April 28, 2010

View of the day-Getting ready to cross the border...notice the flags stretched straight out from the SE wind.

We were up early, not looking forward to fighting the wind that had been forecast in pretty much every state on our itinerary. There were wind warnings for high profile vehicles and if you have ever tried to carry a sheet of plywood or even a big piece of cardboard in the wind, you know what it can do...and the cabover is about as aerodynamic as a sheet of plywood. We had started to rethink our plans...but we definitely wanted to drive the 50 miles to at least get across the border.

We had faxed all our information ahead of time, just so we wouldn't surprise them by just showing up. After stopping in on the Canadian side to check on a few things, we had the girl in the office call over to the US side to make sure we still had to go "in through the out door". They had installed some scanners on the US side and didn't make them for wide loads, so we had to detour the last time and we just wanted to make sure it was still the status quo. It was.

We knew exactly who was working there when the CDN officer said she had "some combiners wanting to know where to go" and when she got his reply she just laughed, then asked us if we were Kuntz Harvesting. Marilyn asked if his reply to her was "tell them to stay in Canada, we don't need no combiners down here", she laughed again and asked how we knew...we told her he says that to us every time we cross...and no, it wasn't Mr. Happy.

We went in with our paperwork and after Al broke the fingerprint machine...or at least tripped it up causing a couple or three reboots of the program, we got rubber stamped and were on our way. About three miles from the port, a little white blazer pulled up in front of Al in the Freightliner and pulled into a driveway, then after Al passed him, he pulled out and around him again so Al figured he better stop. It was the other border officer with Al's work visa that he thought that he had forgotten to staple into his passport. The passport was in the pickup with Marilyn, who was a half mile ahead, so the officer came up with the paperwork...but there was already one stapled in the passport. Apparently with all the resetting of the software, he had printed two of the same visas. Not his day, today.

We struggled against the wind and decided that we had a cushion of time so we would just stay in Minot and hope that the wind would not be as bad tomorrow...maybe even change directions...ha, good one...

Marilyn got a bit of shopping done...found the rubber chicken she needed for the play she is directing...while Al checked his eyelids for cracks, then watched the hockey game...stinking Habs...

We had checked the construction reports for the trip down and found an issue in northern Kansas. Fortunately Al was able to get in touch with someone in the know...namely the farmer we cut for there...and he gave us a call and the directions for a detour.

One less worry...