We woke this morning to frost and the sound of loons on the lake.
After breakfast at the lodge, we drove to the end of the Gunflint Trail
and then 50 miles back to Lake Superior and north on into Canada with a stop at Grand Portage, Minnesota en route.
John bought a warm hat at the lodge; his new name is "Nanook"
The views of Lake Superior today were spectacular.
Then a long drive most of the day heading west on Canada Highway 11. Lots and lots of signs warning us of moose, but we didn't see a one. Just lots of pretty lakes.
We were planning on spending the night in Fort Francis, Ontario but we didn't realize how depressed and depressing the town is. The mill just closed and there wasn't a single motel in town that was open, and it was way too cold to camp.
International Falls, Minnesota is just across the river from Fort Francis so we figured it would be easy to find a motel on the U.S. side.
BIG MISTAKE
The U.S. border patrol agents in International Falls killed the myth that all Minnesotans are nice. They aren't. These were the absolute meanest/rudest patrol agents John and I have ever encountered in all our years of travel. Absolute jerks. They asked us completely inappropriate questions while a crew of four or so (and their dog) swarmed all over inside and out of Vanna. (She felt violated I'm sure. So did we.)
We were detained inside their facility for 45 minutes while another six of them grilled us.
Sample questions they asked us:
"Have you spoken to anyone from outside the country?" (duh, we were in Canada and had stopped for lunch. Did I mention these agents were mean AND stupid?)
"Where were you born?" (They knew the answer already. It's printed right there on the passports.)
"Why were you in Ethiopia?"
(They looked up our travel history on their computer)
"Where do you live"? (They knew I had been to Ethiopia three years ago but didn't know we live in Seattle? Really?)
"What did you purchase in Canada?"(Nothing, but literally six or seven different people asked us that one, all within earshot, and they heard the same question/answer each time. Guess they were hoping to trip us up on that very tricky question)
(The only intelligent question we were asked. None of them could believe we were traveling to Seattle from Florida via International Falls, Minnesota. Clearly we were the stupid ones here but believe me, it won't happen again.)
"What is your relationship to each other"? (After we answered, the looks we got told us homophobia is alive and well in northern Minnesota)
"What do you do for a living?" (We would have gotten the same reaction from them had we answered "human trafficking narco-terrorists because the potential for growth is limitless")
"Do you own a home in Florida?" (If the guy who asked that one was hoping for an invite to stay with us in Florida next winter when it's 30 below in International Falls he can forget it. Hope his pipes freeze.)
"What's your favorite color" (ok, I made that one up)
It went on and on and on. They threatened to crate our dogs too and only stopped when we begged them not to do that.
It was a slow day at the border crossing; no other motorists were there so that allowed all of the border patrol agents on staff, probably ten in all, to focus their full attention on us. We even had to fill out one of those custom declaration forms that one fills out on the plane before landing in the US from abroad. It didn't go over well when I asked "which flight number should I say we were on?" but by then we had had enough.
The irony is when we crossed into Canada from the US earlier today the Canadian border agents could not have been nicer. Maybe "Minnesota nice" should really be "Canada nice"?
Bottom line: visit Minnesota but avoid the "twin cities" of International Falls/Fort Francis, especially if you're two middle aged men traveling cross country in a beat up old vw vanagon.
No body cavity searches/
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