« Nearing the End | Main | Home and Gone Again »
July 16, 2007
From Hong Kong to Egegik
It's seldom safe to claim a first. Almost everything that could happen already has. It is, however, possible that there has never been a FedEx sent from the port of Hong Kong to the tiny bush town of Egegik, Alaska. Until now, that is. Robbi and I have been waiting for months, it seems ,for the completion of our first professionally printed book, St. Michaels: the Town that Somehow Fooled the British. The printer informed us that advance copies would be available late June, so we provided them with the only address we have up here, a neighbor's PO box across the water in Egegik. FedEx got very cranky about the idea of sending to a PO box, but I explained that there really was no better option, and so they acquiesced. A few weeks ago, I received an email from the printer saying that the FedEx had been sent. We waited daily for news of our package's arrival. Nothing. A week passed. Still nothing. We began to lose hope. But then, the other day, Maiko returned from our neighbor's house with a package in tow.
Before opening the FedEx, we inspected it closely, looking for explanations for its truancy. There were odd markings, indicating some monkey business in Anchorage and more in King Salmon. Apparently, packages sent via FedEx to the Alaskan bush travel no further than King Salmon, the small town which was the next to last stop on our own journey here to Coffee Point. Once a package arrives in King Salmon, the FedEx person there takes it to the post office and lets the USPS take care of the rest of the delivery. So, affixed to the outside of our package was postage (paid by FedEx, apparently) for the US Mail. Also was a handwritten note indicating that the package was to be delivered by 10:30am, the optimistic scribblings of the person on the sending end, who was, I reckon, ignorant of the fact that the package would be traveling to the end of the earth.
Inside the package were two advance copies of our book. We could not have been more pleased to see one of our books that WE DID NOT HAVE TO MAKE BY HAND.
We were very happy with how the book looked, especially the cover. It is, like, a real-looking book with a hard cover and real spine and beautifully printed pages inside. Legit. Bona fide. We each checked out a copy.
"We could get used to this professional printing thing," we said to one another over and over again.
Later that night, we tried the book out on some actual children. They seemed to have a good time reading it.
The remaining 2,500 copies will arrive in mid-August, at which time, we will be sending a lovely promotional postcard to all of you on our mailing list offering you the opportunity to purchase a copy for your very own home.
Which brings to mind the fact that, likely, not all of you who read this blog are on our mailing list. If you would like to be added (which basically means that you would receive lovely promotional postcards from us from time to time), please write me an email and I'll be happy to add you to the pile.
The fishing has slowed to a trickle. We have pulled two of our three nets from the river for good and are fishing the final one for one more tide tomorrow afternoon, hoping to gather enough fish to fillet, freeze, and pack for the trip home. The Department of Fish and Game has opened up the fishing at this point, which means anyone may fish when he pleases, 24 hours a day. It also means that, because everyone is fishing at will, there are very few fish left for us to catch. So after tomorrow afternoon, we'll pull the final net from the water and turn our attention to packing up.
Tomorrow I embark on my final adventure of the season, a day as a drift fisherman with Captain David Hadden, our neighbor who fishes in the open water. I have served as his first mate/assistant in past years, and it seems appropriate to keep up the tradition. So I have fished my last tide as a setnet fisherman for this year.
We leave Coffee Point the day after tomorrow and arrive home late Wednesday night. I am really looking forward to having a proper shower.
Posted by bogenamp at July 16, 2007 12:26 AM