Vancouver (50) to Seattle (51)

We selected Sunday to travel because we expected the traffic to be quite minimal, however were surprised by the numbers of cars heading towards the USA. Following our concerns about taking fruit and vegetables across the border when heading north, we took less fruit but took a chance on vegetables as Grace found an Asian store selling all types of leafy, green veggies.

Quite a long queue greeted us at the road block for passport control and it took us almost 45 minutes to reach the guard at the booth. He turned out to be a right pompous person, nothing like the friendly greeting we received from the Canadian border guard on our way north.

"Give me your passports. Why are you coming to the USA? How long will you be here? Where are you going? Who owns the truck and 5th wheeler? What!!! You bought that just to travel round the USA for 1 year!!! Your visas expire in February and you must leave the USA before then." All this plus more was put to us in a very gruff and bombastic way, not at all in a light inquisitive manner.

However, I then blundered!! I told him we needed to be back in Canada by early April and that we were going to cross the border into Mexico while we were in San Diego to "renew" or "refresh" our B1/B2 visa which is valid for 5 years, but only in 6 month blocks.

"You are going to do what? be bellowed with indignation. You are violating the rights of the visa. You are not allowed to travel across the border for a day, then return to have a new visa issued, it must be a meaningful trip!!" I was going to tell him that any trip we were taking where we'd not been before was meaningful, however I stayed quiet. He produced a self-adhesive orange sticker, wrote something on it and stuck it to the outside of our windscreen.

"You must come inside for further questioning! Park your rig around the other side of the building". With that he dismissed us and we did as told, parked on the other side. When we went inside the building, there were four other people already seated there, waiting for how long I wondered? To one side there was an open counter with lots of tables at which sat a few people in uniform, glancing at us from time to time but not making any approach. No sign of our combatant either, probably still outside making life difficult for others.

However, after nearly 30 minutes of us all sitting there, a woman walked in the same door in which we had entered and she was holding her orange sticker from the windscreen. She walked up to the counter, summonsed a person and was dealt with immediately. Almost as one, the others in the room realised we needed that orange sticker to be served - why weren't we told? We all walked out together and retrieved "said sticker" and returned to form a queue of three.

As we were last in, we waited our turn and when finally at the desk was asked why we received the sticker. I told a much friendlier chap and he said "take a seat, he will need to talk to you". So we were once again going to face our combatant. After another 15 minutes or so (by now over an hour waiting) he walked in and called me over.

"Here are your passports and you are free to stay in the USA till Feb 19th when your visas expire. Prior to that date, you must leave the USA and return to your country of residence!" I remember that instruction verbatim as I thought it was none of his business where we went after we left the USA. I believe we can go anywhere we choose and that our passport will allow - I was going to say something inappropriate but thought better of it and simply turned and walked outside with the family.

Being astute, you may have picked up just the tiniest of hints that I'm still peeved about the incident, till now! Now, I've finally got all that nonsense off my chest, time to move forward.

The rest of the drive to Seattle was straight forward, but much of it is now a with grey cloud settled over my head following the encounter with Mr Personality…..stop it! Time to put my mind towards writing a new blog about Seattle. By the way, once again we weren't queried about fruit and veggies.