3 rules

If you are an employee in a national park and your job involves driving a vehicle in the park there are 3 rules you Cannot break.

1. You Must wear your seat belt at all times.

2. You must keep your headlights turned on.

3. When stopping or parking the vehicle you MUST pull the emergency break.

If you have ever been the Mesa Verde, you know that the road into the park is narrow, twisty, and steep. Last night there was a man from maintenance mowing some grass on the side of the road. As he is mowing, he looks up just in time to see his truck flying off the edge of a Thousand foot cliff, one of the highest points in the park, and suddenly remembers. He forgot to pull the E Break.

Since he wasn't actually In the truck, they waited until today to figure out how to pull the completely totaled truck with 100 gallons of gasoline on the back of it (which by some miracle did Not catch of fire when it hit the bottom) back up onto the road without it catching on fire. They brought up tow trucks, they flew helicopters in to see what would be needed, and had 3-4 fire trucks on the road to prevent catching the forest on fire. All of this on the one road used to get in and out of the park. They decided to start at 12. so from noon on they would close the road for 30 min, then open one lane for 30 min, then close the entire thing again.
I got off work at 3 today, and normally there is a shuttle leaving the park at 3, so it would have worked out pretty well. except for the fact that the shuttle got stuck in stop and go traffic on its way down and then stuck on its way back up. One of the restaurants here opens at 5, so all the servers take the 3:45 shuttle up to work. At 4:30 we got a phone call from one of the servers on the shuttle saying they were stuck about 25 min away from work and the road would be closed for 20 min. At this point, I've been waiting for the shuttle for an hour and a half, people were starting to get a little frustrated, and now the servers couldn't make it up to work.... Awesome.
Thankfully the cooks come to work before 3:45, so they were there to prepare the food and feed all of us :)

I don't think I've even been more happy to see those servers than I was when they walked through the door and announced that the shuttle was there. I got home at around 6. Looking back on it, its actually pretty funny. One guy forgets to pull the E break One time, and it throws off the system of an entire national park.


Oh! And they finally managed to pull the mangled truck up onto the side of the road. It took a couple really big special tow trucks, but they got it :)

week 1

To get to work each day I have to take the shuttle. It takes between 30-45 min to get all the way up the twisting bumpy road to the lodge. I work at the front desk, checking people in and out of their rooms and booking tours of the park for our guests. Right next to the front desk is one of the 2 places to get food in the evenings. The metate room. Each night the chiefs make a special meal for the employees to eat, and then get to work of preparing food for the rest of the night. I work with 2 girls from Brazil and one from Jamaica. They are all very sweet and helpful! I love my job. After work I normally come home, change clothes, and head over to the boys house to see what they are up to. Most nights they have dinner all ready and are just finishing setting the table. So far I've tried sushi, frog legs, and cow tongue. They love making things I've never tried before. and I love eating it, because, talk about your cultural experiences!! But speaking of dinner, I have to go eat and then off to bed! There's a shuttle with my name on it at 6 tomorrow morning!! I'll try to write more tomorrow on the way to work!

Unexpected Beginning...

Picture a town. Population just over 1000 people. There are 2 gas stations. There is no other town for miles.

8 miles outside this town is a little cluster of 'Wobs' (Sheds that are big enough for 2 twin beds with about 3 feet of space between them where 2 people live) and a couple of ‘Mods’ (little houses that up to 6 people can live in). This is my new home.

When I accepted a job at Mesa Verde I wasn’t sure what to expect. I expected it to be hot. I expected there to be a lot of people. But I had no idea what was actually waiting for me.

One of the first people I met was a man named Claudio. He is from Romania. Then Lane, from the Philippians, Frank is native American, the list goes on and on. Every day I meet new people from different places, of different nationalities. At first I thought it might be hard to connect with many of them and become friends, so I was somewhat hesitant. I didn’t know how much we would actually have in common, or if they even wanted to be my friend.. Last night I went over to a mod where a couple of guys live and tried different kinds of sushi. It was So much fun!! I was shocked at how comfortable I felt around these people who I had thought would be SO different from me, and would be hard to connect with. Claudio made dinner for everyone and we sat down together to eat. An Ipod was playing music in the backround, a mixture of music from all the different cultures. Towards the end of the night I was starting to recognize words out of songs and could remember what they ment. So far, everyone I’ve met has been concerned about me being comfortable and me having everything that I need. J

Today will be my first day of work at the lodge. I’m Very excited to meet more people I work with and I hope to learn more about their cultures throughout the rest of my summer!!

I also have family home evening tonight with the singles group from the wards in towns nearby. I’m very excited!!