Daniel, Diana and I arrived in Birch Bay, WA for a 3 night stay. The plan was to park the RV there and take the Jeep over to Vancouver, BC and spend 2 days. The park we were in was just a few mile from the Canadian border and it would only be about a 40 minute drive to Vancouver. After we got in and set up we decided that we all wanted some ice cream. So we get in the Jeep and search for grocery stores on the GPS. There is a Safeway just 6 miles away. Off we go.
After about 5 minutes we, following the GPS instructions, turned on to North I-5. It was packed with cars. We had seen there was a concert in a park near by and figured that was where everyone was going. We sort of got forced into the "Nexus" lane, whatever that is. Then we looked up and realized we are going to Canada! Turns out the Nexus lane is for those who have acquired special papers and authorization to enter and leave regularly. We do not have such authority. Also, we do not have our passports. So there we are stuck in a line we should not be in...on 2 levels. When we get to the guard station I told the guard that it was our mistake, that we were just looking for ice cream and could we just make a u-turn and be on our way? "It's not that easy." was his response. "Why are you in the Nexus lane?" Well, we had no idea what the Nexus lane was and we kind of got forced into it due to traffic, and no we do not have our passports with us since we did not plan to come to Canada today. "Take this form and drive over to that officer. He'll show you where to park." So now we can see what he meant when he said "It's not that easy."
So we park the car and are told to go inside and see the agent at line B. With form in hand we went over, apologized and told our story. We each had to show our drivers license and I had to give them the car keys. "Please have a seat over there, this will take a few minutes." Now understand the situation here, we have 1 person with a Hawaii drivers license, 2 people with South Dakota license who claim to live in an RV and 1 vehicle registered to an LLC in Montana. Yeah, this could take awhile. After about 30 minutes the agent called us all over and asked "how did you get here?" "We were just trying to get ice cream." "Take your keys and follow the signs out of the parking area and go back to the US" she said. We said "thank you" and off we went.
So we make the u turn to head back to the USA and are stopped again at the US border. "May I see your ID and how long were you in Canada?" the US border patrol agent asked. "About 20 minutes, we went in by mistake." "Oh! What were you doing" he asked? We were just trying to get some ice cream and our GPS sent us to the Safeway in Canada. He smiled and said "welcome home."
On our way back to the RV we took a slightly different route. Pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store and bought ice cream. It was about 2 miles from our campground. If we had turned left out of the campground instead of right, we would not have this story to tell.
By the way, the ice cream was pretty good!
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