Mass. Trip '10: A series of LJ posts

[pyesetz]

If I write this stuff down, then years later I will remember the version of events that I had recorded; if I don't write it down, I will remember less but the memory would perhaps be less tainted by what I had once thought was a good way to describe what happened.

It was a busman's holiday: 1450 miles in seven days.  My car has a “trip computer” that can record hours of engine-on time, but I forgot to reset it before the trip.  Anyway, it was a lot of hours.  Near the end of the trip, the odometer flipped over from 99,999 to 100,000 miles.  The kidlets found it hard to grasp why this was a big deal (the sixth digit of the electronic odometer is lighting up for the first time!) and didn't join in when I sang Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear ♪ca-ar♬, Happy Birthday to you, but Wifey did.  I sent no money to the copyright holder for the right to utter these now-traditional words in the privacy of my own vehicle and so therefore I’m a bloodthirsty pirate just like Redbeard or Captain Kidd.

It took over an hour to get through the checkpoint on the way into the US.  Most of the cars ahead of us were getting searched.  We presented US passports and were not searched, although nationality is a poor predictor of terrorist sympathies.  They asked us the usual questions (“What were you doing in Canada?  Where are you going in the US?  Why are you going there?  How long will you stay?”), which Wifey finds offensive because we have Citizens’ Right of Entry and it’s none of their business where we’re going in a free country.  Sometimes it’s cute when Wifey maintains her belief that the Constitution is something more than just a fig leaf for a Fascist régime.  Anyway, these were the identical questions later asked by the Canadian Border Patrol officer upon our return, so I made sure to give the identical answers in order to verify our identities as the same folks who had left Canada the week before.  Only a five-minute wait at the return checkpoint!

From our entry at Niagara/Lewiston we got to the Utica area before ending our first day.  We stayed at the Herkimer Motel, in the Village of Herkimer, in the Town of Herkimer, in the County of Herkimer, in the State of New York.  For symmetry, they should rename the state to “Herkimer”, but I guess the NYCers wouldn't like that.  General Herkimer was active during the Revolutionary War.  We stayed at the same hotel on the return trip, but it’s too far east and we should select a more westerly accommodation so the last trip day won't be so long (left the hotel at 11 AM, got home at 9:30 PM).

Comments

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

Wifey finds offensive because we have Citizens’ Right of Entry

I've been asked the same question on my return to Canada once.
"Well, I guess I will drive home... and then go to work tomorrow."
I think the guards just get confused once in a while.

[pyesetz]

Or maybe they're checking for your confusion by asking a silly question that should have an easy answer—unless you're lying your head off about who you are.

[ducktapeddonkey.livejournal.com]

So, when you present a US passport do you tell them that you live in Canada?

[pyesetz]

They always ask, "What were you doing in Canada?"  I always answer, "We live there."