim park. We saw the waste water treatment plant, the equipment bone-yard, park employee living quarters (their little cabins have less square feet than our camper), employee dining hall (brkfst $4, Lunch $5, Dinner $6), the horse corral, the mule corral, and all important to us, the hill where we take all the fire pit ash to be dumped. We have a little Chevy pickup with several 30 gallon trash cans in the bed that, when full, have to be taken about seven miles away to Lindberg Hill and dumped in the designated spot for ashes. This same hill has several different disposal areas for different kinds of biodegradable waste like tree trunks and pine straw.
Something else that is "official" we can't do without a cell phone signal! I spent a good part of the morning on my bicycle roaming all around the campground trying to find a hot spot. Almost everywhere I can get one bar but that will not support a voice call, just simple text and sometimes not even that. I tried all the places everyone said that they had some luck but none of them worked for me. Finally I got a wild-hair idea; if the nearest cell tower is on the South Rim where everybody says it is then I need to get where I can see the South Rim. So off I go to the tent-only camping area where there is a point that looks directly across to the South Rim, ten miles away.
Boom! Four bars and 3G, I'm in business. It is not the most convenient use of the phone but at least a phone call is now possible. So, family and friends reading this that want to call, you may have to send a text and let us know you want to talk so we can hike out to the point and make the call.
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| That is the South Rim ten miles in the distance. This is the view in front of us as we make a phone call or do email. |
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| There is barely one foot of space between the front of the bench and the edge of the cliff, and no guard rail. I doubt we will be making very many nighttime calls. |
She was freaking out but we got her gathered up and went out to cell phone point and called, using our phone, the Dollar folks back in Cali. I don't think the guy with the roadside service understood where we were. He was going to dispatch a truck immediately out of Flagstaff, which would have put the truck in here somewhere in the middle of the night. I was persistent, firm even that he should make arrangements for the tow truck driver to start early in the morning and get here during the day. Finally he agreed. About 8:00pm the tow company called to confirm the pickup. We did not actually get a call as much as notifications of missed calls. I got out where I could call the number that had been trying and we made arrangements to swap out the miscreant Yaris with another car first thing in the morning. I walked over to the tent where the mother and daughter from England were and let them know, much to their relief, that they were going to get fixed up in the morning.
According to the full-time rangers around here, we had a pretty exciting day today. They said that there is hardly anything that ever happens on this side. But the South Rim is supposedly a whole different story.
I'm going to try to get to some new spots and catch some early morning and late evening light with the camera tomorrow but if the duties keep us as busy as today it may have to wait until our days off.
One last picture for today. I caught this little guy catching some rays and he did not seem bothered by me poking a camera in his face. It is hard to see but look closely for his tail. It is long and draped over the edge of the rock, he and his tail are almost a perfect match in color to the rock. I guess that is how he keeps from getting snatched up by an eagle or something in such an exposed position.
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