Up until the fall of 2017, Senior Citizens could obtain a life-time pass to all of the national parks for $20. The price was being raised to $80, and there was a big rush to get one at the lower rate. My local national park ran out of them, so I ordered it online. Because of the volume of orders, they said it would be 12 weeks before my pass came, but I could use the receipt to get into the parks in the meantime.

I ordered it in July, and at the end of October, I received an email that the pass had been shipped, but come December first it hadn't arrived, and I figured it was lost in the mail because the mail forwarding from Colorado has not gone smoothly this year. For all I knew, it had been returned to the sender as undeliverable.

I finally called the customer service, and they said they would send another one, this time directly to me here in Las Vegas.

It arrived today, a lovely card with my name on it and a hang tag so I can display it in my car when passing through the gate of the park. It was addressed to me in Colorado, forwarded from there, and looking at the post mark, I see that it is the original mailing, sent October 27 - well ahead of the Christmas rush. It took almost exactly two months to get here.

I think the the USPS is losing what little grip it had on providing a professional service. The more market share they lose to electronic services, the worse they get at what they do and the more they charge to do it.