Quote:
Originally Posted by billybek
I came through at Wildhorse crossing south of the Hat. Out of your way, I know, but coming from the eastern states back to Calgary it was a good choice. Minimal traffic.. Decent people to deal with on both sides of the border.
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Wildhorse - that's a good one. Here's a long, funny story about Wildhorse.
A few years ago three of us from Calgary met up with each other in North Dakota to do some pheasant hunting. We each had different things to do on the way to ND, so we took separate trucks/routes on the way down.
After we finished hunting we drove back together, in convoy and crossed the border at Wildhorse. Three guys, three dogs, three trucks.
The first guy in our convoy made the mistake of mentioning to the customs officer that he was travelling with the two trucks/drivers behind him. The officer asked him to pull over and stop in the office for "further discussions". I was next in line and the the officer immediately started questioning me on the purpose of our trip and where/when/how we had travelled from Calgary to North Dakota.
He kept asking over and over again (in slightly different ways) why three of us would take three trucks and drive all the way to North Dakota to go pheasant hunting. It made no sense to him. Yet all three trucks were completely normal in appearance with empty rear boxes and only our gun cases and small duffel bags and the dogs in the cabs. The whole thing blew the guy's mind I suppose.
He asked me to pull over and gave the same instructions to the third member of our group. Now there were only 2 or 3 border guards at the Wildhorse station, so they had a heck of a time examining our trucks, interrogating us and dealing with new traffic approaching the crossing. They made every effort to keep us separated from each other (so we couldn't compare stories, I suppose) while they went back and forth from the station office.
We were getting increasingly aggitated with the delay and tried to explain to the customs guys that they were being paranoid. But of course, they would listen to no reason - we had to be up to some kind of malicious misdeed. Eventually they kept us on ice until they had called in RCMP back-up and completed thorough searches of the trucks. In total we only ended up being delayed a few hours, but the process was very frustrating.
Yeah, small - less busy border crossings can be a blessing - but if things are unusual or "get off the rails", they can quickly become a curse. I find that's generally the rule with border guys - hand them anything out of the norm and you're asking for trouble.
Last time I went on a car shopping cruise to California I made the mistake of mentioning to the US guard at Peace Arch that I was going down on a "bit of a vacation" and to shop for Porsches. He immediately jumped on this "shop for Porsches" remark and starting quizing me about how much US cash I was bringing in. The answer was none - but it was too late, I was sunk.
I was directed to "the office" for about 30 minutes of interrogation and mild humilation while they searched my car for that hidden stash of cash that I was trying to launder by buying Porsches. They even pried off my airbag covers and now one of them doesn't go back on properly.
Watch what you say, always watch what you say...