At this point, I feel a little like this:
The main difference is that instead of being worn out from tearing apart my summer home and boating it all to town, I’m exhausted from packing to move to my camp.
When packing for an extended stay on St. George, it’s impossible to simply turn on some tunes and start throwing clothing and gear into bags. Only PenAir caters to the Pribilof Islands of the Bering Sea, and that airline’s reliability depends on the weather’s temperament. Not only that, but with mail, freight, and previously delayed luggage also trying to reach St. G, arriving there with every piece of checked luggage is rather unlikely. One has to take luggage delays into account to determine how to divvy up normal clothes, cold weather clothes, toiletries, food (because the store on island has limited supplies and hours), gear, and computers/books/work supplies amongst bags.
So although I went through the main decision-making process of What to bring while in Fairbanks, I’ve spent the last few days wrestling with How to bring it. If the plane does fly as scheduled today, what bag could I do without for a few days in the likely instance that luggage is left behind? What if that bag doesn’t come for a couple weeks? (that has happened to others before me) What food do we pack in our checked luggage to plan on eating over the weekend before we can retrieve our mailed food from the post office? In one bag I have – among other things – running shoes, XtraTufs, a modem, bagels, a GPS, jeans, and sweet potatoes.
The whole process involves a fair bit of time just staring at our stuff and wishing for a handbag with an Undetectable Extension Charm. Of course, it gets a little more complicated because the airline that flies us from Homer to Anchorage has different carry-on restrictions and fees than PenAir. They like to keep us on our toes!
Beyond packing we’ve been busy sitting through more trainings, running around to send our 16+ boxes through the US Postal System, buying last minute gear, trying to convince ourselves to buy last minute personal gear, and eating the last quality ice cream of summer.
All in all, the last few days have involved a lot of time dealing with money and too much grocery shopping. Although socializing with the crews heading for St. Paul, Buldir, Aiktak, Chowiet, and St. Lazaria has been a good time, civilization has run its course. For a couple of relatively introverted field workers, it’s time to get out of Homer and go earn some money while hanging with the birds.
The St. George Shuffle is a tiring dance, but with our first planned flight attempt being today, it could be just the beginning…
