Where was your favorite to work in Yosemite?

Someone on Facebook posed that question.   My response:

There is, or at least was, a number of awesome places to work in the park.  Of course, my favorite was Area 5!  

Every day was different.  Throughout the year, 24/7/365, each day held the real opportunity to learn something new, do something new, work with any other internal department at any level or outside organization, meet and work with new people, or go someplace unexpected inside or outside the park.  It didn’t matter what your position or role you held.  You might help guests one minute due to an injury or other issue, reuniting lost ones or items, then helping employees that are locked out, injured, or in a crisis of some type.  Then there were the natural disasters and human caused catastrophes.  We were there.  

And yes, sometimes we had to be firm.  

The time of day didn’t matter, if someone didn’t know who to call for help, they called us.  We strived to be there for them in every way we could.  

Were we perfect?  Of course not.  Yet that remained our goal.  Our motto was based on our priorities, “Safety, Security, and Service.”  It might sound odd to have a hospitality operation putting customer service last, but if you can’t provide the first two, the last one suffers.

You could start a shift in the valley, and end up going to Tuolumne Meadows, Wawona, or beyond.   We’ve had officers and staff unexpectedly go to Lone Pine, Sacramento, San Francisco, the coast, Fresno, Bakersfield, and points in between.  When absolutely critical, we were faster than FedEx for guest and company needs.  

Investigations grew to be a key resource and asset for employees, guests, the company, and NPS.  Not to mention the variety of training we provided onsite and in our Briefing Room.

Firefighters were practiced, prepared, and ready.  They prided themselves at beating NPS Fire to calls the vast majority of the time, including years ago, one above their firehouse.  The Engine 7 crew trained far more often than NPS, and knew the inside of our facilities and what they contained extremely well.   

Yet, thanks to the combined “insight and wisdom” of both Aramark and NPS leadership, the 80+ year old department was gutted, then dissolved.

“Fare thee well.”   

Chief of Security & Fire

2000-2018

We’re In The Money Now!

 

On a weekend we spent thousands of dollars replacing a fence at our rental in Old Fig Garden, and spending almost another $1,000 replacing a refrigerator, we were blessed to have this refund from AAA after they cancelled the property insurance on our rental.  It’s a huge help.  🤦‍♂️😂😉

Passing of Ted Turner

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/ted-turner-death?cid=ios_app

RIP Ted.  I liked your style.  

I briefly met him at one of the national cable TV conventions in Las Vegas.  

My father owned Western Cable Services/Enterprises out of Ventura, Calif.  (I kinda grew up in the company, at times working full time.) He did a lot of cable TV construction work on the west coast and owned a handful of small systems.  

I usually tagged along to the National and Western Show conventions.  I can’t remember who was hosting the party, but it was probably HBO or Showtime because it was huge with the drinks flowing and the music jumping.  You know the type.  

I was mingling and went to find my dad.  He was with a small group of guys and gals, and standing next to Ted chatting away with him.  I walked up and was quickly introduced to him.  

A few moments later, a very attractive woman in the group asked me if I wanted to dance.  Like her, I wasn’t not involved in the group conversation and being sufficiently supplied from the bar, I said sure.  We danced some fast and slow dances.  I didn’t think anything of it, just having fun.  I’d glance over to the group occasionally to see if my dad was still there.  I started to notice Ted kinda occasionally staring at me.  

I was told later that it was his second wife (Jane Smith) who was dancing with me.