The Mail Seekers

And now we return to The Mail Seekers saga and our long-suffering Seekers, Trish and Mike - and Ranger the Wonder Dog – their faithful canine companion. In our last episode, it was Wednesday and the Seekers were in Homer. They had just instructed the Homer postmaster to have the mail sent to Tok.

Now it’s Friday, the Seekers have arrived in Tok, and the post office is their first stop. With purposeful stride and hopeful heart, Mike enters the PO and steps up to the counter. He asks for the general delivery package. And, yet again, for the 5th time, he gets the same answer, “No, there’s nothing here for Delaney or Roberts.” Mike thanks the man for checking, asks how long they’ll be open (until 5 PM), and returns once more to the pickup empty handed.

“Now what do we do?’ Mike asks Trish. “They only hold packages for 10 days and we won’t be back in the lower 48 in 10 days.”

“We could have it sent to one of our friends in Washington.” Trish replied.

The Seekers return later to the Tok PO with the address of their friends in Anacortes, WA. Mike explains the history to the postmaster, who get’s on the phone to Delta Junction: sure enough, the package is there. The Homer postmaster, dumbass extraordinaire, did not follow through.

The Tok postmaster instructs the DJ postmaster to send it to Tok ‘on the truck’ without asking The Seekers – who are thinking: Great! Now we’re stuck in Tok for 3 days, waiting on the freakin package. We won’t be able to pick it up until Monday.

No, the Tok postmaster says, “It’ll be here tomorrow morning. Just knock on the door about noon and ask for the package.” Mike is thinking, uh-huh: sounds like a speakeasy scene back in the days of prohibition – or that old song The Green Door.

The Seekers, ever hopeful that the USPS has one or two non-idiots among their Alaskan staff, decide to give it a chance, and hang around Tok until noon on Saturday.

Thus concludes another exciting episode of The Mail Seekers. Tune in again soon, to catch the next edition which will come to you from Skagway, AK – or some other remote Alaskan or Canadian village, yet to be determined.