So today was the Democratic & Republican primaries here in the state of Virginia. It is also my first day as an officer of the Prince William county election board.
Well this was certainly a good one to start with, since I am so new. The turnout at this precinct is about 3% of good standing voters…so you can imagine the 13 hours here at the poll was rather slow.
One lady came in and proclaimed that if you want to remain single all you have to do is be Republican and Catholic.
Still I got to meet some new people and feel that I have helped further our system of government by volunteering. A good day over all!
So on Sundays this summer I am volunteering for the National Park Service at the Wolftrap concert venue. This is my third weekend out here and today is the Louisiana Swamp Romp.
It’s a pretty good gig…all I have to do is be here 4 hours a week, hand out programs at the gate and I get plenty of quality free music.
This is my favorite venue in all my travels so far with the next being Red Rocks in Denver.
Slowly I turned…step by step…inch by inch…
So I finally made it to Niagara, nice leisurely drive from Ohio with lots of nice scenery. Now when I got to the Niagara area I did not have a hotel yet, I just decided to drive around and find one when I got there. Not a bad idea since I was playing this whole trip by ear. And I certainly saw plenty of hotels with their Vacancy signs lit. But it was still pretty early so I decided to go ahead and drive over the Canadian border and check out the hotels there…thats when the poop hit the fan and I turned into Tom Hanks.
I pulled up to the Canadian guard on the Rainbow Bridge with my car in complete disarray. While I had been waiting in line I discovered that my drivers license was not in my wallet…well where the hell was it??! I couldn’t remember the last time I had used it even, it is just not something I take out that often. Well the nice little Canadian guard (cute girl) said to pull through to the left and re-enter the USA. I was still ripping apart all my baggage while I was pulling around to head back home….then more poop!
When I pulled into line to re-enter the USA I realized that they would also asked me for an ID. I didn’t get to worried since I figured the girl had just called ahead to tell them I was being sent back through. Well Bubba didn’t have a clue when I pulled up! (I find it quite amusing that all the guards in Canada were these 20 something cute girls/guys and our guards looked like they should be bouncing people out of a seedy bar in downtown NYC!)
So the guard puts me through the paces and finally tells me to go park my car and go up to customs. This is where I get to somehow prove my citizenship before I can return to my country. Well I have to say this for our customs people…they have very poor tools to work with. I see no reason why they should not have full access to the same drivers license databases that the police have. But they don’t…instead they kept asking me where I was from and where my picture ID was. I gave them my whole history and finally I guess the guard got tired of talking to me cause he just had this give up look on his face and let me go, 2 hours later (thus the Tom Hanks reference from the movie Terminal).
Driving away I was very upset with myself for somehow loosing my license but I was physically exhausted and just wanted to visit the falls and get a hotel. OH…yeah…more pooop!
Hotels don’t let you get a room without picture id anymore…even when paying with cash. I checked a couple of hotels (different price levels) and finally gave up…so frustrated and it was dark by that time. And so I just decided to drive back home (not to fast, no license)…so that made up my 23 hour day.
Blame Canada!
Well I am at Presque Isle in Erie, PA. This is where you can catch the watertaxi to Liberty Park. I had to stop and dip my foot in the lake, this is the fourth great lake I have been in now…only one more to go.
