1.
While camping in Oregon I get up early, go for
an amazing trail run, do my push-ups, have some coffee, do a bit of blogging,
take a shower and get ready Ringo to leave.
I get in the van and begin to drive out of the campground for about a
quarter mile, when another camper points to the top of Ringo, which makes me
turn around and look up. I freaking
forgot to pull the tent top down. Thus,
I was about to get on the road with the fold-up tent still open!! Like my brother Ruben says, “the dumbest
things happen to the coolest people.”
2.
As I was preparing to go into Vancouver, I knew I
was going to stay in a hotel because there are no campgrounds near the city. Thus, I had taken my bikes off the bike rack
and put them into the back of Ringo.
While doing this, I had also taken the bike rack off to get into closet
located in the back of the van. When I closed
the door, I simply hung the bike rack on the back with two small hooks from the
top. I didn’t put the other four latches
on thinking I would do it later.
Unfortunately, I never remembered to re-latch it and because I have a
curtain going across the back window, I could not see if it was still there. Thus, here I am crossing the border into
Canada, after driving nearly 100 miles I realized that I hadn’t done so, I
freak out thinking I lost the bike rack on the freeway somewhere in Washington
State. I quickly pull over, run around to the back and to my absolute surprise, find it still hanging there. I guess the weight of the rack was enough to
keep it hooked on, though I would imagine a sudden turn or stop could have sent
it flying!
3.
Over the course of the trip I have seen a pretty
good share of deer along the way. Either
near the road, in the campground or while riding my bike. However, this time it was different. I was leaving a small town in Canada that I
had stopped at to get a cup of coffee. When
I get back on the two-lane road, going about 40 miles an hour, up ahead of me I
see the biggest freakin’ deer I have ever seen and I come to an immediate halt
in the van. It’s HUGE. I’ve never seen anything like it and it’s
right in the middle of the road. It
stares me down for a second or two, then, just as quickly as it appeared, it’s
gone. I was too shocked to get a photo
and really would have had some serious car damage if I had hit this thing. Ten miles up the road I see a warning sign saying to keep a watch out for caribou – I’m an idiot!!
4.
While entering the US from Canada through a border check in
Idaho, I answer all of the questions the US Border Patrol is asking. Where are you from? NY. How
long were you in Canada? Three days. Did you buy anything? No. Are you bringing any firearms with you? No.
Do you have any Tobacco with you? No (I did have three cigars) Do you have any alcohol with you? No (I did
have some Tecate in the ice chest, but figured I brought it into the country I
should be able to take it out). Do you
have any fruits and vegetables with you?
Here’s where my mistake was made, trying to be trivially honest. I lift up the one orange that I have had
sitting in my car for over a week and say, “only this one orange.” The
patrolman looks directly into my eyes and says, I need you to go into secondary
screening and don’t get out of the car! Oh no! Here I have not told him about the cigars, the beer, the hatchet that I
have for cutting wood, and I’m getting taken to secondary for one orange. So I sit
in secondary sweating bullets for 10 minutes till another tough looking patrolman
comes out and says “so you have an orange with you?” I say “yes, but I brought it with me from
California,” and he says “then it should have never passed into Canada in the
first place!” He angrily takes the
orange, turns and says “okay you can go, have a great trip!!!” Getting send into secondary screening for
being honest about one orange!!!!
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