Quarantine

Off the last flight into King Salmon, I was met at the tiny airport by a gate, with an employee of some kind (no idea who she worked for) on the other side with a clipboard. A locked gate. The employee asked us the now all-too-familiar Covid screening questions, and said "the pilot should have given you the code for the gate."
We looked back at the pilot, who was now in the process of taking off.  "He didn't."
The employee unlocked the gate. I think I may have found a gap in their security system.

After that, an National Park Service employee found us, and we were handed the keys to a government vehicle, and we drove to "the dorms" for our quarantine, only to be moved to a different place an hour later. Then we settled in.

It was a cute little house with a back porch and a back yard, but we were trapped not only by our quarantine rules, but also by the clouds of mosquitoes thick enough to totally obscure a person.
Fourteen days. I can do fourteen days, right?

We were allowed out twice, in order to get covid tested, which is WILDLY unpleasant. Someone sticks a q-tip so far up your nose I was slightly concerned they were going to hit brain and accidentally (or intentionally?) lobotomize me. We did this twice. The second time was somehow worse. It definitely makes your eyes water, but hey, we were out of the house.

My quarantine cell-mate, whose facial expression should give you some idea of how enjoyable the experience is

So what do you do with two weeks of downtime? Read, mostly. And cook. It wasn't bad. The sun was (always) shining, and the view wasn't bad, so we were contented enough. Rylee and I got along well, too, which made it much better. If you're trapped in a house with someone, it's always better when you can stand them.

Right at the end of the fourteen days, we got the bad news: we had to wait for the next batch of incoming people to catch up and finish their quarantine. Five extra days before we could head over to the park!

That's when we went a little nuts. You know that stash of plastic grocery bags every house seems to have? Well, we found one, cut it up, and I made it into a lovely little foraging bag with a cross body strap. Welcome to prison arts and crafts. Things get weird.

I wasn't kidding

Modeled here by Rylee

Finally we've been released, and were immediately handed bear spray and paperwork. Probably a good thing we were given the paperwork first. 

Since my official uniform still hasn't arrived (it's all marked as "in-stock," but not shipped, except for the one item labeled "back-ordered" which has been shipped. I don't understand that logic.) we were taken over to the "uniform cache" where we could rifle through the bits and bobs left behind or traded in if they didn't fit other rangers, and now I have a borrowed set, so I am starting to look the part.

Anyways, we're off to the park (finally!!!) in the morning. No cell service, no wifi, and for me, since all my stuff got delayed, no computer access at all for awhile. 

I'm told that the bears are already hanging out at the beach where we'll be landing. I do like a welcoming party...