• Oh, Canada (was: Re: nostalgia: postcards,stories) +other

    From JOE MACKEY@1:123/140 to AARON THOMAS on Sat Mar 27 06:48:56 2021
    Aaron wrote to Aug --

    The closest I've been to there (in Canada) is Hamilton.

    The only place in Canada I've been to was Niagara Falls in the summer of
    '84.
    When checking in with Canadian customs the guard was leaning against his shack and simply asked where I was going, how long I would be and said to
    enjoy my trip.
    I parked at the floral clock and had heard something about a free shuttle
    to the Falls and saw a old London double decker bus which I assumed was the shuttle. (And you know what happens when you ass-u-me). I took a seat on
    top for a good view.
    After a while all these people got on with name tags and I realised I had gotten into some tour group. I just acted like I belonged and rode to the Falls, all the while expecting the group leader to question me and throw me from the moving bus.
    Once at the Falls I drifted away from the group and never saw them
    again.
    I learned later the last shuttle which I wanted, had left so walked back
    to the car, several miles.
    I did watch golfers on the course along the road play golf in the dark
    with glow-in-the-dark balls. Never saw anything like that before.
    A park ranger-type guy in a white Jeep stopped asking if everything
    where ok and I said yes.
    Later at floral clock I saw him again, my car the only one on the lot,
    who said he would have given me a lift had he known and/or I had asked.
    Coming back American customs acted like a smuggler or something, going
    over (and under) my car, inspected the interior and trunk, asked lots of questions, had to show ID, etc.
    The only other time was seeing Windsor across the river when I was in Detroit one time.
    Joe
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  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to JOE MACKEY on Sat Mar 27 10:31:00 2021
    Coming back American customs acted like a smuggler or something, going over (and under) my car, inspected the interior and trunk, asked lots of questions, had to show ID, etc.

    Your experience was the exact opposite of mine, but it may have had to do
    with where I was crossing. I crossed into Canada at Grand Portage, MN,
    which is probably not a popular crossing for US citizens with Kentucky
    plates. :) They were nice, but they did detain me for some light
    questioning. They seemed very interested in how long I planned to stay,
    did I have a job to return to, and was I visiting anyone in Canada.

    Coming back into the US a little over a week later, I crossed back in at
    Port Huron, MI. The border crossing there was more formal, with the
    mirrors that were pointed up under the car, etc., but the guy at the shack barely looked at my passport before letting me pass. Part of that could have been because the vehicle behind me followed me right into the "box" that
    only my vehicle was supposed to be in... they seemed a lot more interested
    in what he/she was up to than what I was up to. :)

    Mike

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  • From Aaron Thomas@1:275/99 to JOE MACKEY on Sat Mar 27 21:25:21 2021
    The only place in Canada I've been to was Niagara Falls in the summer
    of '84.

    I went there twice but only saw the falls from the USA side (Maid of the Myst.)

    Coming back American customs acted like a smuggler or something, going over (and under) my car, inspected the interior and trunk, asked lots of questions, had to show ID, etc.

    A couple years ago my experience driving into Canada was similar. They let us in very easily, but coming back the USA guys wanted to check all our passports.

    I'm glad the Canadian tour bus driver was so decent to you. We're almost interchangeable with Canadians I think.

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  • From Ron Lauzon@1:275/89 to JOE MACKEY on Sun Mar 28 09:02:00 2021
    JOE MACKEY wrote to AARON THOMAS <=-

    Coming back American customs acted like a smuggler or something,
    going over (and under) my car, inspected the interior and trunk, asked lots of questions, had to show ID, etc.

    My Dad had a similar problem decades ago.

    Setup:
    We lived a little west of Detroit and we were going to do a Canada vacation soon (we made it all the way to Quebec City). Dad had to run some errands
    that took him close to the border, so he decided to zip over and exchange currency.

    One of the errands was to pickup the computer (keep in mind that this was the 1970's and computers weren't in every home) that he was getting repaired for his school.

    He picked up the computer in Detroit and put it in he back of the car.
    No one said "boo" crossing into Canada, but coming back over, he was grilled and if it wasn't for the receipt that showed that the computer was from the U.S., they would have made him pay an import tax on the computer.


    ... The bigger they are, the harder they hit you.
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