Smokey the Bear...

The past 24 hours have been pretty spectacular! I had my first day of actual work. I went to the church in the morning to do the elementary school program called Promise U (as in University). I was only supposed to be there for about 2 hours until i went back to the house to do planning, but during that time a park ranger/fire fighter was supposed to come by with Smokey the Bear. Unfortunately, the person who normally wears the costume had to fight an actual forest fire here in Wyoming. Thankfully, a fellow intern stood in and took on the task. The best part is when our boss asked Smokey to dance to one of our songs... The link shows the events that unfolded...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GWwLYptARo
After our time with Smokey, I went and bought groceries and mowed the lawn... not nearly as eventful.
Later that night, myself and a couple other guys went for a short overnight hike into the Grand Teton National Park. We started hiking at around 7pm and had to trek in 6.5 miles. We made it to a camp site at around the 6.5 mile mark right around dark. We then hiked out at like 7:15am in order to make it back in time to go on our horse back riding trip (which i will elaborate on shortly). During our hike we saw a total of 4 moose, 3 porcupine, 1 beaver, and multiple rabbits. Not to mention the unbelievable scenery. ( again, i'll try to post pictures soon).
Then this afternoon we went on our horseback trip. We started off having lunch at a church members house; which was incredible! Then, she personally escorted us to the place with the horses. For the ride, my horse was Sheriff. we basically rode the horses up onto the top of a hill that was very Sound of Music picturesque. Needless to say, again we have been spoiled.
I can say that I am enjoying the country side of life and would like to have a horse in the future... just not Sheriff. Until next time...

I'm finally here!

Yesterday I left Pendleton, OR around 9am to start my trip to Jackson. During the drive I was pretty nervous after the 3 hour mark due to three things: it was around 100 degrees outside, my car is old, and the temperature gauge doesn't work on the car. These three factors caused for a very cautious drive with many stops. Eventually I had the temp. guage fixed at a Honda dealership. Once that was fixed I had an incredible amount of confidence and drove nearly straight from Twin Falls, ID to Jackson Hole. I arrived here around 10:15pm to a warm welcome with all of the other interns and our boss Sherry.

The drive in was incredible once I got onto Yellowstone Hwy. I basically followed the snake river all the way into Jackson and can easily see why the fishing is supposed to be so good hear. Not to mention the millions of bugs i killed on my way in. I'm excited to have a chance to go fishing.

Today I have the day off to rest which is allowing for me to put up this long post. This Sat. we are supposed to be going for a horseback riding trip which I am obviously excited for. According to the other guys, we get pretty spoiled by everyone. One of the pretty cool things for us guys is that there are apparently pretty distinct gender roles, so apparently we don't really cook any of our meals... Although I enjoy cooking a good meal, I think i'll allow this as I have never really been one to turn down a good meal :).

I'm just now beginning to learn what my roles are going to be here, but I will fill you in on that later once I know more. From what I do know, I am the oldest intern here (which is fine), and we will be putting on a couple overnight camps for middle and high school aged students which will be a lot of fun! That's all for now, adios amigos!