workin' for a livin'

I apologize for not posting until now.  No, it's not because I suddenly hate it here and couldn't bear to make up false fun times; it's a combination of having too much fun and working a lot!  The last few days, MK and I have been working the 1-9 shift, which I was initially dreading but now really like.  I sleep in pretty late and still have time to check my Facebook and email, eat staff lunch, and pack dinner before starting work.  During those hours, we do a combination of turning over rooms and houses for the new guests who are coming in, performing "rounds" (which means cleaning the great room, hallways, and public bathrooms in the lodge and the bowling alley), and turning down rooms for the night.  I think we would all agree that turndown is the favorite activity, but unfortunately that only takes about 30 minutes total right now.  We only have five guests.  Yes, that's right.  There are approximately 40 staff members here to serve five guests.  However, three of the guests are German travel writers and the other two are a honeymooning couple, so it could be less entertaining.

The worst part about the 1-9 shift is the walk home.  Staff housing is about a mile away from the lodge, and the lodge is about a mile away from the "henhouse," which is where we store all of the thrilling housekeeping supplies, like thousands of dollars worth of mini bottles for the guest fridges and color-coordinated towels for each area of the ranch.  Since everything is so spread out over the ten square miles of the ranch, the housekeeping staff has a truck named Topper that we drive everywhere we go.  The perk of the late shift is that Topper belongs to MK and me starting around 4:30 each day, but then we have to drive Topper back to the henhouse and walk the two miles home.  Tonight was the first night we've actually walked the whole way without someone offering us a ride.  No such luck tonight.  As a reward for our workout, we got to see the two new baby horses on the way home.  They stumbled across the road right in front of us!

We were supposed to have our weekly two days off tomorrow and Tuesday, but our friend Miranda invited us to go rafting with her and some friends in Yellowstone on Wednesday and Thursday.  Lucky for us, we have an awesome boss who switched up our schedule, and now we are free to go!  Next time I post, I promise to update you on the trip.  Sadly, Miranda is leaving the ranch after that trip.  She got a job in Missoula as a tennis instructor and is making a lot more than we make here, so she thought the opportunity was too good to pass up.  But she swore that this would not be the end of our friendship.  We actually think we'll see her more now because we were working complete opposite shifts for the last week and rarely saw each other.  Plus, since MK and I always have the same days off and Miranda can choose her own hours as a tennis coach, we can go on fun trips together (Miranda has a lakehouse nearby), so it's not too heartbreaking.

Til Yellowstone,
Claire