Oct. 05, 2008 – Calgary, CN.
..an adorable reporter, more scenery, and a picky customs agent.
I made the trip from Idaho Falls, ID to Missoula, MT. on Friday and decided to stay the night in order to have my first tv interview. There have been other TV reporters that have gotten a hold of me in the past, but our timing didn’t allow us to meet. I wanted to see to it that my timing worked out this go around so I stayed in Friday in order to meet Saturday evening
Northern Montana
The lady that interviewed me was a sight for sore eyes. She was pleasant and kind. I only wish I could have seen how the piece aired on television. Unfortunately, I was long gone by the time it aired and it doesn’t sound as though the television station puts the segments on their website. I received a call from another Missoula news station, but had already left town and figured I better get on the road because I was hoping to get to Calgary before dark.
I left Missoula around noon to Calgary. It is time to leave the states for a few days while I explore Canada a little.
I was going to drive straight through Glacier National Park, but a lady in line at Wendy’s had just come from there and mentioned how she had been detoured because the mountain passes were closed due to snow.
As a result of the new weather update, I decided to take the route that curved around the edge rather than through it.
Another National Park, another eye opening experience. Today’s rain gave me a little bit different experience. In the past few days, I had been fortunate to receive cloudless skies. The weather has finally turned and it made things interesting.
The first few hours of driving through the mountains left me viewing half of what was there. The peaks were missing due to the low clouds. That aside, the mountains had sporadic spots of gold trees mixed in with the evergreens. The low lingering clouds reminded me of strewn cotton that people use as spider webs on Halloween. The cotton was strung from tree top to tree top in various locations of the gold speckled mountains. As I drove farther north, the gold trees began to become more common and prevalent. I think they might have been Aspen, but I’m not sure.
Here I was again, driving through some landscaping that made me feel as though I was a drop of paint on God’s canvas.
I stopped the car to enjoy the views enough to cause me to arrive at the Canadian border close to sunset, which is a few hours later than originally planned.
In the past, a trip across the Canadian border amounted to 60 seconds of questions and a “Have a good trip” from the patrol. I expected the same again this time. NOPE!
After the usual questions from the person at the gate, I was expecting to hear the obligatory “Have a great time,” but what I heard this time was “Pull over to the side and go up the stairs and talk to the gentlemen.”
“WHAT?”
okaaay? I guess I’ll have to do that, besides what do I have to worry about? After waiting twenty minutes for a few others to finish being interrogated, it was my turn. This guy started out pretty strict. I’m not sure what he was hoping to discover, but I just wanted to visit a couple of cities and then be on my merry way. He came to the conclusion that since I do not have a job or a home,
beautiful views everywhere
I potentially could be a threat to national security. He said he’d let me go through, but I had to prove to him that I had enough money to pay for gas to drive to Edmonton, Vancouver, and back to the states. God forbid that I were to slip through the cracks on this man’s watch and wind up in the gutters of Edmonton depending on the Canadian government. After all, that’s a highly likely scenario with me driving a rental car.
I don’t usually carry receipts to show people my bank balances and this time was no different, but I thought there might be a small chance of me having a receipt in the car since I have been saving all of my receipts on this trip. He escorted me down to my car and we chatted a little as I tore apart my car like a DEA agent in hopes of finding a receipt with my banking information on it. After not finding one, I mentioned that I could pull up my information online to prove to him I have enough money for 4 tanks of gas, but he said their internet was extremely censored and did not have the capability to pull up such information.
I will give the agent some credit by acknowledging that he began to loosen up as we talked while I pulled the seats out of the car car. He actually seemed like an alright guy after he let down that hard-nosed ” I’m sending everyone back to America facade.” I think it helped when he realized that I wasn’t a threat to national security too.
Unfortunately, I did not find a receipt and was forced to make a u-turn back to America. I ended up driving 40 miles round trip in order to print an ATM receipt that proved I have enough money to return to the states….again.
I’m not sure how my next border crossing into Canada will go, but I imagine it’ll go more smoothly than this one. After all, I have a “receipt” now.
I drove up to Edmonton to check out the enormous mall they have there. It’s supposed to be bigger than the Mall of America. I hear conflicting stories though. The West Edmonton Mall has more square feet, but the Mall of America has more retail space. I don’t know and I’m not sure if I care either.
West Edmonton Mall
I will say that I favor the ambiance of the West Edmonton Mall better. It is only two stories in most of it which leaves you feeling like it’s much bigger. They also have a water park, aquarium, theme park, and a china town. I noticed Edmonton has a high Asian population and their influence is seen throughout the city. It’s hard to believe anyone got into Canada with Captain Customs agent on the job.
After spending much of the day in Edmonton, I returned back to Calgary. I like to drive around downtown a city to get a feel of a city’s center. It’s in the city center that many historical landmarks are. In Calgary’s case, it’s also home to their Olympic Park. I drove around till I ran out of light and then headed west to the base of the Canadian Rockies where I will wait till morning to drive through the pass. I want to be able to see the views.
