Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Drive Home

The mission: get the car returned by 6:30pm.

After a late night movie in Calgary, I got a few winks back in Siksika and then woke up to a vividly colored sunrise. Can't believe I've been missing all these sunsets--that's what I get for being a night owl! I was ready to go and on the road by 6:30am.



As I headed south off the reserve, and over the last few days, I kept telling myself, "I can't be a stranger." Three years is too long to be away from Siksika. I also need to become more acquainted w/ my Scottish roots as well. Looks like I'm doomed to travel to beautiful areas---could be worse, right? :)


A claim to fame for the small farming town of Vulcan (South of Siksika) is, well, their name. Since the township's name is from a race of people only Trekkies would know, it looks like they were milking it for what's worth: "Live Long & Prosper".

The road leading up to the Rockies

As I approached the border at Kingsgate at around 11:00am, I was making some excellent time. I wasn't even worried when I saw a line at the border crossing. After about a 30min wait, I approached the Border Patrol Officer. I confessed to having a 6-pack (Big Rock Honey Brown Ale), and having a bad time at a border crossing over a decade ago (this was due to some racist Border Patrol Officers). I knew that when he asked, "have you had trouble crossing the border before?" I was in for some crap.

"Would you please pull forward and park to the left, and wait for an officer," he said. D'oh. They were ruining my schedule!! I had to go into the Border Patrol Office and fill out a Declaration card and answer some odd questions---where was I born? What was my major? Do you have any tatoos? (?!?!? tatoos?? man, what's up with that?)

Two officers went through my vehicle for about 20min. They were nice and atleast didn't throw all my crap on the ground. In 1994, my brother, cousin Leon, and I were stopped at a middle-of-nowhere Border Station during a trip to Rocky Boy (for their pow wow). These bastards, totally went through our vehicle, threw everything on the ground, and then told us to re-pack the vehicle--racist, ego-trippin, bastards! Ok, sorry for straying....

....these Officers were atleast cordial. My vehicle wasn't left in a shambles. I didn't want to question them on why they stopped me, or go all up in their faces---I didn't want to ruin my schedule (or get arrested and sent to Guantanamo!).

Other than this stop, the rest of my trip was uneventful, and I made it to the rental office with 30min to spare! Another trip was complete.

3 comments:

Hard to Explain said...

Love what you are doing with the blog. Makes me miss Siksika :( Maybe I'll go soon! Keep up the good work!

Your Sis

Sarah Gray said...

hey corey! just made my blog-- it looks like you had a fun trip up there!!!

Anonymous said...

How was the six of Ale? I bet Canadian Beer tastes better than American, EH! If I would have known you were going to get strip searched at the border -I would have made you drink it at the Cow Patty 49...LOL!