Alas, We're Running out of Sarsaparilla

-

 

Rabbit brush and lupines in bloom outside the Miner's Exchange Saloon, South Pass City State Historic Site, Wyoming. 
 
Rabbit brush and lupines in bloom outside the Miner's Exchange Saloon. 

Gator and I, once again, met at the shop and took sarsaparilla to the Miner's Exchange Saloon. At the start of the weekend, we had 25 bottles of sarsaparilla left to sell at the saloon. (The gift shop has a somewhat larger stock.) A decision was made to sell out our stock and order no more for this year. The saloon will only be open one or two more weeks and excess sodas over winter is a real problem here with the cold, cold winters.

Anyway, I have been trying to push sarsaparilla sales. To no great effect. I sold seven bottles today, leaving us, well, Gator, with six or seven bottles for next week.

Today was a pretty calm day, but interesting. I had 25 visitors, plus one hiker who stood outside and peeked in, and no dogs. I had a couple fun conversations today plus had time to work on my Lovejoy project. 

The first visitor, today, was from California. He is interested in ghost towns, artifacts, and old wagons. We shared stories for almost 50 minutes. We ended up talking about honey. He sets out bee hives around this area- I see them all the time- and so we shared honey stories. (Bee honey stories.)

A bit later a woman and 10-yr old, or so, boy came in. They were looking around the saloon while waiting to go on the Carissa tour. We talked about the tour for a couple of minutes and she asked if I was giving tour. I told her I was not. She then told me that she and her son had taken the tour a couple of years ago and I had led the tour. I did give the tour several times that year- I enjoy doing it, but this year have been in Smith Sherlock Company Store and the Saloon almost all the time. I enjoy it all.

I had a few good conversations about sarsaparilla. It's history, manufacture, and so on. 

Just before closing, I had a 60s+ couple come by the saloon. Let's just say they wore, probably, the minimum clothing allowed by law and openly displayed an abundance, no, make that an over abundance, of adipose tissue. Too funny.

Today went quickly and I closed the saloon at 4:00, as always, and came home.

I grilled some "chops" that I cut from a pork loin, which turned out great, and a couple of ears of corn. I served the chops with a mushroom and onion gravy that I made before starting the grill.

After dinner, listened to a pod cast, read, and wrote. Standard evening activities. We got a couple of nice, but short rains this evening. It has been a dry summer and we listening to the rain, which can be heard quite well through the trailer ceiling.

Another week is in the books. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

About

-
 I volunteered at South Pass City (SPC) in May-October 2023. During that season, I read the journals written by Doctor Walter Lovejoy and his brother Fred, which had been obtained by SPC in 2007. These journals were written between 1886 and 1904, intermittently, were interesting and painted a vivid picture of life in South Pass City and early Wyoming.  The journals had served as background information for a number of interpretive writings, but I thought they warranted a more thorough presentation. So, I began thinking about publishing the journals in some format. Much of my volunteer time was spent in the recently opened Smith Sherlock Company Store exhibit- greeting visitors and telling them about the store. When I had time on my hands, I would examine the labels on canned (and other) goods in the exhibit. Later, at home, I would research the labels and learned a lot of interesting history, which I incorporated into my presentations in the store. I had the idea of presenting ...
Read more

Arrival and Week 1

-
Image
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 g...
Read more

A Day of Routine Household Activities

-
Image
  Our Clamshell shelter on the bank of Willow Creek It started off cool today, the morning low was 32, but it warmed up nicely. I did a little computer work this morning and then we took advantage of the nice weather to drag the last of our stuff out of the truck and finish setting up "camp." First, I set up our propane (Coleman Roadtrip) grill. Next, Connie and I set up our Quickset Clamshell shelter for use as a workout area. I secured the shelter with ground anchors. We'll see how it stands up to Wyoming winds. Finally, we set up a folding table that we place near our outdoor shower. We use this table and the shower spigot to wash dishes, prepare food, and clean fish. After spending $250 on fishing licenses, I hope there is a fair bit of fish cleaning this summer. We have access to a nearby garage that is owned by SPC, so we stowed a few items there, including our dumbbells. Once we get a tote to store the dumbbells in, we'll move them to the Clamshell, which is wh...
Read more