vinism

My apologies for bloggus-interruptus. Real life events, like this one have kept me away...

The U.S. Border Patrol pull me over Wednesday, five miles south of the U.S. Canadian border in Vermont. The wanted to know if the car I was driving was stolen. I told them no, it wasn't stolen. Left unmentioned was the fact the car in question was a Ford Focus! That's right. A Ford Focus...

The claim was the rear license was mounted in similar manner to the way thieves would mount plates on a stolen car. They were kind enough to tell me that the front plate of my rental car looked legit. They then asked for my license (which I provided), and asked why I was travelling to Canada (to visit my wife), and whether I had successfully crossed into Canada before (all the time). Apparently, those answers did not satisfy them, because the proceeded to ask for my passport. After calling the passport in, the officers came back and asked to search my car.

What's a poor blogger of color to do. This one said no, until told it would be in my "best interest" to let them search the car. The answer changed to "yes" in a hurry. After finding nothing in the back seat, they asked to search my trunk, at which point I requested to be present during the search.

That prompted the second officer to leave his big white SUV and escort me to the trunk (presumably to ensure I didn't beat up the first officer who was twice my size and packing heat). After searching my suitcase and informing me that there "were only clothes" in there, the returned my license and passport and sent me on my merry way.

My trip only gets better when I reach the Canadian border...More on that in the next post.