We drive to Cornwall

25.08.2009

After work, I met up with Dave at Pub 101 and then we waited for Sylvain to show up.

When he got there, he informed us that Ryan had to work in Perth today, so he was letting us use his car to drive to Cornwall. Only one problem though, the little Jetta is a standard, and only one of us knows how to drive standard. The guy with the expired international driver's license.

Sylvain's work permit will expire tomorrow, so we have no choice, we have to drive illegally into the USA, come back and print out his new work visa.

We stop on the way to fill up Ryan's car with diesel, since we have no idea how to check the level on the veg fuel tank. Also, the speedometer doesn't work... this trip has all the makings of a disaster waiting to happen.

No disasters happen though, we just go over the bridge, then come back, totally doing a U-Turn right before American customs. Last time we had to go through, Sylvain had to justify his existence for about an hour at the border, so we weren't doing that again.

The nice people at the bridge let us go back for free since we didn't even go across. The Canadian border guard on the way back scolded Sylvain for driving, saying that his driver's licence was expired and he also told us that we technically HAD to go to America and come back to renew his work permit, but he'll let it go this time. The man then directed us to a temporary border office, (the normal border crossing is closed due to Aboriginal protests, I think) where we could get Sylvain's permit.

It literally took an hour, while the border guards read some sort of email he printed out, over and over again. It was freezing in there, and I didn't want to slow the process down by asking a bunch of questions, so me and Dave waited outside for the return of the triumphant Sylvain.

We watched under floodlights running on generators as the customs officers deliberated, went back and forth, talked on the phone, gave Sylvain some water while he was waiting. It was pretty entertaining.

Finally, Sylvain emerged victorious! Another year in Canada for our favourite Frenchman. We then cruised around looking for somewhere to go to celebrate, but all the restaurants in town close down at 10 p.m. on weeknights apparently... oh well!

On our way back, we resorted to Tim Hortons, the only thing still open.

Sylvain driving (the only standard driver)