July 3-6 (A few rough days!)

**Photo from the ride to Jackson, Wyoming! I love the Grand Tetons!**


Oh these last few days have been extremely eventful, some for the good and some for the bad.

On July 3rd, Spencer and I drove some Colombians, a Russian, and a Mongolian to Cody for what I thought would most likely be a fun day. Number 1, traffic sucked and it took us way too long to get there. Then, after way too long of a stay in WalMart, we walked around town and ate dinner at the local Pizza Hut. I thought that we could go to the Cody Rodeo and go swimming in Buffalo Bill Resevoir, but some people like to complain too much so we just came home. It was a waste of 5 hours of driving time.

On the 4th, we left and went to Jackson. The ride down didn't take terribly long and this time the car wasn't too full. We had a car full of Colombians again. They'd never experienced 4th of July so we thought we'd show them a good time. Jackson was nice for the day. We did some shopping (but it was extremely hot and uncomfortable to walk in) and then ate some dinner at Wendy's. We met up with other Xanterra employees while we were there and then decided to go to the Jackson Rodeo. It was a great rodeo! Standing room only because it was so packed, but fun nonetheless. We also were able to watch the fireworks from the rodeo grounds as the shot them off from the base of Snowking Ski/Recreation area. The fireworks lit the hillside on fire b/c it's soooo dry here.

Well, on the way back I got pulled over for swerving off the road and speeding. B/c I was tired and it made my eyes bloodshot, the officer asked me what I had to drink. When I said nothing, he then asked what drugs I had smoked that night. Again...none. Well, he didn't buy my story so I ended up on the side of the road in Grand Teton National Park at 2:30 in the morning standing on one foot, walking a straight line, following a pen with my eyes, and blowing a breathalizer (which I blew 0.00 if you need to know). It seems all my coworkers passed me in cars while I'm doing this, so many people had questions when I returned.

Well, we got back to find that 4 of our Colombian friends had never made it to Jackson. They tried to hitchike and got stuck at Flagg Ranch. Spencer and I stayed up all night with security and on the phone with operators trying to trace phone numbers and see where exactly they were at (to top it off, one of the girls left a bag of food for 5 weeks on her floor and there were hundreds of maggots crawling all over her floor, so we had to vacuum that). Well, just when we were about to get on the road to starting searching the area for them, they showed back up (having gotten to Jackson at 1 am and hitchiking another ride home).

At this point, we finally went to sleep to be awakened in the morning to find out that the security guard had messed up the messages to the National Park Service. Spencer and I were reported as missing persons throughout Yellowstone National Park. We spent the next 2 hours in meetings with supervisors trying to explain to them that we weren't missing and what exactly had happened.

Well, I eventually had to work that night...the vacuums weren't working and everything was so busy. So I couldn't vacuum and I awoke this morning to my boss pounding on my door to yell at me (She's mean, I don't care for her). But, after our talk and her realizing it's not my fault, she starts placing the blame on everyone else and pretty much badmouthing everyone else we work with. Blah. That sucked...so now I have to come in at 8 am tomorrow and work till noon. Then back at 6 pm to do my normal shift.

After that work fiasco, I took Colombians to Firehole River to swim b/c it was one of their birthdays and she wanted to. It was fun, but really warm!

That's all. Tired of typing. Keep me in your prayers and you'll be in mine!