You would think we would have learned from last year crossing into Canada- as Britanny Spears sang "Oops, I did it Again!"
Oops
So today as we arrived at the border of Canada the nice man in the booth asks: Any fire arms? Tobacco? Liquor/Wine? more than $10,000? No sir. Please pull your car into this lane and take this ticket inside. Huh? Well M'am we have your companion Pleepleus in our system. It appears he was involved in an incident last summer on the western side so we need to search your car. Sis starts muttering - "Wonderful. We can't take you anywhere."
Out everything comes and you know how packed that SUV was/is. We watch them take all out of the suitcases, jumbo cooler, plastic bins, book bins, notebook bins, shoe bins, garment bags, dirty clothes bag, Bubba's Vita Mixer (that one really had them flummoxed), stuff stuff and more stuff packed in there. The worst part was Pleep and Sis had to sit out on the pavement for everyone to see and gawk at. It didn't help that Pleep kept trying to banter back in a fake Canadian or maybe Minnesotan accent.
Next , they run EVERYTHING through the out door X-ray machine. Great. It was a puzzle SHOVING all that stuff in there...grrrrr. How will we push it back in? Sis asks, "Great, so does this mean every time we come to Canada this will be the routine?" The nice border agent replies, "Depends." Pleep chimes in, "Depends on what?" Well it seems the crossing station makes the call and this one was concerned about Pleep's reputation for booing the Canadian hockey teams. Then, we learn about contraband. Sis asks, "Sir, is there a list of what you can and cannot bring in?" Yep-over there. The next thing I see, is 2 of the border persons start carrying our wine in.... I thought I heard the man in the entry booth say something about personal consumption....apparently that is 2 bottles per person. Oh yeah, THAT wine bin filled with Welcome Home Wounded Heroes Wine we brought to give as gifts along the way and the case of wine we bought in New Hampshire for the Andersons stop off which John put back in the car when we left their place. Oops that wine.... So I hope the guards are having a good ol time tonight. In spite of the situation they were very nice and polite.
Sis was beyond embarrassed. Way to go- 2 years in a row. What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Paperwork and more paperwork. Deja vu for the Collins chuckle-heads. We learn we will soon be reaching the "A" list with one more stupidity. Sis is nominating Boca and Bubba for this years Darwin Award. No runner up- we are talking 1st Prize. I asked Bubba are we stupid or arrogant or both? Sis yodeled "BOTH!" and she reminded us of the sarcastic remarks we made about those kids hiking around Iraq and Iran-how dumb can they be?The rainy damp day topped it off.
Lesson: Know the law and follow it. Duh. Could have checked all that vino at the border and picked up on the way out. Double DUH.
St. Theresa Little Flower where are you!
