Jim K., We did extend our stay. They've been asking us to stay until the store closes on September 4th, but we weren't sure we wanted to. So far, we've had no problem with any system on the bus, so that has added to the pleasure of the trip. It has turned out to be an enjoyable job, with great views out the front door, and plenty of time to see things, fish, and hike when we are off work, so we have extended until the store closes.
The Lake General Store was built between 1918-1922 and is the oldest store in the Park. The frame is contructed from rough-cut lodge pole logs, and the foundation was just rocks laid in place. It's about 60' tall at the center of the store. They are closing a month early this year, so they can lift the entire building 6' off its foundation and construct a new foundation. The constant tremors and age have damaged the foundation, so they want to restore things as much as possible without changing the original architecture.
In addition to all us retired folks, we have about 12 exchange students from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Columbia and China. It has been very interesting learning about their customs, but I've decided I'm too old to learn much of their languages. Aside from working with a great group of people and having great scenery, the weather is the next best thing about being here. It usually drops to about 35-40 degrees every night and gets to 65-78 in the day. The sky is so clear and the air so clean, the temperature warms up as soon as the sun rises between 5 and 6 a.m., so I usually wear a short sleeve shirt to work at 7:30. I could keep on about the good things about the total experience of being here, but I'll stop before I bore everyone to death. On the down side, we have missed our family and church in Pensacola, but "HAVEN'T MISSED THE 100 DEGREE TEMPERATURE OR HUMIDITY AT ALL."
We went on a 5-mile mountain hike today and saw entire mountain sides covered with beautiful flowers of various colors. We also saw many wild animals. The highlight of the trip was seeing a grizzly bear playing in a lake all by himself. He seemed to be training for the olympics, just swimming back and forth in the lake. Don't see much like that in Florida.
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