Travelogue 6: Snowy Range Scenic Byway in Wyoming!
Having never been here, my beloved and I were struck by the natural beauty. We had also been blessed to arrive on a very nice day. There are National Parks in America with no prettier views and, in this case here in a remote corner of Wyoming, far fewer people with whom to share it!
Looking at the photos of my dear friend @roleerob, I was fascinated by the vibrant beauty and vastness of the American continent!😲
I remember the Japanese who visited America in the nineteenth century saw the continent and said it was a world blessed by God!
America's abundance of food and resources always inspires respect, envy, and jealousy in East Asians like me!
@roleerob told me envy and jealousy are crimes, but i want to tell the truth! 😂
Since time immemorial, East Asia has always lacked food and resources relative to its population, so America's wealth has been admired, envied, and jealousied by East Asians!
My lamp's Genie @patriamreminisci The Chinese, whom @patriamreminisci especially loves, gave @patriamreminisci kindness and love because America is richer than China! 😆
Just Another Day in a Hellhole Called China...
To be honest, East Asians like me are like slaves to overlords.
So, I envy the freedom, pioneering and challenging spirit of Americans!
So, Japanese and Korean people like the adventures of Huckleberry Finn the most among American novels!
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn reveal facts that Americans want to hide, while at the same time Americans who are challenging for freedom and liberation!
So, I want to go to America and sail the Mississippi River, where Tom, Huck, and Jim sailed in search of freedom!
Maybe @roleerob and @valued-customer will laugh at me at my boyish imagination?
My dear friend and mentor, @valued-customer, spoke of the current war between Americans!😦
From my point of view, perhaps he was at war with the overlords of America!
I guessed he was doing something very dangerous right now!
In the American movies I've seen, Americans have gunfights, and there are also hitmans.
Americans are legally free to own firearms. So, there are a lot of gun murders in the vast North American continent.
@valued-customer told me that he often enjoys hunting deer.
So, I felt life in America was harder than I expected!😯
I thought about how I would make a living if I went to America.
Perhaps I am most likely to be homeless in America!🤣
I happened to see a job advertisement in America!😃
WF: Job Openings - Wildland Fire - National Park Service
Fire lookouts: The US Forest Service lookouts watching for fires
On a typical day she wakes up five minutes before starting work at 07:00. "I only have to commute a foot," she says. She takes mornings slow, scanning the horizon and eating her breakfast before joining her colleagues on a video chat at 09:30. They discuss weather, staffing, and the fire situation - where there are blazes in the state and across the US. She keeps her tower clean in case any hikers visit. It's a historic lookout, built in 1952, and part of her job is to teach people about fire safety and prevention in the area.
"My mom doesn't really understand it," she says. "But if you're comfortable with yourself this is honestly the most peaceful job in the world. It's the most pure form of solitude imaginable."
When she's not working she makes TikToks about her work as a lookout, educating people further afield about the job. She recently got a dog called Roo to keep her company, and to pass the time she's teaching herself to cook and to play the bagpipes.
Being a fire watcher in a national park in the United States was an attractive profession from my point of view.
Many men in the world I live in saw those articles and said they wanted to live in America.
This is because there is no job in S.K where you can get all meals and bed for free and earn $30 an hour.
In the world I live in now, a simple manual worker can earn about $80 a day.
By the way, I was surprised to learn that there are jobs in the United States where I can earn $30 an hour just sitting and watching wildfires all day!😳
For someone like me who wants solitude and freedom, that job seemed ideal!
If I were in America, I would choose that job immediately!
Perhaps I will pray, meditate, read and write in my alone time!
Above all, I want to live in America's vast, beautiful and wild nature!
Because I currently live in a cramped and poor world, America's vast and rich natural environment felt like paradise!😄
I have always dreamed of living in such a natural environment!
USFS Fire Lookout on duty at Vetter Mountain, California.
A fire lookout (partly also called a fire watcher) is a person assigned the duty to look for fire from atop a building known as a fire lookout tower. These towers are used in remote areas, normally on mountain tops with high elevation and a good view of the surrounding terrain, to spot smoke caused by a wildfire.
Once a possible fire is spotted, "Smoke Reports", or "Lookout Shots" are relayed to the local Emergency Communications Center (ECC), often by radio or phone. A fire lookout can use a device known as an Osborne Fire Finder to obtain the radial in degrees off the tower, and the estimated distance from the tower to the fire.
Part of the lookout's duties include taking weather readings and reporting the findings to the Emergency Communications Center throughout the day. Often several lookouts will overlap in coverage areas and each will “cross” the same smoke, allowing the ECC to use triangulation from the radials to achieve an accurate location of the fire.
Once ground crews and fire suppression aircraft are active in fire suppression, the lookout personnel continue to search for new smoke plumes which may indicate spotting and alterations that pose risks to ground crews.
Working in a fire lookout tower in the middle of a wilderness area takes a hardy type of person, one who can work with no supervision, and is able to survive without any other human interaction. Some towers are accessible by automobile, but others are so remote a lookout must hike in, or be lifted in by helicopter. In many locations, even modern fire lookout towers do not have electricity or running water.
Most fire lookout jobs are seasonal through the fire season. Fire lookouts can be paid staff or volunteer staff. Some volunteer organizations in the United States have started to rebuild, restore and operate aging fire lookout towers.
Although it was considered as “man’s work” in the U.S., women have been doing the job almost from its beginnings.[1]
Angeles National Forest, Vetter Mountain fire lookout tower near Los Angeles, California.
A fire lookout tower, fire tower or lookout tower, provides housing and protection for a person known as a "fire lookout" whose duty it is to search for wildfires in the wilderness. It is a small building, usually on the summit of a mountain or other high vantage point, to maximize viewing distance and range, known as view shed. From this vantage point the fire lookout can see smoke that may develop, determine the location by using a device known as an Osborne Fire Finder, and call fire suppression personnel to the fire. Lookouts also report weather changes and plot the location of lightning strikes during storms. The location of the strike is monitored for a period of days afterwards, in case of ignition.
A typical fire lookout tower consists of a small room, known as a cab, atop a large steel or wooden tower. Historically, the tops of tall trees have also been used to mount permanent platforms. Sometimes natural rock may be used to create a lower platform. In cases where the terrain makes a tower unnecessary, the structure is known as a ground cab. Ground cabs are called towers, even if they don't sit on a tower.
Towers gained popularity in the early 1900s, and fires were reported using telephones, carrier pigeons and heliographs.[1]
Although many fire lookout towers have fallen into disrepair from neglect, abandonment and declining budgets, some fire service personnel have made efforts to preserve older fire towers, arguing that a person watching the forest for wildfire can be an effective and cheap fire control measure.[2]
Doesn't my brother @joeyarnoldvn find that job attractive?
Your sarcastic descriptions of my "delightful" days in China are always hilarious.
When @valued-customer speaks of the "war between Americans," he's not exactly wrong but he is exaggerating it a bit. America's political extremes think they are at war with each other until they go overseas and see what war actually is. Then, frankly, America's political snarling seems petty by comparison. Of course, you'll never convince an American, who thinks the fate of civilization depends on his next election, that this is the case. I remember in 2020 watching the Floyd Riots by Leftists and the anti-mask riots by Rightists and shaking my head saying "none of you idiots have a clue what you're fighting for other than 'someone told me what to do and that ain't right!' "
As to your concerns about making a living in North America, it's... well, it's complicated. If all you want is the bare necessities, it's not hard. But there's social pressure, LOTS of social pressure, to make sure you've always got the coolest phone and fanciest car and most up-to-date clothes etc. That's why a lot of Americans think they're "impoverished" when they live better than my son does in his middle-class family in the Philippines.
The other complication is "you can make good money in America, if you're willing to spend a year in Hell to make it." All the best paying jobs in America require a year or two of some form of apprenticeship (sometimes by name, like with electricians, and sometimes they don't call it that but the pay reflects it, like OTR truck driving), where you're paid peanuts and treated like dirt, before you finally start getting paid well. And even then, the best paying jobs are the ones no one wants (plumbing, and again I refer to the example of OTR truck driving). So...
In America, you can make a good living. Or, you can like your job. But doing both? Meh, that's asking too much. I left America because I always thought liking my job was more important. I'm at the point where I'll probably go back soon and become a damned truck driver, because as I get closer to the age of 40 I start to realize money is more important than job satisfaction.
Dear @patriamreminisci!
Thank you for advice!
I will reply after translating your comments in the future.
I hope your happy and health!😄