3 Travel Days (Dickinson, ND)

Travel Day 1- We left Canada on Monday morning to start our journey home. We crossed at the Pembina, ND border. The border agent asked for our ID's and then asked if we had birth certificates. We had 2 birth certificates and one expired passport and he was fine with that :-) Then we told him the nature of our visit and he asked if we had any gifts. He was very friendly and asked us to pull to the left for the agriculture agent to chat with us. OK...we were greeted (or not!) by Crabby Appleton the Ag Agent! After Chris got out to talk to Crabby, she came back to the truck and asked, "What kind of food do you have?" So I listed a few things from the fridge, freezer...she didn't specify WHAT she wanted to know. I told her I had an apple and a potato, and that ALL my groceries were from the States. "Good!" she replied. She asked if the sticker was still on the apple. Who knows! And she asked if I had any sausage. Then she wanted to know the dreaded dog food question...and yes we left ours in the original U.S. bag so that we would be OK.

For any of you who haven't yet crossed the border between U.S. and Canada with dog food...beware! Every year it bounces back and forth...the dog food war at the border... either the Canadians on their end or the Americans on our end will confiscate your dog food if it is not from "their" country. This year the US is being the dog food Nazis.

Back to Crabby...she and Chris entered the trailer to check the food supply...opened the fridge...and oh no! I did not declare my U.S. grapes or my U.S. lemon. She chastised Chris for not having a list of every food in our posession and threated to fine us $300! It didn't matter that she didn't specifically ask what fruit I had...it was that 'I didn't declare!' But she went on and on about the little bit of leeway that she has and this time would not fine us! Whatever! It's harder to get back into the country we're citizens of than go to Canada! And we're talking about grapes and lemons, not suspected terrorists! Ridiculous!

We stayed at the Red River State Park in East Grand Forks, MN. It is a new state park that was developed by the C.O.E. after flooding in 1997. It is a nice full hook-up park...sorry no pics. Nice bike trail and at $29 total a night (with parking pass), it's a decent value.

Travel day 2- Dickinson, ND
It was an interstate travel day...thank goodness we were off the Canadian roads! They chucked us back and forth and back and forth! I-29 to Fargo and west on I-94, not a bad drive. We have the air conditioner cranking in our water and 30 amp site at Camp on the Heart, a Passport America park. We wanted to stay hooked to the truck, but there would be none of that....for $14 a night you get the most sloped site available. But hey! Can't complain for what we paid.

Travel day 3- Heading towards Billings, MT