From French speaking Quebec, we passed through Ontario to America into New York. The language transitioned from French to all English 1/3 of the way into Ontario. Once we got into New York we still got lost. We would like to blame it on poor signage – which there was – but mostly we weren’t looking. So, we ended up down a well-paved 2-lane road to who knows where.
We had no idea where we were headed and Gypsy, our GPS, kept saying turn right in .2 . . . in .1 . . . in .0 on street “blab blab” which wasn’t the name of the street in front of us. So, began our search of a place to turn around a 45’ rig. Not an easy task for the very experienced – imagine how hard it is for the poor beginners, us. We finally found a large gravel pad in front of someone’s house/shop (we didn’t know which as no one was there). So, Boots got out to direct the maneuver. Have we mentioned how much Karma hates for 1 of us to outside the moving truck and 1 inside; even if she can see us she’s sure someone is being left behind!
So, she’s barking, we are yelling over that, squirting her with water, and trying to back into the road before other vehicles come by. We must be getting better (and lucky there was no traffic) as it took less than 15 minutes to get back headed in the right direction. I’d say we finally have backing up in our grasp.
US Customs again - unlike Washington state’s maze of lanes in the approach to the Agent, New York was a straight on lane. The questions were a bit more through – like specifically did we have oranges or tangelos, any fire wood (a major problem across both Canada and America in the spread of diseases that devastate forests), tobacco or alcohol. So, we passed those easily enough. He got real nosy about where we had been in Canada and why. Then, where were we going in America and why. Unlike Washington state approach (check our blog back in June 2008 – 22nd or 23rd), this seemed to be a more appropriate set of questions if we are really going to keep more dangerous threatening people out of the states.
