Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Invalid Passports??? What??? A Rainy Drive

We left home all hitched up at 8:30 this morning...had a rainy ride to the maine border...crossed customs without too much trouble --- Until he scanned our passports and said neither of these are valid..my heart literally skipped a few beats..(more than it normally does when Rick enters the room)...after about 1/2 a minute he said its because you didn't sign them. All I truly heard was "Not Valid" and " No Good"....we had just renewed them in August..and yes we did forget to sign them..he instructed us to have a good winter, and to sign those passports at the next rest stop. Whew!!! He was a nice guy, a jokester...
We arrived Bangor at around 3pm..headed to the verizon store. We had decided that instead of activating the air stick this year we would pay the $ for the mifi jet pack then we could both be online at the same time and the ipad could log on also. If you remember our blog about verizon last year you will remember it took them 3 hrs to activate our air stick which we purchased there in 2010. So I anticipated trouble - I mean come on we are buying a new piece of equipment..theres no way no how they will get it right...right? Right!!!....of course we have to park a mile away with the rig...we questioned ok this will work right? I even took the ipad in with us..no problem we're told...so after two trips from the coach to the store and about 4 people working on this thing, and over 2 hrs later..I'm online. Why do they sell items they don't know anything about...grrr...poor Rick he was busy trying to keep me calmed down. So theres no getting further tonight...we don't want to drive in the dark..and I of course hadn't eaten all day so my sugars were getting low and I was no longer smiling..so we will hold up here for the night....

Here we are parked up for the night...nice grassy area for the fur kids...I made sandwiches for supper because our casserole was still frozen...but they filled the void...
Stay safe out there everyone!!!!


Home is where you park it!!!



18 comments:

  1. No Comment yet?? Here goes: I'm surprised you dared yourself on the road. The winds were still blowing and who knows what's down the road. Snow in the mountains and flooding along the coast line. So where are go going? Hope the best for you ...dare devils!

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    1. Heading to Florida....those who went before us said all is ok on the route..:)

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  2. Heart stopping you bet!! The same happened to us two years ago! As to WiFi and Verizon at least you now have it for the entire winter, breaking those 2 hours up over the months might help a bit. Not looking forward to us connecting for just 9 days while we cross the US. Now pour yourself a glass of vino, put your feet up and relax! You are officially on your winter vacation.

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  3. Hey, did they check your fridge and your casseroles???

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    1. nope didn't check a thing I could have filled my fridge before I left...altho it is cheaper to do so here on this side of the border...and I had casseroles all made up for travel days cooked and frozen in the freezer...didn't ask me anything about meats...just fruits

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  4. Oh my goodness my heart would have just STOPPED. No skipping beats. I know all about Verizon sales and technical people in local stores. They really DON'T know anything. You are better off calling their tech support IF you can get someone and don't mind waiting half the day. It's too bad that they have the widest coverage or I sure wouldn't have them.

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  5. What a way to start your journey. I too would have just about passed out if I heard our passports were invalid. Glad you were able to move on.

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  6. I'm glad to hear that your passports were closely scrutinized at the border, we can't have all those illegal Canadians taking over the USA. ;c)

    We dumped Verizon and went with Sprint, it works pretty well on the East Coast. I feel your pain with store employees not knowing their product.

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  7. A Border Guard with a sense of humour? How interesting!

    Safe travels and hope you don't encounter any storm related problems on the way.

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  8. I would not have found that border agent all that funny myself:)

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  9. I would have lost at least one year of my life due to the coronary that border guard would have caused me. Glad for you it wasn't a serious problem though. Travel safe.

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  10. Glad to see they had a sense of humor..even if it made your heart skip a beat!

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  11. we did the same thing with our new passports..renewed them in August and the first time we used them?..they weren't signed..geesh!!

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  12. Um ya kids, gotta sign those passports. Although, I'm not sure why, since there's no comparing your signature with any other document. If he scanned them, unsigned? Then what's the point?
    Reminds me of the time we went down to Colombia, S.C. in the fall of 06. My passport had actually expired, although I was allowed into the States (total horseshoe up the butt) and it was only noticed when we were about to board the plane at our stopover in Charlotte on the way back. And this was by an airline employee, as if it's any of their "deal".
    I said not a word, since I knew at that point that it didn't matter a damn, and sure enough, one of the more "knowledgeable" staff (if that's possible) said, "Well, that's not our problem, it's up to the Canada Customs whether they want to let this gentleman back into his own country".
    That was pretty much my thoughts on the matter as well, but all I said was a curt, "Thank-you", and got on the plane.
    Dough heads.
    Canada Customs didn't give it a second look.
    But I'll tell ya, I got that sucker renewed pretty damned quick, 'cause we were heading for Jamaica in December!

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  13. About the time you heard invalid Passports,you would have heard THUMP and Sam would have been on the floor, so good that it was just simple as simple as signing them. Although It is good that they do at least look at them, We want Canada's best to come south and visit us.Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

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  14. Invalid, Oh no! But at least you are on your way. travel safe!

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  15. Good to hear that your winter trip has started. I am always glad to have the border crossing over with. Hope you like the Verizon Jetpack our works great in most areas, missed using it in Canada. Wishing you both safe travels.

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  16. We broke down and purchased Verizon MiFI in Raleigh. Love,love it.

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