Empire State 2021 - Day 0 - Rouses Point to Canada

 We have begun another grand bike tour adventure. We are at Rouses Point, NY, the farthest town north on the Lake Champlain Trail. From here, Max and I are going to ride to New York City, and then I will continue on to home.

First thing we had to do today was ride to Canada.

Because if you are going to do the Empire State Trail, you really have to do all of it, not just from where your B&B is. Even if it is only two miles from Canada.

This almost turned into a big disaster, because to get to the Canada sign in the picture, by the Canadian border crossing, you actually have to ride a half mile past the US Border Crossing. Which means on the way back, you have to go through the US Border Crossing. You (and Max) would think this is no big deal, since the Canadian Border Crossing appears to be closed, and the US one too, and there is absolutely no traffic whatsoever on the road to Canada in either direction. But if you think that you would be wrong.

So when we ride through the US crossing, it turns out there is a guy idling around outside the office. I told him we were just riding up to take our picture by the Canada sign, and we didn't go to Canada. Idling guy says we need to talk to the guy in the booth, and hiding in the booth is a real Customs Officer. Who proceeds to give me a wholehearted interrogation, including rejecting my old, not RealID(TM) Maryland Driver's License, and finally confirming that I have a valid passport, which happens to be in my desk at home in Maryland. Then he did the same thing to Max.

I feel lucky he didn't send me to a migrant camp in Texas, and immediately ship Max off to a foster family.

Max, who was all "no big deal" when I was reluctant to ride past the US checkpoint, was chastened. "I didn't think it would be a big deal." I pointed out to him that these guys had probably spent the entire day sitting around doing absolutely nothing, and this was the only chance they had to add value to the Security of Our Nation.

All this hasslement and the Duty Free Shop wasn't even open.

We are staying at a very nice B&B on the waterfront of Lake Champlain.

That's Vermont across the way.

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant a couple blocks away, where I got a yummy custom pepperoni, sausage, and anchovy calzone.

It took about 9 hours to drive up here. Two and a half last night to a Comfort Inn in the middle of New Jersey (off Exit 7), and then another 6 and a half today. Debra is with us, she will be shadowing us for a couple days, then driving back on Sunday.

The upside of stopping in New Jersey is we got a classic New Jersey diner breakfast.

Here is the Strava track.