I sold a six-foot inflatable Hunt For Red October on eBay recently. The guy’s postal carrier apparently has the gentleness of a chimpanzee on methamphetemines, and the ‘mini-poster’ was bent. So I had to send the guy a new poster. I put it in a cardboard flat, and then put it into the box for my DVD player that I’ve had about for four years. Plenty of padding.
Now normally, when I go to the Post Office, I go the back way. But today I stopped off at the corner gas station and decided to go on to the freeway. Since I’m not in business and can’t afford to replace things that I sell, I was composing changes to my eBay listing in my head. I missed my turn-off, which happens to be the last one before reaching the border. :smack: Since I had no intention of visiting Canada today, I did not have my passport.
I came to a place where I could turn around before reaching the Canadian checkpoint, only it was on the north side of the American one. When I got to the stopping point before the agent’s kiosk, a couple of officers came up to thump on my gas tank, look in my Jeep, etc. I explained that I’d missed my turn-off and had just turned around and they motioned me forward.
There was a cute blonde woman at the kiosk. I told her my story. I said I usually take Harborview to Drayton Harbor Rd. then Peace Portal Drive into Blaine. But today I’d stopped off at Toad’s and decided to take the freeway. She said, ‘If you were in my place, would you believe that story? You’re telling me that you live here, I can tell you know your way around, and you missed your exit?’ Well, yeah. I wasn’t paying attention to the exits. She sent me on my way.
They really need a ‘Whoops. There’s the border’ turn-around point for people like me.
I used to cross the border all the time (15-20 times a year maybe) and never needed a passport. Maybe things have changed recently? I have crossed over since 9/11 (only once or twice) and never was asked for a passport.
You need proof of residency. A certified copy of your birth certificate and a photo ID (such as a driver’s license) will do. But passports establish identity and residency all in one document.
Wow, when did that change? Used to be they didn’t ask for any documents at all. They just asked me what my citizenship was, I’d reply American/United States and they’d wave me on.
Johnny, if it helps, it could be worse. Last year, the local paper had a story on a guy who missed his exit in El Paso and couldn’t turn around before the border. His rifle was in his truck’s headache rack, so off to jail he went.
I once turned the wrong direction going out of Thunder Bay on a cross country trip and very shortly ended up at the US border. I happened to be moving back home and had all my Earthly possession in my car (packed to the absolute gills). There was no “whoops” turnaround there either, and I ended up having to explain myself to the Canadian border guard, who pleasantly enough let me on my way. I had visions of being held there for hours while they picked apart my Tetris like pack job of my car.
The Pigeon River is good for a major drug bust every few months when drug runners moving goods from eastern to western Canada miss the turn at the intersection in Thunder Bay and find themselves at the border.
