I thought I would share my experiences having recently crossed the border.

I waited 21 days after my second Pfizer shot to travel to Minneapolis to visit my sister. Iam among the 2.4% of fully vaccinated Canadians.. When I stopped at US Customs the border guard asked my purpose in coming to US as I handed him my passport card. I said I was going to visit my sick sister in MPLS. He said “Well you should get vaccinated while you are down here.” I informed him I already was vaccinated. He seemed suprised by that and said lots of people were coming thru to get vaccinated. I specifically asked him if coming down to get a vaccine shot was an essential reason to cross the border—he said “It is to me.”

I knew I would need to get tested before I came back so I called a local Pharmacy near my sisters residence to get tested—you have to schedule on-line—no walk-ups. I asked about how much the test would cost. The girl at the pharmacy told me to fill out the form on-line and fib on the address—put down your sisters address. We need an email address, your birth date, a phone number and a street address but we don’t ask for any ID. Test is then free. They scheduled a test for an hour later and asked if I wanted to get vaccinated at same time.

There are 2 types of tests—saliva test with results in 15 minutes or PCR test which takes up to 48 hours. If PCR test is positive they will call right away and be prepared to state where you have been and who you talked to. To return to Canada you have to have the PCR test.

The fun began when I got back to the border 2 days later. I was dragging a used Pontoon boat I had purchased—I’ve done this before so I knew the procedure on the duty for the Pontoon and trailer. Border Guard asked me how much trouble it was to get into the US—he assumed my purpose was to pick-up the pontoon—I told him the truth —it wasn’t any problem. He seemed really pissed about that. Then he spent 2 hours threating me with million dollar fines and 3 years in jail if I didn’t comply with quarentine restrictions.

The quarentine procedure is a whole nother post!