Settling Into Life in Canyon Village

Our first weeks in Yellowstone have been wonderful.  James and I are settling into our new life and finding enjoyment in the simplicity of just living.

Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

The snow has receded in the weeks since we’ve arrived as spring makes its way to the upper elevations.  James and I have been taking walks in anticipation of the hiking trails opening so that we can condition ourselves to the altitude. The general store sells a shirt that says “Got Oxygen?” …which is very appropriate since the air is thinner here.  We have to be very careful to drink lots of water to stay hydrated and healthy.
As the snow started melting we were anxious to get to our picnic table and fire ring that were buried in the snow.  James did a great job digging them out and we enjoyed our first campfire of the season.

Campfire Trout

Other highlights of our first few weeks in the park:

Chico Hot Springs:  Our new boss took the Central District group out to Chico Hot Springs for soaking and dinner.  Chico Hot Springs is located in Paradise Valley. It is a resort that channels water from the nearby hot spring into soaking pools. One Pool is about 98 degrees, and the other is 104 degrees.  It has a hotel, formal dining room and a grill.

Chico Hot Springs Saloon & Grill

Pool at Chico Hot Springs

National Park Service Training – On May 22, 2014 we went to Mammoth Hot Springs for the National Park Service Resource Training. We heard from park experts on Bison, Wolves, Fish and Birds, as well as management issues and challenges that the NPS faces with managing Yellowstone National Park. It was very eye opening. I have a new respect for the Park Service and the amazing and passionate work that they do to help protect Yellowstone.

The park has 3.5 million visitors every year. Managing that level of human impact on the Yellowstone ecosystem is a monumental task in and of itself…add to that the challenges of performing that job with the limited resources that the NPS has and you quickly realize that the protection of this park is in danger.  There are issues with Non-native species (such as Lake Trout that are destroying the native Cut Throat Trout), and political issues from special interest groups (such as the legislation that is on the Senate floor to open all of Yellowstone’s waterways to boating/paddling and tubing) without consideration to the impacts on the ecosystem and wildlife (not to mention visitor safety). These issues and others endanger this magnificent national treasure and are challenges to the future of this amazing place. It makes me very proud to work for the Yellowstone Association, which provides so much support to the park to help educate visitors with the hopes of inspiring them to help protect and preserve Yellowstone.

We ended our park service training day with a Yellowstone Association BBQ at the Arch Park. After spending the day learning about the park and the challenges it faces, the words on the Roosevelt Arch are becoming more significant to me: “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people”.  Yellowstone is a place that should be preserved and protected for future generations.

Paradise Valley-- The Road into Yellowstone

Friday, May 2, 2014

The drive between Livingston, Montana and the North Entrance (Gardiner, MT) to Yellowstone National Park is beautiful.  It is called Paradise Valley and it basically follows the Yellowstone River into the park.

Paradise Valley

The views are absolutely amazing and the wildlife is plentiful. Before arriving in Gardiner there was Bison that was in the road. Some folks on horseback were trying to herd it out of the road and back into the park lands.

Paradise Valley --Bison in the Road -- being herded back to park lands

We followed our new friends, Dave and Sue, as we made our way to Gardiner to the Yellowstone Association headquarters and then entered the park through the legendary Roosevelt Arch. The day was clear and beautiful with a little bit of wind.

"For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People" The Roosevelt Arch

We followed the road into the park past Mammoth Hot Springs.  Thermal features are one of the things I find the most fascinating about Yellowstone.  You are just driving along and the landscape completely changes and you see steam and mud gurgling up from the earth. Even the ground is wild and alive.

Mammoth Hot Springs

We wanted adventure… and that is exactly what we got on the drive in. 

After passing Mammoth Hot Springs we began our assent to Canyon Village (elevation 7918 ft. – the highest habitable area of the park) though the winding roads that led to the Norris Geyser Basin.  This turned out to be a whole new experience in white-knuckle driving.  I had read that the drive from Mammoth to Norris was one of the easiest for folks taking an RV to the upper elevations.  I don’t even want to know what a “difficult pass” would look like. 

We are definitely flatlanders. The drive to Norris had James with a kung-fu grip on the steering wheel while I had a death-grip on the console and the armrest, as if that would somehow keep us from falling over a cliff.   I think we both began to question our sanity about undertaking this adventure…as the words “what have we done?” seemed to escape my lips on few occasions. 

But we pressed on…following Dave and Sue to Norris.  At Norris we stopped in the picnic area to take a bathroom break.  The look on our faces must have been priceless as we looked around and shook the blood back into our arms and hands. Dave and Sue assured us that the worst was over and the drive to Canyon would be fine. 

They were right.

We headed into the employee campground at Canyon Village to find our site plowed and with banks of snow that were about 4-8 ft high and began to set up camp.

We had arrived. The journey across our beautiful country was over, and now we had the privilege of calling Yellowstone National Park home for the summer. 

Our adventure is just beginning...

Buffalo Wyoming-- The Wild West

A high wind advisory on I-90 on our route from Douglas Wyoming to Sheridan Wyoming turned us around and made us look for a nearby campground to settle in for the night until the winds passed.

Well, the winter weather lingered and one night turned into four in Buffalo. We stayed at the Indian Campground and per the owners suggestion we kept a close watch on the Wyoming Dept of Transportation website for the advisories.  Every morning we would wake up with the anticipation of leaving but the wind just would not stop. For the first three days it wasn't only windy, but rainy and snowy too. Finally on the fourth day, it stopped raining and snowing.  Even though the wind advisory (which showed an extreme blow over risk for trailers) still kept us from proceeding to Montana, we had enough of a break in the weather to go explore the town of Buffalo, Wyoming.

We visited the Historic Occidental Hotel and Saloon where many legendary Wild West figures like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Calamity Jane, President Teddy Roosevelt and President Herbert Hoover stayed during their travels west.  It was a beautiful and fun place to visit.

Occidental Hotel and Saloon

We also walked around the town of Buffalo and enjoyed the beautiful (although blustery) day.

When we returned to the campground we started talking with another couple that was staying at the Indian Campground to wait out the windy weather.  It turns out that they were also on their way to Yellowstone and were actually our co-workers in the Yellowstone Association Canyon Bookstore!   Meeting Dave and Sue was truly a blessing.  We met them for dinner and they shared information with us about their experiences in Yellowstone and working for the bookstore.  They even offered to lead us into the park.  We were so grateful for their help and friendship. So after a wonderful dinner with them at Winchester's Steakhouse in Buffalo.  We went back to the campground to prepare to leave for Livingston Montana where we would meet Dave and Sue to complete our journey to Yellowstone.

The Road from Florida to Wyoming

Everyday on the road has been a learning experience.   

Setting up camp our first night in Cedar Key( in the rain) we learned that it is important to make sure all your faucets are turned off before turning on the water. We flooded our outside kitchen because we turned on the water to the camper without realizing that the faucet in the outside kitchen was on.

In Quanah Texas (where?? -- part of tornado alley) we learned that as part of the check-in process at the campground they show you where the tornado shelter is!  We also learned the importance of our NOAA radio that blared out a warning of an approaching storm that had us scrambling to prepare a go-bag to go into said shelter.

In Amarillo Texas we learned about the importance of wheel chocks while we where jacking up the trailer to unhitch and it "very uncomfortably" shifted backward slightly on the leveling blocks. eek!

Last night, in Douglas Wyoming we learned that the East Entrance to Yellowstone  will remain closed due to snow and possible avalanches ( what??!! lol) -- so we will need to add an additional 400+ miles to our journey to enter the park through the North Entrance in Gardner Montana.

And today, we learned  a new lesson in "white-knuckle driving".  A high wind advisory (50 mph wind gusts) is not something you ever want to drive your trailer through. So we found the closest campground and settled in early to wait out the weather in Buffalo, WY.

Every day has had  its challenges and learning experiences -- but more importantly every day has brought with it amazing blessings.

We live in an amazing country.  America the Beautiful has taken on a whole new meaning for me as we have traveled.  God has indeed blessed us all with an amazing place to call home...from the gulf coast of Florida to the Great Plains to the Majestic Rocky Mountains.  Everyday I am more amazed by what I see.

Carrabelle, FL -- Ho-Hum RV Park

Mobile, Alabama - Shady Acres RV Park

Monroe, Louisiana 

Grand Prairie, Texas

Quanah, Texas

Amarillo, Texas

Limon, Colorado

Douglas, Wyoming

And most importantly--I am blessed to enjoy this journey with the love of my life.  We learn, laugh, get irritated, and get silly together everyday.  And everyday, I learn to love him more as I get to see on a daily basis what a wonderful person he really is.

To Adventure, To Family, To Health and To Love...

The week after my "retirement" was one of the busiests weeks of my life. Downsizing 22+ years of "stuff" and preparing to live in a 25 ft. trailer for half a year has been exciting but also challenging. For every item James and I crossed off our To-Do list... It seemed like  two or three more were added. 

However, as busy as we were, we knew it was important to spend time with our family before we left. On Wednesday, Jimmy was off from work so we all spent time together and visited my mother and James' mother. On Thursday, James visited the fire stations and even though we were packing our last minute items we made time to enjoy dinner together and have a family toast. We toasted; "To Adventure, To Family, To Health and To Love "...

With Jimmy leaving for his Peace Corp service in August-- It would likely be a long while before we saw each other in person again. 

It was one of those bittersweet moments as a parent -- when you realize that your life path and your child's life path are splitting off from each other. And even though we are all anticipating great things, the reality is that our paths through life are different. 

So after saying our goodbyes, in what was a very surreal moment we set off on our adventure. 

Our first stop was Cedar Key. The place where the possibility of this journey became a reality for us. We would have loved to be able to stay at Low Key Hideaway again... But unfortunately, they were booked. So we opted for Sunset Isle which is within walking distance. We wanted to be sure to stop by the Low Key Hideaway Tiki Bar and see Pat & Cindy to thank them for their encouragement and inspiration for this journey. 

Our first day on the road ended with a beautiful Cedar Key sunset. It was a beautiful sunset both literally and figuratively. A beautiful end to our first day as adventurers... And a figurative end to our lives of complacency. 

We are headed to Yellowstone. Let the adventure begin. 

Faith and Fear

At the end of 2013 we made a decision that 2014 would be a year of change.  

We had celebrated our son's college graduation and felt that the sacrifices and struggles that we faced to build a stable life and give him the opportunity to step into adulthood with a good foundation and education had come to fruition. It was (and is) a feeling of intense satisfaction. And, it provided a sense of closure to a period of our lives-- parenting would be different going forward.   

So what now? What about us?

We both had stable jobs, a nice home and very routine lives that kept us busy.  But busy does not always translate to fulfilling -- and the more we contemplated the day-to-day routine of our lives the more we realized that we wanted more. Not more material things...not more trappings or things to keep us busy...we wanted more freedom and we wanted (actually needed) more adventure. So in essence we decided we needed much less of what we currently have...and that it was time to simplify and change.

But how do you go about breaking out of a 22+ year routine? 

By facing your fears and taking a chance. The call that came in from the Yellowstone Association with the job offers for the 2014 Summer Season in Yellowstone National Park was that chance.  And in a surreal moment -- we accepted -- and then spent the rest of the following days in a daze not believing what we had done. Don't  get me wrong -- we had dreamed and planned for this for years. But dreaming and planning, and actually taking action to set the plan in motion where two different things.

In the months that followed, I could feel two feelings creeping up from the pit of my stomach. 

The first was fear. Are we nuts? Leaving a good job of 20+ years with benefits and stability at a huge financial firm? My husband, leaving the fire service after working so hard to advance his career in our home town fire department.  The fear was gripping and tangible -- it came in these cold waves that would give me chills and goosebumps. I could feel the surge of fear and panic inside me -- what if this is the wrong choice? What if this decision hurts everything that we've worked so hard for?

The second feeling was different. It was warm and steady. I could feel it rising from my gut to take the chill of fear away when the panic set in. It wasn't an icey blast ...it was a warm ember. It was Faith.  Burning low hot it was a fire inside me that I had not felt in a while--- a passion for life, adventure and the thrill of breaking out of the routine and trying something new.  To all of the "what if's" that my fears brought to mind it would answer, "why not?". It was the twinkle in our eye as we talked about beginning this adventure.

So we continue to move forward in Faith and prepare for a new future.

Today is the start of our future lives -- 

I've officially retired from the bank, James left the fire service and is home for North Dakota and Jimmy received his official invitation to serve from the Peace Corp.  We received our campsite assignment from the Yellowstone Association and we are one week from launching on the adventure of our lives.

Lots to do...but taking a moment to take it all in and realize how blessed we really are.

James' Farewell Celebration from the Orange City Fire Department at O'Leary's in Debary.

Happy New Year!!!

2014 will be a year of big changes for the Everetts!