NO JOBS

We had hoped to spend this summer at the south rim of the Grand Canyon, work camping, as we have at various other locations during past summers. Patty had been successful in her search for a job, and had secured a position at the main gift shop/grocery store in the south rim village. When accepting the job, she told the supervisor that it was contingent on me being hired as a shuttle bus driver, and on a place to park the motor home.

A couple of days ago, I was indeed offered a bus driving job, but there were no more spaces in the one RV park at the south rim village. It appears that each of the 3 concessionaires, and the park service, have a few subsidized spaces allocated for employees, but they are evidently hard to come by. Those spaces are given to longer term, more senior employees, and with me just starting, I'm on the bottom of the totem pole. The only other options would be to park at the desert view campground, or in Valle, each about 25 miles from the south rim. The one RV park in Tusayan, just outside the south rim gates does not allow monthly rentals, so the alternatives were very limited. With both of us probably working different hours, and possibly different days off, having to commute any distance just wouldn't be realistic. With our animals, the need to have 2 vehicles, and the extra cost of commuting 100 miles a day, I decided to say thanks, but no thanks.

That's the bad news. The good news is that we both get to be summer bums for the 3rd year in a row, and we won't miss a few things that we would have, if we were working at the Grand Canyon. The plan is to secure the house, and leave around the end of next month, with the first stop in CA. We will be able to attend the wedding of Everett & Lori East's son Trevor, to Kelsey on June 11th. From there, we'll be heading north, and spending most of the summer in Oregon & Washington as we did last year. At least that's the plan as of this morning.