First day in Uniform

In order to make this a bit more readable, I'm going to split up the posts from yesterday and today. Yesterday (Monday) was my first day in uniform. Seeing as I am new to this job, I spent the day shadowing another ranger, so I could better learn the ropes. My main job is to interact with the public and answer questions. And I love it!!

Most days we work 7:30am-5:30pm with an hour lunch. Some days though, as it was yesterday, we work 10am - 8pm. There are yet more schedules, but I won't go into those yet. We started off the day riding the village bus, answering questions, and basically just entertaining people. I probably was asked a hundred times if I was a seasonal employee, and why my hat wasn't like the one worn by the woman I was shadowing. It was a blast!!

At one point while riding the bus a gentleman asked me if I thought the canyon was formed by creation or evolution. I told him I believed in a mix of both, to which he replied "Have you ever considered a career in politics?" Sometimes we were asked if we had to go through physical training for our jobs, to which we replied "We are required to be able to run down into the canyon and back out in 3 hours." It's a minimum 14 mile round trip down to the river and back, and obviously a fib.

After riding the buses for a bit we went to the Train Depot where a train from Williams comes in once (or maybe twice) a day. The cool thing is the staff on the train dress up in period costumes and apparently have bandits come on the train. Very neat!!

After lunch I went over to the Visitor Center to walk around and answer questions. The woman I was shadowing was off running other errands, so for the first time that day I was on my own. No more than five minutes in to my time there a gentleman came running up to me shouting that I needed to arrest someone for him due to a physical/verbal dispute between the two. After making the call to dispatch and getting some law enforcement out on the site, and answering questions for the officers, I was able to continue on my rounds. Wow... a crazy first day!!

Shortly after the incident I was walking along when a french-speaking couple came up to me talking quickly in french pointing to the glass and their eyes. I finally realized they were talking about the Skywalk. For those of you who don't know, the Skywalk is in the Hulapai Reservation, five hours west of Grand Canyon. It is privately owned, and you pay $75 to walk out onto it. You are not allowed to use your camera on it. In any case I was unable to get them to understand this, so I took them up to a big poster saying exactly that, and pointed to it.

Leaving this couple I pulled out my notebook and wrote down how I wished I spoke more French. No more than two minutes later I said hi to another couple, who responded with "Francais?" Telling the couple I only spoke a little french, we chatted for a minute or two, before the language barrier became too much, and we smiled and parted ways. Later a group of tourists from one of the Asian countries came through the park, nearly all of whom bowed slightly to me as they passed. It is incredible the different cultures we see here!!

Finishing up my day riding the buses and closing up another Visitor Center, I was dead tired on my feet!! But it was the birthday of a friend of my cousin, so we went out to dinner. By the time I got home I was beyond exhausted, and I slept like a rock.

It was an amazing first day. One visitor asked me if I ever got sick of looking at Grand Canyon. I told her "No. Every time you look at Grand Canyon you see a different face of hers; every day is different."