Friday 5th May – Will they let us back in to the USA?

This morning was a particularly late check out.  Firstly due to the fact that the owner said we could stay as late as we liked and secondly due to maximising the WiFi that we had to pay extra for by getting up to date with blogging and family via FaceTime.

Hastily taken photo of the US border at North Dakota

It was just over an hour’s drive south to the US Border at North Dakota.  We thought everything was going to be fine when the man in the booth said that our Visas are valid until 2026 but then he told us that we would need cards and pointed us to an area to pull-over.  I’ve never had to park up at a border crossing before. Not a good sign.  But by this time they had our passports so we couldn’t just make a run for it!  We walked into the waiting area and spent a tense 20 minutes speculating on whether there was a problem behind the scenes.  Then a humourless border man called us over and asked the usual questions – where are you headed, how long for, etc? We thought it best to be completely honest and explain that we need to do another jaunt into Canada and return into the USA again before our flights home.  You know, to meet up with Simon’s parents and important things like that! I showed him our flight confirmation to confirm our intention to leave the US at some point.  Despite trying to be light and breezy with him, our charms failed and he was having none of it.  They are obviously trained not to fraternise or be at all chummy to potential immigrants!

Can’t be too mean though.  It sounds like, to the letter of the law, our visas allow us entry to the US for six months within one twelve-month period so we shouldn’t officially be let back in yet!  However, our mate at the desk printed us six-month extension cards that are stapled into our passports and will see us through to November 2017 for only $6 each!  We have strict instructions that these cards must be handed back when we leave, otherwise we may not be invited back into the United States again.  It all got a bit scary but after about 45 minutes in total we were free to go.  Considering hanging around for a quick bite to eat in their rest area we rapidly changed our minds and drove off.  You know, just in case they changed their minds!

USA – we’re back!  This experience has confirmed our current travel plans. At one stage we were only nipping back in to do North Dakota and Minnesota before heading back into Canada to loop around the north shore of Lake Superior.  Scrub that.  Lake Superior will now be viewed from the States’ side.  It seems best not to push it with these ‘hops’ over the border?!

That reminds me – State number 40 achieved – North Dakota!  We’re back on it! The Highways became suddenly smoother again and the gas a lot cheaper but the drive south on Highway 29 was not very scenic – so, swings and roundabouts.  

The KVLY-TV mast with Harvey and Simon for scale

Our next target, according to our Road Atlas, was the tallest man-made structure in the WORLD!  However, research on google tells me that I now have to alter that to the tallest man-made structure in the WESTERN HEMISPHERE!  Which, doesn’t sound as good.  That’s because it turns out that our Road Atlas may not be quite up to date with all the facts.  Shocking, I know.  But the KVLY-TV mast in Blanchard, North Dakota is now only the fourth tallest man-made structure in the World (this gets worse!) after:

1)      The Burj Khalifa

2)      The Tokyo Skytree

3)      The Shanghai Tower

However, it is still the tallest RADIO MAST in the WORLD.  So, a must-see, I’m sure you’ll agree.  Anyway, here’s some pics….

 

This photograph is good because it shows that the KVLY mast is almost as high as the moon.... photographic evidence my friends...

Time had caught up with us.  Our next stop would be closed by the time we got there so we had better pull up stumps early and find somewhere to stay.  On to the ‘Allstays’ app again and we identified Brewers lake country park just south of us and set the Satnav to take us there.

Our spot at Brewers Lake

On arrival, many other people seemed to have had the same idea and why not on the sunniest Friday evening yet this year?  We headed into the office where the lady apologised that all her hook-ups were fully booked but we were welcome to dry camp for $10.  Deal, that plus $7 for firewood and our evening was set.