SNOW, SNOW, GO AWAY!

May 17th - We're starting to get cabin fever here.  We're not making any money as we can't get to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park to the Trail Ridge Store to shovel it out. A winter storm warning has been issued for tonight for the high country. The National Park Service hasn't issued our park passes yet either for us to explore the park. We have to wait for the National Park Service to give us the okay to drive up there.  And once shoveled out, then we will need to get all the merchandise transported up there and organized.  Memorial Day is coming too early to this area this year!  We do get to watch the elk walk within 50 yards of our housing unit every day; we're waiting for the females to give birth to their white spotted calves.

Today I had orientation, but we had a couple of hours to kill before dinner.  My friend, Teresa, and I went for a hike around Lily Lake.  The clouds have been really low all day, and Lily Lake was quite shrouded.  We saw a beaver hauling lodge materials, pasqueflowers, chipmunks, pussy willows, a mountain bluejay, several ringnecked ducks (a new species for me), and an unknown wildflower emerging.  Rain is falling as I write this, and the temperature is dropping!

a shrouded Lily Lake

May 18th - SNOW! SNOW!  I woke up to snow, all day we received precipitation that fluttered between rain and snow, and now it's snowing huge moist flakes.  I worked all day counting   inventory, and marking prices on store merchandise.  The cooks here, Riley, Charlie and Carol, are feeding us great home cooked meals, and we can't get any physical exercise as the weather is a pain. After dinner, Teresa and I went to a black and white movie entitled "Of Human Bondage" at the library.  The movie is based of the book of the same title written in 1915 as Rocky Mountain National Park is celebrating its centennial.

May 19th view toward the mts