This is primarily a travel blog in which I write about traveling in our motorhome. Our travels have

Nacogdoches, TX, United States
I began this blog as a vehicle for reporting on a 47-day trip made by my wife and me in our motorhome down to the Yucatan Peninsula and back. I continued writing about our post-Yucatan travels and gradually began including non-travel related topics. I often rant about things that piss me off, such as gun violence, fracking, healthcare, education, and anything else that pushes my button. I have a photography gallery on my Smugmug site (http://rbmartiniv.smugmug.com).

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Canada Dreamin'

We drove over to Harrisburg and picked up our E-Z Pass transponder for the motorhome. The transponders are sold in a lot of outlets, including Wal-Mart, however, those are only for vehicles weighing less than 7,000 pounds.  Our motorhome, with towed automobile, is about 35,000 pounds and requires a commercial transponder.  These can only be obtained from the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s E-Z Pass Customer Service office in Harrisburg.  They will mail them out but we didn’t have time to wait so arranged to pick it up at their office.

In thinking about continuing our trip towards Canada tomorrow we began to think about what we would be allowed to take, or not take, into Canada.  As far as alcohol goes, each person is allowed 1.5 liters of wine (2 x 750 ml bottles) OR 24 twelve-ounce cans or bottles of beer OR 40 ounces of liquor.  We took an inventory today and we have 12 bottles of wine and 18 bottles of beer.  That means we have 13 days to drink the 18 bottles of beer and 8 bottles of wine (we will each take 2 bottles with us).  So it looks like we have to drink about 2 bottles of beer and two-thirds of a bottle of wine per day from now until we get to the Canadian border.  That may not sound like much to many of you, but we really don’t drink very much at all (any more).  About the only time we do drink is at family gatherings (why do we feel the need to drink when with family?).  That means we are used to drinking no more than a couple of beers and/or a couple of glasses of wine per week.  We will have to increase that by seven-fold for the next couple of weeks.  I normally write this blog at night so it may begin to get a little crazy.  If my writing improves I will have to keep drinking!

Some other things that you cannot take into Canada:

* Cat or dog food containing beef or lamb by-products.  We will have to double-check our cat food.
* Handguns, automatic weapons, stun guns, mace, or pepper spray, including bear spray.  I don’t have any of those but we have Texas license plates on the motorhome and car so the Canadians will not believe us and search the motorhome anyway.  As you know, ALL Texans have a dozen guns or more.
* Firewood.  I believe they have plenty of that in Canada.
* Live bait.  I guess it’s OK if the worms and minnows are dead.
* Goods produced by prison labor.  Does that mean they will confiscate my license plates?
* Used or second-hand mattresses.  Will we have to buy a brand new mattress at the border?

Canada does allow 200 cigarettes OR 50 cigars per person.  Since we don’t smoke I wonder if we can “trade” our tobacco allowance for more wine?

1 comment :

GoneRving said...

Don't worry too much about what you can take into Canada. They do check for firearms. Sometimes for beef. The firewood thing is because of invading insects that may be hiding in the wood such as the Emerald Ash Borer. Wood should never be transported from any area to another for that reason. We rarely get asked for any "contraband" when we cross so we invariably just take the chance.