“You got any drugs or weapons or pepper spray with you?”
“Just bear spray.”
“Why do you have bear spray?”
“There are bears here.”
“Alright, step out of the car and stand over there.” After getting patted down for drugs, weapons, and whatever else, Lara and I sat around for about an hour answering occasional questions while two border inspectors searched “the rig.”

Border crossings are not particularly fun for anyone really, but when your car is packed to the windows with everything you’ve got, your plates are from 4000 miles away, and you haven’t showered or cleaned up in days, the thought of passing over a border is dreadful. This particular border crossing was between Stewart, British Columbia and the small town of Hyder, Alaska (no US customs to enter). We had just explored one of the prettiest rivers I’d ever seen. I was sure that of all the borders we’d cross, this one’d be the easiest, but he was so sure he was going to find something that he grabbed backup.

The question that gets increasingly complicated to answer in these situations is: “Where are you from?” A week or so prior when we had passed into Canada with Wesley we joked about the question. “Well officer, how much time do you have?” We all have found ourselves giving our lives biographies.

“I was born in MA, kinda lived in Juneau but spent a lot of time on a glacier. I’m currently living out of my car for the next couple weeks. I just finished one good job and am headed to another in Seattle. No place to live there yet though. And yeah, I probably won’t change my plates.”

Yes there is water in that water jug and gasoline in that gas jug. No that computer isn’t filled with illegal drugs. That is not drugs or a bomb, it’s 110 film for an old camera. But hey, thanks for finding that Nalgene I’d been looking for!
I get it. They are just trying to do a job. But—they do tend to ask the most ridiculous questions and seem to let everyone else without a problem. Of course it isn’t always so bad. On our way back into the US through Washington, we were greeted by a nonintimidating inspector who was as excited for us to be back and close to our destination as we were.