Close enough to spit over the Canadian border? (Houlton, Calais: fit in, house)

[kellysmith]

mollysmiles,
The ferry captian radios in the license plates of the vehicles on board as you are making the crossing. Rest assured it might look low key, but those passengers get the same scrutiny as they would at other crossings...and remember 99.999% of the traveling public are not the ones to be concerned with.

[mollysmiles]

Originally Posted by kellysmith

mollysmiles,
The ferry captian radios in the license plates of the vehicles on board as you are making the crossing. Rest assured it might look low key, but those passengers get the same scrutiny as they would at other crossings...and remember 99.999% of the traveling public are not the ones to be concerned with.

no, the license plates are done/entered in the laptop computers by the customs agents. I'm not picking a fight with you here Kelly. Compared to other border crossings this crossing is extremely low key---do not mistake me, assuming that by saying that I'm saying that rules and regs are not being followed.

[Acadianlion]

In our granite business, we ship large blocks of granite to sawmills in Canada where they are sawn into 7" slabs and other items. The first time that we did this this past season, when the truck came back with the sawn slabs, it sat at the border for about four hours. The reason was that the minute amount of radiation in the granite set off the gieger counters at the US crossing point. It must have been pretty funny watching the border patrol guys crawling all over this huge flat bed trailer carrying stacked 10'X5'X7" slabs of granite, looking for the nuclear weapon hidden inside something.

Makes you feel a LOT safer, doesn't it? But FOUR hours? Sheesh!

[mollysmiles]

lol....omg, I've heard stories about that from the other perspective!! The guys (and girls!) that *weren't* working that day got a lot of mileage out of that one!!

[vter]

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy has introduced a bill to postpone the passport requirement until NEXT year. It looks like it will pass Congress and apparently Bush has said he'd sign it.
Jamaica Gleaner News - Congress postpones passport requirement - Friday | December 28, 2007
In Vermont (and Maine) there are many communities that straddle the border and even share buildings (Derby Line/Standstead is an example). Imagine having to show your passport to go to a different section of the library to get a book, or having to show your passport to go visit your neighbor across the street! Border towns have always fascinated me......

Also, don't know if Maine is considering doing anything like this - if not....it might be worth exploring!
Quebec, Vermont work on passport replacement. Vermont's should be ready by the end of the year.

[kellysmith]

Molly,
I wouldn't start a fight either, but the laptop at the terminal can be used for vehicles as well as passengers. Typically the captain radios the plates in while crossing, if that didn't happen, they would be entered as the cars got off.
As for the granite, there are radiation portals at most crossings. Fertilizer will also set them off as does the traveling public who have recently had a radioactive medical test. (sometimes up to two weeks later) The inspector would have run a portable machine near the vehicle for a scan, that would have been uploaded and the isotope identified and the granite would have been on it's merry way. If it sat there for 4 hours I'm betting there was something with the paper work needing attention from a broker since it was making commercial entry. Typically a radiation scan would take less than 5 minutes to be released...and this happens daily at most ports.

[7th generation]

We regularly see Canadians stop by on their way to the coast VIA Rt.#26 from Canada. It is also a road used by Americans on their way to Montreal.
The trip is about 260 miles from here and what a beautiful city it is.
I have fond memories of Expo'67 and the wonderful people and sites. My mother has quite a few relatives there and we try and make it up occasionally.

[corgis]

Molly - I driven past the 45th Parallel restaurant on Deer Island, but haven't stopped. I too like to do the ferry to Deer Island, drive the island and take the ferry to St. George. It's a heck of a lot faster and easier than trying to cross in Calais. I am friends with a Border Patrol person who is stationed at Calais and would give anything to be one of the Eastport officers. As many times as I taken the ferry to Deer Island and back, it's one of the things we do with visitors to our home in the summer, I've never seen the Eastport officers check license plates. They usually just give a cursary look at your drivers license, a quick peek at the passengers, a word or two about the weather or the crossing and wave you on. Eastport Customs or Border Patrol doesn't use fancy computer stuff, they just look at you. And no, no one takes down the license numbers of the vehicles and radios them in to anywhere.

[kellysmith]

corgis,
Now you guys are trying to pick a fight...just kidding...Rest assured what I say is correct, not that it matters. I'm pretty confident a lane check could be run for any day the Eastport ferry runs and it will spit out the license plates of the vehicles that were on board.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

We see a lot of Canadian plates going across Maine. If you snap a string from Fredrickton, NB to Ottawa which is their nation's capitol it goes right across Maine. Folks from the Maritime Provinces going to Ontario cross Maine for four reasons: cheap gas, good food, friendly people and respect for their language. The Trans-Canda highway is a 4 lane superhighway nearly all the way, but the trip across Maine is a far more enjoyable experience for Maritimers.