Settling In

Upon meeting many people on Friday night and Saturday morning I discovered how few of us serving in the Christian Ministry there actually are compared to the rest of the seasonal workers. There seems to be two age groups among the workers here at Signal Mountain: those in college or just out of college and people over fifty or retired. After my first shift in the gift shop I discovered I would be working with the latter age group.

My first Saturday consisted of me getting up to a dreary grey skied morning and milling around until I began work at three. I first learned the register and later all the other things that go along with the job. The rest of my time I spend cleaning. Many times I am cleaning things that I wouldn't even have noticed were dirty. I particularly enjoyed the hard to reach spots because they were actually dirty. My manager soon noticed my ability to be tall and I was soon harnessed to take care of other things. I am now merely a domesticated animal to carry out domestic tasks. Instead of a farm, this place is a high class gift shop. The upper echelons of souvenir shops (at least compared to what I've seen) When you walk in the store, everything shines at you. Reflections shooting off glass and frivolous knick-knacks that have been polished with seven layers of polish. For the most part, we keep the place gleaming. I guess people want things to shine at them when they buy postcards.

Saturday during dinner I met the two other ACMNP (A Christian Ministry in the National Parks) girls that would be living in the same Dorm area as me. Kayla and Katelyn: Kayla is from Kansas and Katelyn is from Tennessee. We decided to meet up after I finished work at 8 pm. We got to talk a little about our selves and ACMNP while playing some card games Saturday night.

The next day, Sunday, I went with Katelyn to another part of the park (Jackson Lake Lodge) where we lead a worship service. It was raining just like it had been since Saturday morning. We lead a service with two other girls from another part of the park (Colter Bay). I lead the Call to Worship and Offering while the girls did the rest of the service. We had one person come to our first morning service and three to our second morning service. After that I met the entire ACMNP crew that will be in the park. We hung out inside for the afternoon because it was snowing outside (don't ask me why I brought any shorts on this trip).

Sunday night we drove back from Jackson Lake Lodge and were barraged with wildlife. Actually, it wasn't anything more than hundreds of Elk and Mule dear munching on some grass. Inspiring is the only word to describe it. The rain/snow had taken a break and everything was saturated but the sun was beginning to set behind the clouds. It was like something out of Fern Gulley.

Monday morning came around and again, it was raining. It wasn't so bad seeing as I had to spend all day at the gift shop doing some more cleaning. After work, my friend Ashley and I drove out of the park in search of Bison. It was still raining. I don't think it every stops raining. What is this? Seattle? We eventually saw a couple Bison laying out in some distant field but it wasn't very exciting. Ashley and I decided to come back around to the park entrance where we eventually saw some cars stopped on the side of the road. (In a national park, stopping on the road means someone in a car in front of you saw an animal...then everyone stops) We stopped because it was an animal we had not seen before. It was like a deer and an Antelope combined. Actually, it was neither. It was a Proghorn and it was taunting a Coyote. The Coyote didn't seem to think it was higher on the food chain so the Proghorn would chase it into bushes and around the road. Eventually, they both ran off far enough from the road for us to not care anymore.

As we drove on, the clouds broke up and we could see the sun beginning to set above the mountains. I snapped a couple shots as we stopped next to a flowery meadow. It was a sight to behold. Here were these huge black mountains textured with cracks of white snow appearing from behind a curtain of mist. As the clouds and mist began to lift I went nuts with my camera. It made me realize how poorly a lens attempts to capture the sheer depth and grandeur of the landscape. If you want to look at my photographs to get a sample of what its like out here then fine, but you won't really get a taste of it until you are here experiencing it.

I spent the rest of Monday night putting together my bicycle and longboard as the rain resumed its pouring.