LABOUR DAY MONDAY!

We went off the U.S. today (Ogdensburg a two horse town in upper New York State – about a 45 minute drive from here), and took along a picnic.

When we went through U.S. Customs, they asked us the usual questions like where we were going, how long we were staying, and what our purpose was in visiting the U.S. (the magic word to say when asked this is ‘shopping.’) Then they asked us if we had any oranges. Apparently, they are terrified of oranges being brought into the country from foreign parts which might contaminate their orange producing orchards causing a blight.

We said yes, we had an orange that we’d brought along for lunch. WELL – you never saw anything like it! We were hauled off to the side, agents scoured our car from end to end, and finally found the offending orange which had on its peel – ‘SUNKISSED, CALIFORNIA.’ That was an okay orange, so we were allowed through with no further ado.

We ate our picnic on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, while watching cargo boats and tankers go up the Seaway. Then we did bits of shopping and started to make our way home.

It took us ONE AND THREE QUARTER HOURS to get over a bridge (under road works) and up 300 metres on the other side to the Canadian Customs Officials and through that! They only had two gates open (Customs is also under construction) and this on a long holiday weekend too (today is Labour Day here in Canada). We breathed a sigh of relief when we were the next car to go through. HOWEVER, the car ahead had two young Arab men in it and – you guessed it – it stayed at the gate for AGES with wild gesticulations going on, and numerous pieces of paper handed back and forth. We had fun conjecturing the conversation that was going on ahead between the Arabs and the Canadian Woman Customs Officer.

“Where are you from?”

“British Columbia” (we noticed they had BC license plates – BC is 3,500 miles west of here)

“What are you doing coming in to the Ottawa region?”

“We’re tourists ma’am.”

“Are you bringing in any cigarettes or liquor?”

“Oh no no NO ma’am, we don’t drink or smoke, we’re Muslims.”

(When we were at the top of the bridge, I saw the passenger toss out of his window something that looked suspiciously like a Marijuana toke with a scrunched up end. Even though it was a scorching hot day, 30C and theirs was a newish car, they drove with all their windows open. We had windows closed and our air conditioner going at full blast which will give you an idea of how hot it was. Hmmmm). But I digress. Back to the customs official and the Arabs.

“Alright – do you have any weapons in your car?”

“Erm … just a couple of rifles and a bazooka – strictly for hunting purposes, you understand!”

We went on to speculate that at any moment, they’d leap out of their car and say “Sorry ma’am – we must face Mecca – prayer time.”

Anyhow ten minutes later (no kidding) they were told to pull over to the side so obviously everything with them wasn’t strictly kosher!

When we finally got home, I almost felt like jumping out of the car, kneeling down and kissing the ground!

All in all, a strange and unusual Labour Day Monday and one we wouldn’t care to repeat any time soon.