Driving SOLO

So 3 days after I got back from Montana I decided to take a nice little drive from my parents place which is in southern Alberta, to Boise Idaho to see a friend of mine. I headed down on a Thursday morning and decided to take the scenic route down. When I got to the chief mountain border crossing and told the customs officer that I was driving to Boise for a day to see a friend he got suspicious… our conversation went something like this:
Officer:so your driving to Boise for a day? By yourself?
Me: yes
Officer: what for?
Me: to see a friend
Officer: male or female?
Me:male
Officer:hmmm how do I know your not coming down here to work??
Me:because I'm coming back on Saturday.
Officer: so let me get this straight you live in spruce grove, and your driving all the way to Boise Idaho by yourself for one day??
Me: yes
Officer: I can't let you go until you can prove to me that you are going to come back.
So I'm frantically searching my car for some kind of proof that I'm not tryin to illegally emigrate to the US. How in the heck do you prove something like that?????
Eventually I ended up giving him my U of A I.D. card and had to give him my whole life story about my teaching contract before he finally let me cross. Apparently I'm suspicious. So I made it across and headed through glacier national park. I loved the drive so much the week before I couldn't resist taking that way again. So made it through glacier and kalispell where I stopped and tried to fix my cell phone, because once I crossed the border I had no service until I got to Boise
(13.5 hours with no cell phone =death)
so after kalispell I headed to Missoula where I stopped and picked up a GPS thingy (which I returned in Great Falls on my way home, since it had served its purpose. haha) and then from Missoula went to Boise. It was a beautiful drive the whole way I was driving trough mountains and along lakes and rivers and through trees. So very nice however it took me 15 hours to get there! Haha normally I cant even drive from my house to my parents house which is only 4 hours away without stopping for a nap or something… but somehow I managed to go all the way to Boise without stopping other than for bathroom breaks and the occasional sandwich.

So I made it to Boise had a good visit with my friend…although it didn't make me any less worried about this particular individual I was glad I went and was able to have some fun. Which included going out for "soul" food or "Sole" food I dunno anyway that was fun I ate the ugliest things ive ever touched in my life.

CRAWFISH!!!

EEK My friend knows that I am deathly terrified of any type of sea food so he makes sure everytime we see eachother we have to have sushi, or crawfish, or something sickly creepy like that

 

The chef was soooooo FUNNY!! I loved him and infact I might go back to Boise someday for no other reason than to have some of chef rolands Sweet potatoe pie FREAKING DELICIOUS! it was like a party in my mouth!

So anyway the time in Boise came and went it was fun/sad/happy/bitter/much needed. haha.

Anywho So I decided not to take the scenic route home and took the Main interstates all the way back to Canada...Would you believe it only took me 12 hours!! and I stopped along the way and did some sight seeing!! such as:

Stopping in Idaho Falls to check out the newly renovated visitors center...(and maybe to pee lol)

It was pretty cool. I also stopped and took some pictures, had to gas up 3 times cause I was driving like a bat outa hell, and stopped to return GPS in Greatfalls as mentioned earlier.

Anyway heres where it gets funny:

Canadian Border customs

So the Lady has about the same conversation with me as the american guy did on my way down to the US, however after she leaves the window to go and talk to someone she comes back hands me a slip and asks me to come inside. So I go in some dude asks me who I went to see in Boise, I told him the name of my friend, I'm pretty sure he looked him up on the computer and told me to sit and wait a few minutes. Then I get called back up and he asks whos vehicle I am driving? because as you know I totalled my Truck A few months ago, and have been driving my parents vehicle since. So I told them whos it was and he then asked to have my keys so he could do a search on my vehicle. I oblige and hand over my keys and take as seat as asked. about 20 minutes later he is still searching. It had been a while since I took a bathroom break so I got up and asked one of the other officers if it would be O.K. if I went to the washroom. She told me it was O.K. so I started to walk in that direction next thing I know another officer Yells "STOP RIGHT THERE!!" and some sort of alarm thing goes off. so I stop Immediately stop and wait while they call the officer doing the search in my vehicle. He says I'm good to go and they let me go. I thought nothing of this.........until I got home and told my friend at school what happened at the border. He happens to have a sister that works at customs in the airport, and he informed me as to how incredibly lucky I was and how asking to go the washroom is the biggest mistake of all time at customs because the officers get even more suspicious.......So that day at the coutts border crossing could have turned into the worst day of my life......THANKFULLY I did not get violated and was aloud to go on my merry way. So keep that in mind next time you get searched at customs! I am so nieve sometimes!!