Holidays With Dana and Leasa: Stretch run to cross the border

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8

After breakfast with our friends Fran and Kristie (unfortunately JJ couldn't make it), we got on the road around 11am, and as planned, stopped about a half hour later at the Albertville Outlet Mall. I told Leasa to take her time, as we only had 3.5 hours of drive time to Fargo, so two hours later we were back on the road.

The farther we traveled onward, the farther we seemed to leave civilization behind. I was getting a bit antsy when the fuel gauge dipped below a half tank but, not wanting to venture to far off the highway, we kept going, eventually stopping at some just off road truck stop. I didn't go in, but Leasa claimed the 3 booth restaurant and clientele were horror movie worthy.

We reached Fargo around 7. I opted not to go for a cheapo hotel simply because of all the bed bug news you hear these days. So, we stayed at a newer La Quinta. Again, gotta love the smaller town hotels with parking right outside the door. Didn't book it, but we were upgraded to a corner style jacuzzi bath with a tv in the mirror. We watched a bad Star Wars movie, meaning it was one of the prequels, and I totally, once again, space on the time zones and missed the first Conan on TBS. First and only for me since you can't get TBS up here. Doh!

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9

The free breakfast was good, and the older attendants very friendly. We rearranged the packing of the car a bit and gathered our papers for the car export/import since we were going all the way to Regina. I asked the front desk where I might find a magnet that said Fargo, and she suggested the visitor center, which was a waste of time. We gave it one last shot at a gas station/travel stop to no luck. Not one magnet with Fargo, or even North Dakota, wth? We had even given Walmart a shot the night before, guess Fargo just isn't a big tourist town, but throw the movie fans a bone for pete's sake!

The final 9 hours or so of driving began around 815, and thank God we didn't start an hour later, or stop in Minot like we had thought about. Nope, pretty much a straight on drive of monotony where the only other vehicles we saw really were either farm machinery or towing farm machinery.

Finally, we reached the border. I was supposed to stop and get my vehicle title stamped on the U.S. side but didn't even realize I had driven up to the Canadian side until she sent us back around. So, got that taken care of, where the border agent who came out to check the VIN remarked to Leasa that I must be a pretty nice guy to give her the car, and her response was:

"Well, you know, nothing is really free." Nice.

So, hanging a U and back to the Canadian station, for a nice long trip inside where I once again had my nice long conversation with an agent about immigration. She was nice enough, didn't even write up a visitor report on me. We waited while a couple of agents tried to figure out whether to charge just GST or add in PST and we still aren't exactly sure what they did, need to look over the paperwork. But a stamp here and a signature there and we were on our way to Regina.

Our good luck with the weather was about to come to an end, or so I thought, as we ran smack into a driving snow squall. I was just glad as hell it was still light out, but that light was fading. About 30 minutes out from Regina the snow slacked to a trickle and we made it home.....2250 miles or so later. And I guess our luck held out, as it began to snow in earnest about 30 minutes after we arrived and on through the night, waking to about 4 inches on the ground and more falling through the day.