Yesterday afternoon after we visited the Wyoming Territorial Penitentiary we stopped at a local tackle shop and my brother bought me a two day fishing license. We then started the long drive up to Medicine Bow so we could go fishing at the Rob Roy Reservoir. Not knowing exactly what we were going to do in Laramie after the Penitentiary we packed a cooler with lots of water, hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, and all the fixings. My brother had brought his tailgate grill from the job site so we could grill our lunch wherever we wanted to!
It seemed like a long drive from Laramie up to Albany but in all honestly it was probably a lot shorter of a drive than from Laramie back to Elk Mountain where we are staying. I forgot to get a photo of the city sign when we got to Albany but I'll never forget this tiny town perched on the side of the mountain. Albany, population 55 people. Did you read that Emmy? 55 people!
Showing posts with label Wyoming 2014. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wyoming 2014. Show all posts
05 July 2014
Lovejoy's Bar and Grill
Notes from Jess: Apparently I've summoned the mountain fairies, some way or another! This post was originally written Thursday but the mountain fairies have been having fun stealing my posts!
I'm currently sitting in the McDonald's off of the interstate in Rawlins, Wyoming waiting on my online school websites to load. I decided now would be the perfect opportunity to use the wifi while I have it and talk about a wonderful experience dining out last night in Laramie, Wyoming.
My brother has been working in this area since around the beginning of February and he and his crew has found their favorite places in Laramie and Rawlins. Last night for dinner we headed into Laramie and my brother took us to their favorite place, Lovejoy's Bar and Grill.
Lovejoy's is downtown Laramie and parking is a bit difficult to come by in the evening. We ate a early dinner and had arrived downtown around 5 o'clock. We got super lucky because of the largeness of my brother's truck we had to go around the block to get parking big enough...and then my dad decided he couldn't walk all that way because of his bad knee. We ended up back in front of the bar and just our luck, someone was leaving and left us plenty of room for the truck right across the street! Score!
I'm currently sitting in the McDonald's off of the interstate in Rawlins, Wyoming waiting on my online school websites to load. I decided now would be the perfect opportunity to use the wifi while I have it and talk about a wonderful experience dining out last night in Laramie, Wyoming.
My brother has been working in this area since around the beginning of February and he and his crew has found their favorite places in Laramie and Rawlins. Last night for dinner we headed into Laramie and my brother took us to their favorite place, Lovejoy's Bar and Grill.
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Lovejoy's is downtown Laramie and parking is a bit difficult to come by in the evening. We ate a early dinner and had arrived downtown around 5 o'clock. We got super lucky because of the largeness of my brother's truck we had to go around the block to get parking big enough...and then my dad decided he couldn't walk all that way because of his bad knee. We ended up back in front of the bar and just our luck, someone was leaving and left us plenty of room for the truck right across the street! Score!
02 July 2014
What a Mess!
Hello ya'll! I'm currently in a tiny town off the interstate a few miles between Laramie and Rawlins, Wyoming. This town is so tiny that my senior graduating class makes up the most of this town. It's that tiny. Around 191 people to be exact! Don't ask how I'm doing with wifi because I don't want to jinx it yet on the first full day I've been here; I still have lots of homework to do!
This is the first big trip I've taken since I started studying in the hospitality industry and it's opened my eyes quite a bit. One thing I couldn't wait to storm onto the blogging field with was our lunch stop yesterday in Goodland, Kansas. We stopped firstly for gas since the truck was hitting about a quarter of a tank (which was really great considering that we fought a lot of wind on the way west to Colorado) but it was also lunch time and we were all hungry.
Normally we try our hardest to go to local restaurants because it helps the local economy, we get to meet the locals and depending on where we're at they have specialties that we're not used to in South Central Kansas. Sometimes though when you're just off the interstate you don't want to stray too far. This was the case yesterday and we ended up in a Dairy Queen since the restaurant we decided to try was boarded up and closed. Well, that and none of us decided it was worth trying a sketch looking taco shop that had one car in front.
Our experience at this DQ was not a good one and we left as soon as we finished eating. My responses in purple are what I would have done if I was a manager in the situation or the employee. Or just my comments and notes.
First thing: the high school kid who eventually ended up taking our order was chewing gum. No, no. NO. I wanted to smack the gum out of his mouth and I was tempted to by the time we left. I just hope he wasn't near the food because I can just see saliva dripping out of his mouth and onto the food. Do you know how many types of food borne illnesses there are that can come from just that? Don't even make me break out my books.
Next, we waited. For a while. A long while. I don't mind this, normally, it was during lunch and I totally get that. The high school kid and the other employee, I'm assuming the manager looked at us several times but never took the moment to say "we'll be right with you" or anything like that. It was like they were ignoring us. I find myself super busy at work when I have to cover the front register and get food out the drive thru window. I've found a balance though and when I can't get to the register I always make eye contact with my guest and tell them that I'll be with them shortly.
The kid never tried up-selling. This was pointed out by my Ma who would have taken a large drink instead but since he never asked she wasn't going to bother. Taking orders is a conversation. The guest says they want this and then you ask questions to help complete their order. In some cases, this would involve asking if my Ma would like a large drink instead of the small.
Ma also pointed out after we sat down that the manager had a drink cup in the back by the window near where some of the food and drink prep was going on. So yeah, I feel super strongly about this as I do with the gum. Just don't do it. I know it's hard to keep your mouth from drying out if you're taking drive through orders but you just can't have drink glasses near the food prep.
My Ma drinks iced tea and sometimes it's hard to hunt down the tea container because it's normally not in the soda machine. I looked by the soda machine and it wasn't there. Ma then asked at the counter and she was directed to the soda machine. She went back and had to tell them that no there was not tea out there. Ma reported that they were rude to her when she asked for tea. Employees should have been aware of where their tea and other asked for items are. They also should get impatient or rude when a guest asks questions. Simple as that.
The kid dropped a bunch of cups on the floor and then proceeded to say "oh well". Wasting product is bad. The attitude is an even bigger problem. Thankfully the manager did throw all the cups dropped away.
Our food is finally ready, I got to pick it up at the counter. It's in a to go sack. We never said that it was to go and the kid never asked. It was the "I don't care" attitude of the kid that makes me so upset with this. We didn't mind eating out of to go containers, but we would have like it if we hadn't needed to. Once again, it's a conversation when taking orders. Ask the guest if it's dine in or dine out.
A kid dropped her DQ Blizzard and it went all over the lobby floor. I watched out of the corner of my eye what happened. The grandma helped clean up some of it and then I heard her go tell the employees that there was a spill that needed cleaned up. The high school kid came out with a mop and bucket and proceeded to clean it up. The mop was dry and all it did was smear it around the floor. And then, he never placed a "wet floor" sign. HELLO LIABILITY! What if the old woman in the corner didn't see the floor was wet, slipped, fell, broke her hip and decided to sue? It could have been prevented with a single yellow sign that someone was too lazy or not educated to be told to put it up. Also, who taught this kid how to mop? Draw the soapy water in the bucket, it makes cleaning up ice cream and other spills way easier!
Then, to make things even grander, I noticed that the floor was dirty too. At this point I wasn't surprised about the dirty floor, not with the careless attitude of the staff I interacted with.
*takes a deep breath*
The whole experience was super frustrating. But it was a good learning moment. I got to do one of those case studies in person instead of watching TV.
I definitely plan on making a phone call or writing a letter to DQ about this. I think, from what we saw and experienced, that it wasn't just at the lower level but it was also a lot of management problems.
Now that my rant is over, I hope you are enjoying your lovely Wednesday!
This is the first big trip I've taken since I started studying in the hospitality industry and it's opened my eyes quite a bit. One thing I couldn't wait to storm onto the blogging field with was our lunch stop yesterday in Goodland, Kansas. We stopped firstly for gas since the truck was hitting about a quarter of a tank (which was really great considering that we fought a lot of wind on the way west to Colorado) but it was also lunch time and we were all hungry.
Normally we try our hardest to go to local restaurants because it helps the local economy, we get to meet the locals and depending on where we're at they have specialties that we're not used to in South Central Kansas. Sometimes though when you're just off the interstate you don't want to stray too far. This was the case yesterday and we ended up in a Dairy Queen since the restaurant we decided to try was boarded up and closed. Well, that and none of us decided it was worth trying a sketch looking taco shop that had one car in front.
Our experience at this DQ was not a good one and we left as soon as we finished eating. My responses in purple are what I would have done if I was a manager in the situation or the employee. Or just my comments and notes.
First thing: the high school kid who eventually ended up taking our order was chewing gum. No, no. NO. I wanted to smack the gum out of his mouth and I was tempted to by the time we left. I just hope he wasn't near the food because I can just see saliva dripping out of his mouth and onto the food. Do you know how many types of food borne illnesses there are that can come from just that? Don't even make me break out my books.
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Next, we waited. For a while. A long while. I don't mind this, normally, it was during lunch and I totally get that. The high school kid and the other employee, I'm assuming the manager looked at us several times but never took the moment to say "we'll be right with you" or anything like that. It was like they were ignoring us. I find myself super busy at work when I have to cover the front register and get food out the drive thru window. I've found a balance though and when I can't get to the register I always make eye contact with my guest and tell them that I'll be with them shortly.
The kid never tried up-selling. This was pointed out by my Ma who would have taken a large drink instead but since he never asked she wasn't going to bother. Taking orders is a conversation. The guest says they want this and then you ask questions to help complete their order. In some cases, this would involve asking if my Ma would like a large drink instead of the small.
Ma also pointed out after we sat down that the manager had a drink cup in the back by the window near where some of the food and drink prep was going on. So yeah, I feel super strongly about this as I do with the gum. Just don't do it. I know it's hard to keep your mouth from drying out if you're taking drive through orders but you just can't have drink glasses near the food prep.
My Ma drinks iced tea and sometimes it's hard to hunt down the tea container because it's normally not in the soda machine. I looked by the soda machine and it wasn't there. Ma then asked at the counter and she was directed to the soda machine. She went back and had to tell them that no there was not tea out there. Ma reported that they were rude to her when she asked for tea. Employees should have been aware of where their tea and other asked for items are. They also should get impatient or rude when a guest asks questions. Simple as that.
The kid dropped a bunch of cups on the floor and then proceeded to say "oh well". Wasting product is bad. The attitude is an even bigger problem. Thankfully the manager did throw all the cups dropped away.
Our food is finally ready, I got to pick it up at the counter. It's in a to go sack. We never said that it was to go and the kid never asked. It was the "I don't care" attitude of the kid that makes me so upset with this. We didn't mind eating out of to go containers, but we would have like it if we hadn't needed to. Once again, it's a conversation when taking orders. Ask the guest if it's dine in or dine out.
A kid dropped her DQ Blizzard and it went all over the lobby floor. I watched out of the corner of my eye what happened. The grandma helped clean up some of it and then I heard her go tell the employees that there was a spill that needed cleaned up. The high school kid came out with a mop and bucket and proceeded to clean it up. The mop was dry and all it did was smear it around the floor. And then, he never placed a "wet floor" sign. HELLO LIABILITY! What if the old woman in the corner didn't see the floor was wet, slipped, fell, broke her hip and decided to sue? It could have been prevented with a single yellow sign that someone was too lazy or not educated to be told to put it up. Also, who taught this kid how to mop? Draw the soapy water in the bucket, it makes cleaning up ice cream and other spills way easier!Then, to make things even grander, I noticed that the floor was dirty too. At this point I wasn't surprised about the dirty floor, not with the careless attitude of the staff I interacted with.
*takes a deep breath*
The whole experience was super frustrating. But it was a good learning moment. I got to do one of those case studies in person instead of watching TV.
I definitely plan on making a phone call or writing a letter to DQ about this. I think, from what we saw and experienced, that it wasn't just at the lower level but it was also a lot of management problems.
Now that my rant is over, I hope you are enjoying your lovely Wednesday!
30 June 2014
Book Haul
Notes from Jess: The fairies are at it again. Thankfully this time they gave my post back a bit faster than last time. Don't feed the fairies chocolate guys, they like to steal my posts when their tummies are full of chocolate.
I don't know about you but when I travel I have to have a book with me. It's nothing for me to start a book once we get on the road within a few minutes from our house and have the book completed by the time we arrive at our destination. In 2012 when I went to New Orleans I was on a charter bus for over 17 hours. I read three books that day and contemplated starting a fourth but I was just tired and hungry, oh and my Kindle had died.
Since we're getting ready to leave for Wyoming early Tuesday morning I hit up our local bookstore that Ma and I have credit through selling our books to and picked out a few to take with me. I was short on time so I couldn't just browse away like normal, but I ended up picking up three that looked promising.
Get this, my grand total for the trip to the bookstore was $11.25 (including tax). Warlord was the only book I was able to pay half with my store credit since the other two, Rules of Civility and Dark and Stormy Knights was on their massive clearance shelf. Not bad considering I had to drive into the city to get these books! Totally worth the gas in the truck to buy from there because the ladies that work there are so wonderful and have helped me make some serious book decisions before!
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| Totes cheesin' it up on the webcam because I was having issues with my camera and I'm wayyy too tired to sort it out right now. |
Warlord by Ilario Pantano with Malcolm McConnell
Why I chose this book: Every once in a while I love to read a good military fiction book. I've been due to read one for a while now and I wanted something that I could somehow know what was going on. I saw the Marine Corps emblem on the spine and pulled it out to check it out. I've only ever read one book on the war in Iraq and it was written the year following 9/11. Considering that the person who wrote this was a sniper in Desert Storm and lead an infantry platoon in Iraq after 9/11, I was drawn to this book over others because I felt it could give me some insight to the life of these guys and gals that served and in some cases still serving in this area of the Middle East.
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Why I chose this book: Set in the late thirties I was immediately drawn to this book because I've read so much futuristic/alternative universe books recently that I was definitely ready to pick up something that was set in the past. Basically, from what I understand of the synopsis on the back, Katey Kontent, 25, meets this handsome banker dude in a jazz bar on New Year's Eve and the story follows her year long journey to the upperside of the New York society. It sounds quite a bit different from what I normally gravitate towards at the book store like all those murder mysteries my Ma has me hooked on.
Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P.N. Elrod
Why I chose this book: Whenever I buy more than one book I usually always pick one with little to know thought process. Picking at random basically. This one is it. From the sounds of it, this one is more supernatural based, or maybe not. I can't tell from the synopsis. What I found interesting from further inspection one I got to the truck to head home was that there isn't just one author. There's more than the four names that are listed on the front cover. Should be an interesting read in general!
I will also take along The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien that I'm currently reading as well as the book I need to finish for school and can not for the life of me remember what it's called right now.
What was the last book you purchased?
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