We were all ready to go on our trip when one by one the kids got a bug! Finally it was Sunday AM and Dane woke up with the dreaded fever!! I gave me Tylenol and we all took some herbal remedies, packed the van, said our goodbyes, and off we went!
I had planned to spend the night at my sister's and only drive five hours the first day, but given we were sick, she had another bug herself and she was pregnant and we didn't want to complicate things, we bypassed her house and continued on our way. The kids decided they would rather travel late into the night and sleep in, rather than stop early and be on the road by 6:00 am, as was our original plan. We needed the early start to get to some lighthouses in Newport, Oregon, before they closed.
So on we went. We got to the border at 7:00 pm and then I saw the line up.
It took us about an hour to get through! When we got to the crossing we prayed for a simple experience. No such luck! The guy asked us all the right questions and we gave all the right answers, until he asked us if we had any 'beef'. YUP! Any fruit? YUP! Oh boy! Out came the bright orange slip of paper. I told him I would be willing to toss the food, if only he would let me go. He said with absolutely no compassion or remorse about pulling over a family in the middle of the night (sort of *grin*) "You'll have to see what they want to do inside." And sent me over 'there'. I parked my car and went over. I asked a guard outside how long it would take. He responded, "As long as it takes." umm?
There was this *line* and in front of this was this line of benches. I could see we would start in the line and end up in the benches, before we could even think of leaving. About 30 minutes later I noticed this very silly sign, "No public bathrooms". By now we had gained a sort of relationship with the other detainees around us, and we all had a few words about how ridiculous that sign was. One man said he had been held for over two hours once!! I said, "If this were a movie, and if I were a delinquent mother, I would let my children create a scene. But this isn't a movie and I want to be able to cross the border! " We all had a laugh at the absurdity of it.
Thankfully as I was waiting at the *front* of the line - it had now been an hour - a man came over and asked if there was anyone there for 'agricuture' - "That's me! I think." This man was oh, so nice!! He profusely apologized for the wait, cause apparently I had been put in the wrong line. Well, I wasn't put anywhere! I was just told to 'go over there' and pointed towards a building. I might have ended up in the wrong building!
A man and his four little boys were ahead of me in the line and he stood at the counter for about 30minutes before his paper work was cleared. I was taken by this very kind man and he asked me questions and was chatty, commenting on the boys' names and where we were going etc etc and I was through in about 10 minutes. He came back from our van and told the boys how organized I was and how he had tried to keep it as neat as possible. He really didn't search the van hard at all. I told him I had 20 little brown bags full of treats and snacks for four days for the boys and he told me he would look in one and if it was what I said he would not search the rest. No problem. I feel that after what I saw everyone else going through, this guy was an answer to prayer. I even *thanked* him when I left. Go figure! *laugh*
So by the time we left the border we had actually been there for two hours! We were now behind schedule and so decided to drive a little further to catch up! The little boys were sleeping and Dane said, "push on".
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