Ontario Revisited

Visiting another country always seemed to involve flying and going through customs at the airport. So I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I first crossed into our northern neighbor, Canada, with my family of course, to visit my wife’s cousin in Ontario back in August of 2007. Would my GPS work? How about my mobile phone? Would there be a long line at the border? What kind of questions would they ask? Would they even let us back into the United States?

Some of those questions can be easily answered with a little preparation before your trip, while others you will just have to find out. I would suggest that at the very least, do the following.

• Call your mobile phone provider. They can answer questions about using your phone in another country, even one as close to us as Canada. Up there we would be using the system of Rogers Communications and pay by the minute.

• Know how to access a phone card if you don’t want paying for those minute charges, or in emergencies. While most convenience stores seem to carry these prepaid cards nowadays you can now also purchase phone cards wearing only your jammies through the internet. Delivery is through your email and almost instantaneous and the rates are competitive.

• Check with travel agencies or their websites for travel requirements. These days you need a passport to get into and back from Canada, not so back in 2007.

• Bring a map with you, or print out directions as a backup to your GPS. Thankfully I did not have to use either of these.

The trip is supposed to take 10 hours, non-stop. We budgeted 2 hours for necessary stops and planned to arrive around 4 or 5 pm, still early enough to go around since we only planned to stay for the weekend. We traveled up through scenic New York State and arrived at a surprisingly short line at the border crossing. We were asked some standard questions like “Are you carrying anything like tobacco and wine? Anything to declare ” and “Are you citizens of the US and can you prove it?” As I had mentioned earlier, we did not have to bring our passports but this was as easy a proof of citizenship that we could bring. That done, we crossed into “foreign territory” in search of a rest area.

The first thing we noticed was the speed limit, 50 kph. How much in miles was that? There was a sign that posted a rough estimate of the speed in mph, and it was slow. I wondered how we were going to get to Ontario by 5pm. At the gas station they were selling by the liter, and as luck would have it, the Canadian dollar now was worth more than the green buck. I did not want to get a ticket so I followed the speed limit, and I was the only one. All the other vehicles zipped pass us, occupants looking at us with our Maryland tag in a sea of Ontario license tags. For the first time, I really felt like a tourist!