Sunday, October 15, 2006

OH CANADA....OH GET ME BACK TO THE USA

These past few days in Canada has almost felt like we were in a third world country. We have been through some of the most remote areas where there is nothing to see but grain fields. The few towns we came upon were so small if you blinked you passed them up. Finding a truck stop is a lesson in futility as the ones listed in our reference books were either not where they said they were, or were closed and no longer open. But I digress...... Let me go back to the beginning.

After our tasty time in Wisconsin eating our way through the state in cheese we arrived in Little Falls, Minnesota at the Crestliner Plant. We arrived too late in the afternoon to get loaded, so we spent the evening in their yard. As I mentioned before we awoke to 22 degree weather. We were lucky in that they were ready to load us first thing that morning. We drove into their warehouse and they closed the doors to try and keep it warm in there. As they opened the doors to let us out after getting 5 boats loaded we saw this:
  
It had started to snow while we were inside the warehouse. Not only that, but the wind had started to blow. As we drove north towards Canada, the wind got stronger blowing in at 45mph, and it was a head wind at that. Talk about a rough time steering. Each one of those boats were like a sail.
  

Speaking of which, the back boat started to lose it's shrinkwrap. As the wind blew it slowly got ripped to the point where we could no longer even attempt to tape it closed again. So at a rest stop just south of the Canadian border, we called into the claims department and explained our situation. They had us completely remove the shrinkwrap from the boat so that the loose covered would not beat up the coating on the boat. This is what our load looked like after that:

  
So, we approach the Canadian border. I had called earlier in the day to make sure we had our clearance, which we did and we confidently pulled up to the customs booth expecting a quick departure. WRONG..... the customs agent keeps asking us about the one trailer we had and paperwork that should have been with it. To make a long story short, three hours later, several walks in 45mph winds between the customs office and the brokers office, two difference types of paperwork submitted, and on our third try at the customs desk we finally were allowed into Canada.

So now we get to enjoy endless miles of nothing. I had to amuse myself so I ended up taking a picture of our shadow as we drove down the road.
  
As we got closer to Lloydminster I started seeing quite a few grain elevators in every town we passed.
  
  
So there you have it, our latest trip into Canada. We hope to be able to unload first thing in the morning and get another load assignment which will take us directly into the USA without passing Go and getting the $200, and between you and me, I really won't mind.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU FOR THE CHEESE. I WILL ADD ANOTHER HOLE TO MY BELT. ENJOY YOUR TRAVELS, CANADA AND ALL. DAD

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