Reaching the Border

Bill always gets extremely nervous when we are about to reach the border. I don't know if he thinks they are going to aim machine guns at us or what but he just gets really nervous and worries that we won't get across and that we will have to turn around and go back.
Bill "What a waste of a trip that would be."
Me (trying to sound positive) "At least we would have had a nice drive, a lovely lunch in the van, taught Hallie how to pee on the side of the road and shown Savannah Regina."
Bill I think he may have grunted or scowled at my positive outlook on his anxiety.

We reached the border at 2:00 PM and left the border guard's at 2:13. We had to show him our I.D. and the letter we had thought to get Savannah's mom to write so they didn't think she was abducted. He looked in the back of the van-not in the camper. We wondered if he would make us set it up so he could look inside. He asked if we had meat or citrus. We told him we had ham sandwiches and some cucumbers. Apparently that is okay to take across. He also asked us if we had any weapons or alcohol with us. Ah, no. We were asked if we had more than $10, 000 American. Like that would happen and then asked what we would be doing in the States. Um, a family vacation...? The border guard then looked right at Cherish and asked, "Is anyone in here being kidnapped?" Cherish turned bright red and looked at him like he had suddenly grew an extra head. You know the look, the 'are you completely nuts?' look. He then threw in a clever little joke by adding, "Just being tortured by your parents by being dragged to KC, huh?" Cherish did not get it.

Oh well, we made it across! Yay! No trouble. Yay! Bill could now relax once more and enjoy the trip.

We later found out that the girls were really disappointed with the border. Cherish thought that the border would open up like a huge gate once you were approved and let you through. Picture all those cartoon images of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates of Heaven or something like that, I guess. Jen thought that the United States would look a lot different than Canada, at least Saskatchewan.

The girls all thought it was REALLY cool that all the farms we passed in North Dakota had an American Flag on it. Hallie had a hard time with THAT phrase (something like amucen fuc). Bill and I both almost over reacted the first time she said that with a "WHA-AT!?!?!?!?". She then repeated it and pointed to the flag. Whew! What a relief.

The girls were awed by the acres upon acres of sunflower fields. They also, Jenn especially, freaked out with awe and disbelief when they saw an army vehicle...a hummer...with a machine gun mounted to the top of it! Definitely a sight you don't see in our neck of the woods.