After six weeks of trying to make it work, Ann & I decided that working at the North Rim wasn’t such a great idea (for us) after all.

There are lots of little reasons things didn’t work out. We never adjusted well to the high altitude. As a matter of fact, Ann seemed to be suffering more as the weeks went on. Since we were working a lot, we didn’t have as much time for sightseeing as we would like, and what sightseeing we did do was very rushed. Add to that the fact that living in a 24 foot trailer is a lot of work! You are constantly doing dishes, washing clothes or cooking. Taking a shower is also a chore because the cat box lives in the shower, so it and everything else we store in the shower has to come out, and is in the way till we are done and the shower has dried out.

We also had a few issues with Forever Resorts, the company we worked for. In our humble opinions, they did not place a high priority on keeping their employees happy. Most of the times, half the employee washer & dryers were not working. We didn’t have internet access in the employee area for more that two weeks (they told us to either pay for our own DSL line or to use the Wi-Fi at the General Store, which required us to spend time waiting for the employee shuttle to get there and back).

It was not a horrible experience, however. We both really liked our jobs. And the best part of the whole thing were all of the new friends we have made there. Leaving them was really hard for us.

So, what’s next? Well, we are currently en-route to Ann’s Mother’s home in Montgomery, TX, with stops along the way in the Petrified Forest National Park, Albuquerque, Amarillo and Ft. Worth. We will spend the 4th of July there, then head back home to Cincinnati for a few days. After that, we are driving to Ormond Beach, FL to house sit for some North Rim friends till the end of October. Living a mile from the beach sounds like a good idea to us

We plan to take weekend trips to various locations in the area, so we will be keeping you updated!

If you havn’t looked lately, we now have Grand Canyon photos in our photo gallery (link on the right), so check them out an be on the lookout for more!

Due to the lack of a reliable Internet connection, I have not been keeping the Blog updated in a timely manner. I apologize for this and will attempt to get caught up over the next week or so, now that they have fixed the Wi-Fi (for now…)

Meanwhile, we will skip ahead in our travels to our arrival at the North Rim.

There are two major areas in the Grand Canyon National Park: the South Rim and the North Rim. The South Rim is where most people go, do to it’s relative closeness to Interstate 40 and Flagstaff, AZ. This is where you will find the famous Grand Canyon Sky Walk, a glass bottom platform that hangs out over the canyon’s rim.

The North Rim is isolated and much less commercialized. It is located on the Kaibab Plateau, and is over 1200 feet higher in elevation than the South Rim. Where the South Rim is a more arid and desert like, the North Rim is covered with towering Ponderosa Pine and Quaking Aspen trees. The normal August high temperature is in the low 80′s.

Here is what I mean when I say the North Rim is isolated. The nearest town with a commercial airport is St. George, Utah, a three hour drive from the Lodge at the National Park. The nearest Walmart is two hours away in Page, AZ. Las Vegas is four and a half hours away.

When we arrived here on May 10th. there was still a lot of snow on the ground in the Kaibab National Forest, which lies outside the National Park. As a matter of fact, the road to the park, Highway 67, had been plowed of the winter snows less than a month before. Highs were in the 40′s and lows were often below freezing. None of the Aspen trees had any leaves.

Most of the people who work here live in dorms, with two or three to a room. They all eat in a common employee dining room, that serves cafeteria style meals. They pay $12 a day for room and board. They also have a RV “park”, which is where Ann & I are. We pay $6.50 a day for full hookups, free propane and free laundry facilities (the National Park campground here has no hookups and you have to pay $2.00 for a shower).

Many of the employees here have no car. Forever Resorts (the people we work for) picks them up in St.George, Utah and brings them here. They usually have a van that goes to St. George or Page, AZ for shopping trips once a week or so. They also make impromptu trips to take back folks that have either quit or have been fired.

They also run different sight seeing trips for employees to local sights, such as Zion or Bryce Canyon National Parks, rafting trips on the Colorado River or to places in the Grand Canyon & National Forest. There is a nominal charge for some of these trips.

The people here vary widely. We have house keepers and kitchen help from local native American reservations, as well as St. George and Las Vegas. We have a lot more of us “mature” workers here than I expected. I would hazard a guess that 30% or more are over 30 years old.

Most of the people that I have spoken to are hear for one reason: they can’t find a job elsewhere. However, there is a group that work the seasonal park job circuit year round. After they leave here in mid October, they will eather go south, to parks such as Big Bend in Texas or go to work at the ski resorts up north for the winter.

Enough for now. Next up will be our work experiences, so far….