Crossing the US/Canadian Border

 I’m waking up beside a river in West Virginia this morning. Yup, we crossed the border with the trailer and van in tow! 

It’s been a whirlwind of a week starting with Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday of the year. With the changing weather and colours as a backdrop, I’ve always enjoyed being with my family and friends around the dinner table catching up and getting some rest. Although we were missing our family and friends this year,  we had a terrific meal in our trailer! 

After doing a major cleaning of the trailer and laundry all day, we were ready to begin the next part of our travels starting with crossing the border. 

We drove about an hour arriving at ChronoAviation in St Hubert. It really seemed like it was going to be a simple process, but after sitting around for a couple of hours with our fellow passengers, we found out there was a slight glitch. We weren’t on the list to fly that day. After talking to the Transport company that we booked with and feeling very tired, we were shuttled to a motel for the night. Although it was disappointing, we took it in stride. When  you are travelling this much, I think you should expect delays in your plans. Life isn’t perfect and doesn’t go as planned all the time. I think it’s important to keep some perspective; us not getting on a plane seemed pretty insignificant compared to the many problems facing so many people right now. 

The next day, the shuttle picked us up super early to drive us back to the airport. Shortly after arriving, we met our driver and completed all the paperwork he would need at the border. As the US/Canadian border was closed to Canadians driving across by land for non-essential travel, we had to hire a professional driver to transport the van and trailer. Sylvain, our driver, was so great and put our minds at ease as we were a bit apprehensive to let our home be driven by someone else, especially as we just repaired the axle on the trailer. All was good. 

As Sylvain made his way to Plattsburgh, NY, we waited for our plane to fly us across. We had completed the rest of the paperwork and the required Covid test the day before. It wasn’t a long wait until the plane arrived back from the previous trip. This company makes three flights during the day using the same process. I think the plane held 16 passengers and pets. The owner of the company started doing this last year when a lot of snowbirds were trying to get south. He went from 12 employees to 45. To say the least, this guy has done well not only for himself but through his entrepreneurial spirit, kept many people employed during Covid. I do wander what will happen when the border reopens in November. One of the drivers told me that all the drivers will probably go back to their previous driving jobs that were temporarily suspended during Covid. 

Our plane arrived and after our two pilots walked us out, we realized that we were the only ones boarding. Apparently, we couldn’t get on a scheduled flight, so the owner organized a flight just for us. Okay, so maybe spending a night in a motel and not flying the previous day was worth it. This is the way to travel folks! If I had the money, I’d charter all the time! But I don’t, so I took it all in! 

Sixteen minutes later we landed at the airport in Plattsburgh! That’s right…sixteen minutes. It was a fun sixteen minutes! After clearing customs, where we were the only people, we walked about two minutes to our van and trailer that were waiting for us. Sylvain had texted earlier to inform us he’d passed customs and got to Plattsburgh before we even left the airport in St Hubert. 

After checking everything, we drove to our friend Kallene’s house. We met Kallene back in February when we were in Costa Rica. She is a big kiteboarder too! It was so nice to catch up with her and Charlie her new puppy! I’m all about relationships and meeting new people, and I’m so grateful to have met her during our travels! 

And now we begin the drive to San Padre, Texas!