We occasionally cross the border into the US for various reasons. Yesterday the primary reason was to pick up a package that contained a toy for Arlo. Val bought it on eBay and had it shipped to an address in Sault MI. The other attraction is lower priced gasoline. More on that a little later. Crossing the border into the US at this crossing is not a real big deal either in terms of the amount of times it takes or the degree of scrutiny you are normally forced to endure. While it can be slow due to volume if you pick your time of day and avoid the obvious busy days it does become fairly routine to the point where you have to remind yourself that you are entering a foreign country. This becomes glaringly clear on occasion. Yesterday we drove into the US Border Protection Agency plaza and right up to one of the booths. I handed the BPA agent our passports and answered the usual questions.
Citizenship?
Canadian
Where do you live?
St. Joseph Island
Whats the purpose of your visit to the US?
To get a gift for our Grandson and buy a tank of gas.
This should have been the point at which the officer said something like “Have a nice day.” and handed back our passports. Instead I noticed that he was looking at his computer monitor and then heard the words that have become more common recently.
“You have been randomly selected for a secondary inspection. Pull under the canopy on the right and remain in your car.” With that he slapped a yellow piece of paper on the windshield and handed me our passports. We pulled under the canopy and waited as instructed. Out came two BPA agents who, while I don’t know them, I recognized. They instructed me to turn off the car, leave the keys in the ignition and take our passports and go inside. We followed the orders and when we got inside another agent took our passports. After perhaps a minute the two agents who were inspecting the car came inside with smiles on their faces and not looking at all like they had found any contraband hidden the vehicle (there wasn’t any). One of them came up to the counter and uttered a sentence that I never expected to hear.
“William, (the first name on my passport) why are you importing corn into the United Sates under the hood of your car?
With apologies to Dave Broadfoot, when I regained consciousness I started to laugh. “That would be our red squirrel that did that.”
BPA guy, “well you have 10 or 12 kernels of corn stashed under your hood. You should make sure they don’t start chewing the wires. I left the hood up so you can see. Here are your passports. Have a nice day.” We walked out chuckling and this is what we saw.
A brief stop to pay the bridge toll and we headed to the Walmart where Val found several bargains. The next stop was at the Admiral gas station. Unleaded regular fuel yesterday was selling at US$3.489/US gallon. If you do the math that translates to C$0.94/L. On our side of the river yesterday gasoline was selling for C$1.229/L. Our car took 49.9 litres of fuel for saving of $14.42. At the same time we bought two gallons of milk at a savings of $2.00/gallon over the current price on our side.That saving paid the bridge tolls. In total worth the trip. After a short stop at the Goodwill (no real treasures this trip) and picking up a great toy for Arlo we headed back across the border. We drove up to Canada Customs, no waiting today and were asked
“Where do you live”
St.Joseph Island
“How long were you out of the country?”
“About 2 hours”
What is the value of items you obtained?”
“$58.97 cents and a tank of gas”
“Have a nice day.”
Safe on our side again.