Arrival and Week 1

I arrived in South Pass City mid-morning on Thursday May 21 after a 1020 mile, four-day drive. I could have made it in three days, but decided to spend the night in Lander to fuel up, buy a few groceries, and relax.

I checked in at the office, no one was there, but ran into Ashley, a site employee and caught up for a few minutes. Wonderful spring weather in South Pass City. As I was backing up the trailer, getting in and out of the truck to check placement in my camping pad, checking level, etc., it began to sleet, then snow. The temperature was in the 30s and the wind was blowing pretty hard. I got some assistance with backing up from Jesse, one of the seasonal employees, and Curtis, a site employee. This save a number of extra in and outs from the truck. I unhitched the trailer, hooked up the water hose, power, and sewer line and hunkered down in the trailer and set up the inside from travel mode. A little later, warmed a bit, I set up the Starlink, and eventually put the landing gear down. All set.

 On Friday (May 22), I met with Joe Ellis the site superintendent and discussed my schedule- I don’t begin “working” until next Friday. Sweet! I got a building key and then walked around the site to stretch my legs and look into a few of the buildings. Ran into Ashley’s father, Gator, and talked with him a few minutes.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (May 23-25) were mostly spent fighting the computer. When away from the computer, I would walk the town and take a few photos and along the way brilliantly lost my building key. (I think it is hiding somewhere in the trailer.) I was able, luckily to get a replacement key! On Saturday, I set up the pellet smoker and smoked several day’s worth of hamburgers- Connie doesn’t arrive until Thursday, so variety is not a consideration, plus I really like hamburgers, so there. On Monday, I participated in an Interpretive training and met the other seasonal employee, Meg.

Tuesday (May 26), I spent a lot of the day working on the computer and taking photographs.

Finally, this leads up to today. I set up this blog, a bit of adventure, but much easier than the path I had attempted over the weekend trying to build a custom site. I stopped by the Dance Hall/Gift Shop on my way into town and met Jonna, a seasonal volunteer. After a brief chat, I continued on and walked the town, taking photographs, and then walked up to the cemetery- 140 ft of elevation change over 0.31 miles. At 7800-7900 ft elevation and I am not yet acclimated to the elevation. It was a tough third of a mile. I later returned and walked halfway up the hill to retake a panoramic photograph used on the landing page of this blog.

Not much of a post, but you gotta start somewhere.

For fun, I've been keeping a record of low - high temperatures at our trailer,.

Friday May 22       22 - 43 
Saturday May 23   31-64
Sunday May 24      46-67
Monday May 25    29-71
Tuesday May 26    42-66
Wednesday May 27    36-68