Border crossing & Rocky Mountains

Yesterday afternoon we traveled north on an apparently little-used highway.  We didn't see too much other traffic, which was a nice change from the big interstates.  I really enjoyed watching the land change as we drove and decided that not all parts of North Dakota are stark and endless plains.  The sunset, especially, was quite beautiful, but I was glad to use an extra pair of Jonathan's sunglasses.  We got to the town of Minot around sunset, so we pulled into a shopping center parking lot and had a sundown worship and quick meal of sandwiches in the fifth-wheel while my dad and I figured out the best route to take to the border.  Then we continued on our way and finally got to the border town of Portal a bit before midnight.  We parked beside the road and Bryn and I ran in to the American customs office to turn in our I-20 and our I-94 student visas now that we were graduated.  I made sure to mention this to my parents and Bryn earlier since I had had some problems with my I-20 the year that I worked at home and didn't want the same thing to happen this time when I went back to Canada.  We turned in the I-20s without any hassle and only a few questions from the officials.  I asked several times if we were all cleared now and they assured me that we were.

Once that was taken care of, we ran back to our cars and got in line to go through Canadian customs.  Only one line was open and there were quite a few cars in front of us, so it took awhile, but finally Jonathan and I, who were first in our group since my parents had to go in the taller-vehicle line-up, got to the window.  The guy asked us all kinds of questions that, in my 25 years of going through the Canada/U.S. border, I have never been asked before, as well as the usual ones about firearms, tobacco, etc. coming back with us.  He seemed most interested in the fact that Jonathan and I were dating and made sure we weren't engaged (nope, for sure not) and that Jonathan had a plane ticket already made back to the U.S.  Finally, he wrote stuff on a yellow piece of paper and said that he would have more questions for us inside.  So we had to park and come in to the customs office where we waited and waited for someone to talk to.  The rest of my family had to come in too and my mum told us that the lady they had talked to told her that Bryn and I would have to make a list of every single thing we had ever bought during our time in the States that we were bringing back when us.  I got annoyed, since we had brought many of these things back with us every single summer between school years, but there's not much you can do about stuff like that when you're trying to get through customs and back into your own country again.  Finally, the lady appeared and looked over some papers and then told us that we didn't have to make our lists "this time."  Then the guy came out of some back room and said that he actually didn't have any more questions for Jonathan and I, so in the end, we were all clear and free.  We got back into our vehicles and kept driving for another half an hour until we got to Estevan, Saskatchewan where we found a grocery store parking lot to stop in and finally fell into our beds, completely tired out.

This morning we woke up pretty early and gassed up before having breakfast at Tim Hortons.  It was awesome to be eating there again and it was fun to listen to the conversations swirling around us as we waited in line.  Lots of farmers and workers come in to Timmy's early in the morning for their coffee fix and it was great to hear the mid-Canadian accent again.  After Timmy's (again, Jonathan's first time eating there even though there's a Tim Horton's in his hometown), we piled back in our cars and drove through western Saskatchewan.  Just around Swift Current, we encountered a lovely spring snow storm and stopped to get gas and buy some new windshield wipers for Bryn's car.  Then we kept driving until we crossed the Alberta border and stopped again in Medicine Hat for a small snacky supper of sandwiches and other random foods we could find in our trailer.  We kept going and got to Calgary several hours later, where Jonathan, Bryn and I somehow missed seeing the fifth-wheel and Ty's car stop at a gas station on the west side of town.  We were already past the 1988 Olympic ski jumping park when we got ahold of them and found out they were back in town, but fortunately I knew the place they had stopped at and it wasn't too far to go back and meet them.  After that mishap, we continued on into the foothills of the Rockies.  I drove because I knew Jonathan would want to be taking pictures as we got into the Rockies and I was right.  He snapped pictures left and right, front and back (with the help of my sunroof).  Finally we got to Banff and found a campground to stay the night at with a spectacular view of the famous mountain of Banff.  Now we're just about to leave for supper at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then hopefully a dip in the Upper Banff Hot Spring pool.

Radio ads

Most days I listen to J-103, a Christian radio station in the area, while I drive to campus. On my way to my 9 a.m. class I like to listen to the weather and traffic reports and then the two-minute news, which all takes place just before I get to the Brock parking lot and have to run in to class. It's all very handy. Usually when I travel to my afternoon classes I'm stuck with annoying ads or Christian music. Although I've noticed that J-103 does like to play the same type of songs quite often, the music is typically pretty good. However, the ads are very much NOT-good, at least in my opinion. I'm always astonished by the variety, from pastors of area churches essentially bragging about how good their church is to retail ads from hair salons or pizza restaurants. I always surprised when the Christian-y ads are followed by profit-motivated ads. Anyway, off-topic . . . So today on my way to my 2 p.m. class I was stuck with listening to ads (Don't ask me why I never change the station. I have no good answer for that question.) and was just tuning them out when one I hadn't heard before began. Ahhh, another of those "Christian" ones, I thought to myself. Then I heard these words: "There are many people in the community who don't have anything to keep them warm. No hats, toboggan, or scarves." That's as much as I heard of the ad. My immediate reaction was, Toboggans? How can people here even USE toboggans. Then my brain actually processed what had been said. Toboggans? How in the world do toboggans help keep people warm?!? I giggled out loud the rest of the drive to campus and repeated the phrase to myself, determined not to forget it before I could get into Brock, take out my notebook, and write it down. I shared it with my classmates just before class started. They found it amusing as well. I thought you might too.

The ad was additionally hilarious to me because it reminded me of a time when my family was crossing the border into the U.S. on a quick trip to Spokane to pick up my older sister from the airport and do some shopping. My older cousin had come with us and got grilled at the border crossing, since he wasn't "part of the family" and didn't have his "mother's permission" (he was 21 and most definitely an adult at the time, in any province, state or country). The border official must have been a learner because, after finishing the questions for Nathan, he asked my mum if we had any citrus fruits, "like oranges, grapefruit, vehicles, or lemons," in the car. Somehow my mum kept a straight face and answered his question seriously but as soon as he let us through and she rolled up her window we all burst into gales of laughter. This ad very much reminded me of that incident.