14 May 2011
Today was a real bummer. Started off a bummer, continued a bummer but ended OK. I woke up this morning to cold and rain. After breakfast I donned my rainsuit and departed Fort Fairfield Maine for Bathurst New Brunswick Canada, 178 miles or 286 kilometers away. It was wet and 43 degrees but the weatherman promised it would get warmer and stay wet. Later in the day it did climb to 46 degrees but I was so cold by then I didn't really notice. My original plan was again to travel backroads but with the wet and cold all I could envision was a warm motel room. Shortly after departure I arrived at the border crossing. I gave them my passport. They asked if I had guns, I said no. They asked if I had liquor and I said yes. I couple days earlier I stopped in Burlington VT and bought a 1.75 liter bottle of Canadian Club and a 1 liter bottle of sweet vermouth for my evening Manhattan. I was unaware that you could only bring 40 oz into Canada. So this guy and a female come out and start rummaging through the bike and the trailer and opening every piece of luggage. She was about as pleasant as a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. So I in my easy going way told her to make sure she put everything back the way she found it. In the meantime the guy is going through my luggage in the trailer so I moved to where I could watch him. He told me to step back in front of the motorcycle but I wasn't about to let him inspect the contents without me watching so I didn't move. He found the liquor and said I would have to pay duty or he would confiscate it. We went round and round about the quantity. He didn't know how many oz's in a 1.75 bottle and so was unsure of how much it would cost. I had already been there for 30 minutes so I told him to keep it all. But I couldn't leave because he had to write up something to explain the confiscation and my righats to appeal. I told him I probably wouldn't fly back up from NC to appeal two bottles of liquor. I was finally cleared to depart and as I left I gave them a genuine gesture of friendliness.
I was surprised, the rain wasn't that bothersome but the cold sure was. I did pass some snow on the side of the road in a couple of places. We're supposed to have two more days of this. Oh joy.
Time to hit the rack and hope for a better day tomorrow.
Sorry about your border crossing experience Toz. On our trip last summer we made12 (I think) crossings, either into or out of Canada and all were a piece of cake. One of us always had a bottle of gin . . . the only comment we ever got about it was from a Canadian Agent who told us to take it with us . . he didn't want that sh*t in his country!!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the journal. Keep it up. I am really enjoying it.