Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 09:25:10 -0400
Reply-To: Tim Demarest <tim.demarest@POBOX.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tim Demarest <tim.demarest@POBOX.COM>
Subject: Re: Coast toCoast!
In-Reply-To: <004101c53fbf$c76d0000$677ba8c0@MAIN>
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At 05:28 PM 4/12/2005 -0700, Robert Fisher wrote:
>What do they look for when you're driving across the
>border? I wonder if it's more of an issue when you're flying versus driving?
It's always been more of an issue when flying across the US/Canada border
than when driving. My experience from flying across is from back in 1993,
when I commuted back and forth from Ottawa for a while. It may be because
the airport customs folks deal with arrivals from all over the world, while
the folks at the road checkpoints mostly deal with US and Canadian
citizens. Having already driven across the border a couple of times, I was
quite surprised by how seriously the airport customs folks took their job.
It does seem kind of backwards when the one or two suitcases you are
carrying are more likely to be searched (after being x-rayed, and already
travelling by airplane) than the trunk of your car, or a packed camper...
but that's the way it is. The only time I ever got my car searched at the
border was at a sleepy back-road crossing between Maine and Quebec back in
the 80s.I was traveling with three other twenty-somethings and a carful of
bags, so I guess we fit the profile for carrying some *ahem* contraband,
and it was a slow afternoon at a low-traffic crossing.
I remember being surprised at how easily I crossed with my Westie (both
ways) in late September 2001... the wreckage of the WTC in NY was still
smoking, but no customs official on either side of the border got in, or
asked me to open a cabinet.
The woman at the Canadian border near Niagara Falls seemed unable to
believe that a US citizen, on the road for an extended period of time, did
*not* in fact have a gun... she must have asked me five times before I
changed my "No" response to "Do you think I should get one?" (I don't
recommend this one if you *really* need to get across the border, but I
still had five weeks vacation ahead of me, and could adjust my route. :-)
I did bring my passport along on that trip, expecting the border crossings
to be a bit dicey, but it was surprisingly (almost disturbingly) easy. Now,
nearly four years later, passports are becoming a requirement... though I
have yet to hear anyone explain exactly *how* requiring a passport is going
to make the border more secure.
In the past, I crossed the US/Canada border with my birth certificate and a
drivers license. When I applied for my US passport, I had to prove my
identity and citizenship by providing... a birth certificate, and a
driver's license.
Tim
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