August 14, 2014 Spouse vs. Dudley Dooright

Thursday August 14, 2014

My humans are sleeping, but I am morphing into Thunderpaws!   I run.  I fly.  I jump.  I can't help myself.  Oh look!  My paternal human is getting up! 

It rained through the night.  I could even hear it through my ear plugs.  It was somewhat comforting.  We actually needed an extra blanket.  But Rudy woke Spouse up early.  And I was not far behind.  I got up and did my walk with my rain poncho.  It is kind of windy and in California, we would call this 'winter'. Alas, I put on long pants and closed shoes and long sleeves for the day ahead.

We readied Hannah and headed up hwy 179.  Hwy... Hah!  For 25 miles, we were bounced all over the place on a road in total disrepair.  We both could have used a chiropractor after that ride.  We could have gone on hwy 1 along the coast, but given the weather conditions, we would not be able to see much of the coast.  And how much of the rugged Maine coast can a person handle!  So 179, then east on 9 to the town of Calais on the Maine/Canada border.  We stopped for lunch at a Chinese buffet... Only it wasn't a buffet.  I am not a fan of Chinese food and after this, I am still not a fan of Chinese food. 

Then, to the border...  My poor Spouse.  We pull up and they ask to stop our engine.  Only we don't want to stop our engine because we are having trouble starting the engine, and if we turn it off, we may be stuck.  Mr. Border Patrol:  "Is the car stolen?"... Hmm, odd question, and even if it were stolen, like would you really answer the question honestly?  What is going on?  Just our luck, we stole a car that isn't running perfectly.  I hate when that happens!

 Let's continue.  "May I see your registration?".  Ok... got that.  Dudley Dooright is probably disappointed.  "Has anybody ever asked you to leave Canada?"  Hmm...  I think we heard this same question last year when we came to Canada.  "No."  He asks what kind of stuff we are transporting.  Then he asks it again in case the answer changes.  How much tobacco, liquor, firearms, mace, etc.  We are consistent in our answers.  He keeps probing, then tells us where to pull over and to come back inside.  What now?

Some more questions, then they tell me to go sit down, it may be a while.  I go and turn off the truck.  Sure hope it starts!  I wait.  I hear Spouse talking.  Apparently, they have his juvenile record up and auto theft was being reviewed.   Really?  "That was 1962 and I was a juvenile." 

"Why were you fingerprinted in 2011?"  Oh Dudley Dooright thinks he is on to something here.   "Because I became a foster parent to my nephews."  Darn... Dudley had nothing.  He tried but couldn't get the goods on us.  He let us go.  The truck started and we headed east on hwy 1 to Saint John, where there is a chevy dealer with our name on it, hopefully.    Here we lose another hour to the time zone gods.  We are now on Atlantic time, 4 hours later than home.

How nice, no traffic.  Miles of trees, streams, ocean inlets, and marshes accompany us into Saint John.  Too bad it is raining and I know it is so beautiful.  Samaaaaantha is having trouble pronouncing some of the streets.  Sounds like she is slurring her words, drinking on the job.  She keeps checking out, probably due to the cloud cover.  But we found our way and we got our appointment with the Chevy dealer.  We got our RV spot and now we are listening to the rain.  Looks like we will have a lot of that in our future.