Day 2 – Crossing the Border

Sask to North Dakota

Date: Saturday, July 25/09
Gas: $0.999/liter
Cost: $89 in Saskatoon and $30 in Regina to fill
Destination: Regina,SK to Fargo, ND
Distance to travel: 513.6 miles
Time to travel: 8 hrs 12 minutes
Departure time: 12:30 pm MST
Arrival time: 11:30 pm CST

Today we slept in til 9am. We had to get the values for each box plugged into our shipping list to be ready when we get to customs, for sure they want to know what we’ve got back there and where we’re going.

It was a mad rush to get that printed, book our hotel for Sunday night and have showers.

Sask football fans are truly loyal to their team!

We decided to eat at McDonalds, because we didn’t want to leave the cat in the car, and because it was on the way. Probably the last time we will ever eat at McDonalds. My first time I was 12 and we were in Waikiki, Hawaii.

There must have been a football game that afternoon because the place was full of Roughrider fans all dressed up. They definately get into team spirit!

Crossing the Border
We got to the border crossing at North Portal around 2:45 pm, and there were no cars lined up. We were hoping that we wouldn’t have to stop, but you can’t drive into the USA with a Uhaul and expect a wave thru.

The first lady asked the usual questions, can I see your passports? Where were we going? How long would we be in the states? What did we have in the truck? Do you have papers for the cat? Lucky I got that shipping list printed – because she wanted a copy of that. She went into her station and punched us into the computer, then came out and asked us to park the truck and go inside.

We had to fill in customs declaration forms, and then we were interviewed 1 at a time in the back room. I had prepared an accordian file with copies of our new house title & sales contract, a travel route, airline itinerary, the cats health certificate, copies of ID, bank transfer details and more, so I could show proof about where we were going.

We both had to empty our pockets and sit on a chair while they asked questions, one asking and one watching us as we answered.

When we were done we had to sit in the waiting area while they searched the truck. A bit nerve wracking considering how long it took us to pack. It turned out ok and we were out of there in 1 hour. Phew!

North Dakota was beautiful! I’ve put some photos below for you vicarious travellers.

The cat
The cat was very quiet today. She didn’t sleep, but she’d lay in one spot for a long time. She didn’t drink any water all day. And she didn’t eat any food after breakfast or use the litter box until about 11 pm and we were almost at the hotel. I was relieved when she did.

The uhaul
The uhaul is pretty loud, we have to turn the radio up pretty loud to hear it. No CD or even a tape player. We found some good stations with 80′ & 90′s music on them.

The bugs
We thought that the bugs we encountered at sundown yesterday were just a Sask thing, but we were wrong. Again, right after sunset it started to sound like rain, and in 10 minutes the windshield was covered again. See the photos in the gallery.

The hotel
The hotel in Fargo (The Best Western Doubletree Inn) was very quiet and we had a great sleep. The breakfast buffet in the hotel was pretty Good and only cost $9.99 each. My favorite was the homemade bread pudding with caramel sauce. The shower had good pressure and a new showerhead, and immediate warm water! They even had pantene 2in1 shampoo/conditioner. Too bad the Internet was so unreliable this morning. I also need to remember to plug in the laptop & iPhone every night to charge.

The technology
Even though I charged my phone and laptop overnight at the hotel, they started getting low on power around 6 pm. We found a Best Buy along the way and I got a car adapter that took USB and a grounded plug for about $40. I also noticed that they had the same ink cartidges that I had bought in Edmonton a week ago @ $36/ea for $22/ea. I got the guy to go online to xe.com and convert $22 USD to CAD, and it was only $23! So I bought one, too bad there weren’t any color ones. They had new laptops with backpacks for $429/ea