Day 80

Calories burned exercising today: 430



For close to nine months of my life I lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Living and working up around Yellowstone and the Tetons was a dream of mine from the time that I was just a wee lass. My family took vacations up there the majority of summers in my childhood. The summer of '08 I started work at a place that did chuckwagon dinner rides and a dinner shows in the city of Jackson Hole called the Bar-T-5.

Anyone who has spent a good deal of time talking to me knows how often the words, "When I lived up in Jackson, there was this one time that..." escape my lips. My time up there provided me with many of the most random and entertaining experiences from my entire life. I've decided to dedicate a post to my time there. As I sat in class jotting down my most epic memories, I quickly realized that one post was just not going to cut it. So, consider this part one in a series.

I'll start out by detailing my typical day on the job. I was better about this the second summer, but the first year I made a point of sleeping until the last possible second. I would then hurry and slap together a breakfast that I ate on my walk across the property to the kitchen.

Caught red handed assembling a sandwich for breakfast while I should be working

Once in the kitchen the five or six of us would began preparing the food for that evenings shows. We were responsible for preparing barbecue chicken, roast beef, brownies, and a whole mess of baked beans. If the wranglers (staff who worked with horses, maintained the grounds, and drove the guests to the show in wagons) finished with their work before we finished our work in the kitchen they would head over and help us finish up.

The kitchen crew hard at work

After we had everything ready for later on, we'd head into the main house for lunch, which was prepared by the staff cook. We'd all squish in at one huge table and then one smaller one off to the side. At first I was pretty uncomfortable with that, but it didn't take long until the crew felt more like family and I loved having everyone around the table laughing and telling stories.

I do not envy my bosses' food bill. I'm fairly certain the crew out-ate the horses

After lunch there would be some down time to quickly run any errands you needed to and get showered up. Then it was time for the kitchen crew to get in our levis, boots and button up shirts, grab our hats, and head out to load up the chuckwagon with all of our food and supplies that we needed for the show.

Loading up the beans and pots for the corn into the chuckwagon

After the chuckwagon was hitched up to a truck, we'd roll out and head up the canyon to what I liked to call "my office". We had a beautiful area in the forest next to a creek where we'd do most of the actual cooking over huge gas stoves, next to all the picnic tables we prepared for guests.

Getting the salad ready

This was one of my favorite parts of the day, because while we were waiting for the band to come and warm up, we'd be blasting country music on the speakers. Then my boss, Chris, would warm up with his guitar, and I could usually talk him into playing something by Garth Brooks. Then the band would warm up and we'd finish cooking and setting up camp and then listen on the walkie-talkies to hear that the wagons had started up the canyon. Then the guests would arrive.

The masses converge upon the pavilion 

After guests sat down, Chris would welcome them all and then we'd serve them their dinner. We'd then go around and collect plates and refill drinks. After most of the people finished eating, the show would start and a couple of the kitchen crew would grab as many of our dirty dishes as we could, load them into a truck, and head back to the kitchen to whip through as many dishes as possible before the show ended and the chuckwagon arrived with the rest. At that point, the whole kitchen crew would be in there. The commercial dishwasher doesn't hold a ton at once, but it only takes around one or two minutes, so there would be someone who's sole responsibility was to makes sure that was running continuously. A couple of people would be up to their armpits in dishwater and sanitizing water as they hand washed dishes. All of the dishes had to air dry over night, but the kitchen didn't have a ton of counter space, so one person's job was to grab all of the clean dishes and figure out how to stack and situate them so that everything fit. When things were in a really good flow, and we were feeling adventurous, the person on sanitation would just throw the clean dishes from the sink to the stacker. This was a risk because if somebody fumbled the dish, then it would have to go back through the cleaning again, and then you would be nobody's friend.

Everyone in their places for cleaning

Mopping and stacking

 When we finished up in the kitchen we'd head out to see if there was anything we could do to help the wranglers finish up with their work. Then all of us would gather together for a quick meeting where Chris could talk about any concerns. Then we'd all head back to the big house for dinner.

Fantastic night where we had burgers for dinner.
I really do love a good burger.

After dinner everyone usually ended up crowding in around the TV in the front room watching America's Funniest Home Videos (which have never been as funny as they were with that group) and then a movie. As the summer went on, more people would pair up and then movie time would turn into couple time on the couches. This bothered me, so I'd just go to my room and hang out there until I fell asleep. A few times we all piled into cars and the back of trucks and drove out of town and up a windy dirt road to where we could have a bonfire.

Pretty sure I was watching a couple of my co-workers dance around a huge fire

Some days on the job were tougher than others. In general, as with anything, the job was as hard as you made it.

Last winter I went up to Jackson to visit my bosses with a couple of coworkers, and I had an amazing realization. As we went around the last bend on highway 89 and the first part of Jackson came into view, the car suddenly got very quiet. I felt an unexpected lump form in my throat. I finally managed to get out, "It feels like I'm coming home. I mean, I just left home, but coming here gives me the same feeling."

Jackson Hole is my second home.