Travel day. 600 miles. We left the beauty of Canada and returned to our homeland. We spent 90 minutes crawling through the southern half of Toronto after zipping through the northern half of this huge city.
After leaving Toronto I realized that I didn't know where my passport was. Couldn't find it in the moving car. We stopped for gas and lunch. While sitting at lunch, I recalled where I left the passport. It was in my fanny pack that I was going to wear today and decided against at the last minute. Fanny pack in the travel bag. Found it there. Relieved. Would have been interesting to have been left at the border while Linda went home. I like what I've seen of Canada, I just hadn't planned on moving here.
Linda decided to sign her passport before we got to the border, (just before, mind you. And we call me the defiant one?) We took off our sunglasses, spoke politely to the inspector and were directed to pull over for further inspection because we have a cooler in the car and there is a "special" on coolers today. The cooler was in plain view, sitting in the back seat. It was never mentioned except when we were asked if we have any fruits or vegetables in the car. We had two apples in the cooler that we brought from Iowa and we shared that information. Bam! We qualify for operation cooler. Cooler was whisked from the car, X-rayed and we were on our way. We saw other people whose lugguage was being sorted through, cars in various stages of dismantling and people being escorted inside a facility for further review. Consider ourselves fortunate. Destination tonight is Flint, Michigan. We just need a place to sleep.
Lodging tonight is a Holiday Inn express. Bit of a problem paying for this puppy. Debit card rejected at the Hotel counter and the atm. Called the 800# to access account information. We still have pretty decent change in this account. Thinking back, I remember telling the bank staff that we would be in Chicago this evening. We are more than 200 miles from Chicago so account security doesn't authorize use of the card. Security on this thing is pretty tight. We have a low daily withdrawal limit ($200.00) a moderate "charge" (not really a charge, electronic transfer) and a leash of 200 miles in any direction from home. Whenever we are travelling beyond our leash, we have to make prior arrangements with the bank. Generally, this is easy. There is an 800 number and they do a good job of working with you. Goof up on a Friday evening,after banking hours and that's your booty!
Anyway, Linda was able to save the day with an ATM withdrawal from her slush fund. Dinner at a low end Chinese Buffet next door and a good night's sleep.
There are no pictures. If the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement people had taken Linda into custody, I'd have snapped a few shots.
