Bending the Knee

In Northern Vermont I had entered QC brief to avoid bicycling over Jay Pass. The border guards on both ends were very pleasant, held me up for less than 2 minutes, and told me about the upcoming roads.

I entered Ontario in Cornwall. The bridge was nice, but had expansion joints capable of swallowing an entire 40mm bicycle tire. I rolled up to the booth and the guy asked me the standard questions about weapons and money, but then he told me to go inside and talk to a Border Officer.

I walked up to the counter and talked to a border officer, who asked me most of the same questions, then asked me to sit and wait for a few minutes. After a few minutes he came back and told me he wanted to interrogate me. We went into a small room and I sat across from and him and asked me all the details of my living and financial situation. He seemed put off by the fact that I left my apartment and planned to live on my bicycle for 4 months. Then he asked me about how I plan to support myself while in Canada. I told him I worked full-time for 7 years and saved up quite a bit of money. He asked, "what is quite a bit?" And continued, "If you have to stay in hotels for a month, at $100/night, that's $3000." I wanted to say, "Bitch, at that rate I'd have enough money to stay in Canada not for 4 months, but for 2 years", but I didn't. Instead I asked, "Am I required to declare my net worth to you?" He said no, but that he wanted to make sure I could support myself again. So I ended up giving some of the details of my financial accounts, and also the contact info of a friend in the US who could corroborate my story.

I hated having the bend the knee to this unimaginative slackwit just to ride my bicycle. I'm going for a bicycle ride, not applying for a mortgage, for fucks sake. Regardless, I'm bicycling in Canada now.