flintlocke;
Good morning to you sir, I hope your section of Jefferson State is getting enough snow or moisture this winter that it'll do some good and that you're well.

The chap I cowboyed for on weekends sometimes and was part of his branding crew for 27 odd years also worked for Canada Customs as it used to be known as until he retired from it after 30 plus years. On the branding crew was another fellow who worked 25 plus years for Canada Customs and until he passed we also had an RCMP Sargent who'd join in.

Sometimes the conversation was pretty instructive.

The short version of the guess I'm about to make regarding your experience would be as follows.

They - that is to say Canada Border Services Agency - are a pretty broad swath of humanity and as such have sterling examples of fine upstanding humans and then some malignant rectal orifices as well. If said MRO behaves well enough to pass probation and become a full fledged member of the CBSA they are then represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada Union - who will usually fight tooth and nail to keep all sorts of their members still gainfully employed.

Much to the chagrin of management sometimes as you can well imagine.

As well, sometimes one is just plain old unlucky and ends up behind either a Karen or some other wonderful representative of your country of origin and yes you and the next half a dozen people may pay for Karen's indiscretions. Sad that's the case but true.

It can also be that the CBSA agent you get has goofed up and let some try miscreant into the country recently - it got traced back to them - they received a well deserved mastication of the hindquarters sort of meeting and have taken it to heart. Again no fault of your own, you just drew the short straw.

Before 911 and when we lived a wee bit closer to the medicine line, we used to head down to Oroville for a tank of gas, jug of milk and a pound of cheese sort of run - and hey, it was something to do too in what was a pretty sleepy place back then.

There was one particular US Border Patrol agent everybody hoped not to get questioned by. I'm not sure where he'd come from, but he just couldn't wrap his head around driving a half hour to save $20 so he was sure we were up to something. By we I do mean the entire line of Canucks headed down into Ben Prince's parking lot too, because back then it was 8 out of 10 cars there had BC plates.

Anyways, on behalf of the segment of BC which appreciates the income stream supplied by tourists from all nations but especially our good neighbors to the south, I'll apologize for the bad behavior most certainly but at the same time assure you it's out of our control for the most part for reasons stated above.

If you ever wander up through the 97 drop me a PM and I'll do my best to get some coffee into you or if they're open some decent hard ice cream at the stand down on the highway.

Best to you.

Dwayne

The most important stuff in life isn't "stuff"