Issue link: http://digital.nexsitepublishing.com/i/100966
Closing the Gap Article & Photos by Eric Breidenbach The drive across the North Cascades Highway had been both scenic and exhilarating. My wife Sherry and I had just settled into our room at Sun Mountain Lodge and were about to open a bottle of wine. Then along came an email from our daughter in New Orleans. Parents are inevitably familiar with ���I need some money��� requests from their kids. This one entailed money orders and express mail but thankfully did not represent posting bail. It was 4:30 on Friday and too late to get to the Post Office in Winthrop. So began the search for Post Office locations open on Saturday in the sparsely populated region. Many were closed and the rest had limited hours. The town of Concully caught my eye because I had mapped out a fun drive that included Concully and had it tucked away for future use. What the heck, we should drive some fun roads and see new places so the destination was set. natives. I thought we had better check with our daughter to see if this would be acceptable. We learned that there was no cell service in town and that we needed to go back out of town to the top of the big hill by the cemetery as directed to make our call. We did so, got the OK, and headed back. We set out solo after breakfast with map in hand and an eye on the clock. The roads were definitely ���two thumbs up��� and by about 11 a.m. we reached Concully and located the Post Office. It was so small it could easily be missed except for the American flag flying high. It is a one-person show and the money orders were completed in short order. The snag came with express mail: only two-day delivery and no real alter- We had until 12:30 and pulled up to the Post Office at 12:17. We had noticed a white van with amber lights on it coming down the street on our return and soon learned was the truck out express mail was to be in. We got the express mail envelope and learned we could try and catch the mail truck or go to the Okanagan Post Office and bang on the back door. The white van had a twelve-minute lead but I said I should have no trouble catching up. We jumped in the car and took off and about five miles later got to Happy Hills Road that almost immediately turned to gravel. About four miles later I had my doubts about catching up. The road forked with one direction having a sign that said ���Primitive Road No Warning Signs��� and the other was also gravel but looked to be the right direction. The scenery was great and our slow pace allowed us to savor it. A couple miles later we reached pavement, engaged Porsche Power and were soon at the Okanagan Post Office. There was an Express Mail drop but we had missed the cutoff by seven minutes. Around back I found the door, knocked and told our story. I handed the envelope over and turned around to see the mail van pull up. We beat her by four minutes! Gravel roads or not it was a great drive and not your regular trip to the Post Office. 28 November 2011