Tourists

Sometimes I can't decide if I'm a tourist or a park insider. After spending two or so weeks at Many Glacier (on the East side of the park), I feel like I know a lot of the rangers and trail crew members. I don't have a heart attack when I see unusual creatures. I don't buy huckleberry jam and bear bells (I know I bought you jam parents, but it is simply a Montana right of passage to eat huckleberry!). But I'm still struck by the mountains in the way that a tourist is. And I still find snowball fights in July a very strange paradox.

I made a bet with my crew leader jack last week that if any tourist took our picture I would cook dinner on his dinner night. No tourist took our picture on our first east Glacier hitch but it turns out that that was just because we were on a less popular trail. THIS week, shoveling snow (in july) and on VERY POPULAR trails, we got our pictures taken at least 15 times. Thankfully I didn't bet one dinner for every picture! Needless to say...I lost. (see the picture above of the tourist taking our picture during our morning break).

I laugh at how predictable even the widest array of people are. While shoveling out a snowfield on the Iceburg Lake Trail today, I was reminded by the passing tourists of my job at the restaurant villegas a few summers ago. As a server assistant, it was my responsibility to ask patrons if they would like dessert menus, which always prompted a handful of reused (and eventually highly UNCLEVER) quips such as "oh I shouldn't." "I am absolutely bursting." "Who can say no to chocolate?" They could never just say YES OR NO and I always got the distinct impression that they found themselves clever and original while attempting diffuse their dessert-wanting guilt.

Anyway (tangent done)... tourists are very similar. They all think they're clever yet they ALL SAY THE SAME THING. They would all invariably come around the bend, see us shoveling, take a picture of the snow field which we had nearly buried ourselves up to our yellow hardhats in, and say something along the lines of "YOU'RE SHOVELING IN JULY!" "Wow! Natural Air conditioning!" or "Got any beers in there?."

On their return route they would say "wow, you've made progress!" They ESPECIALLY liked getting pictures of our snowball fights.

By the end of the afternoon, despite their outspoken appreciation of our effort, I had had my fill of tourists, just has I had had my fill of guilty dessert-loving restaurant patrons. You can only laugh so many times at the same joke and you can only lend your shovel for photo opportunities so many times before your work is inhibited!!!!

I'm still confused about whether or not I'm a tourist. But I certainly do think that today I am jaded by their predictability.

Well, I'm tired and I'm off!!!! Perhaps to think about new quips regarding dessert and snow....