{"id":4834,"date":"2011-02-07T03:14:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T03:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/?p=4834"},"modified":"2017-07-22T14:33:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T13:33:29","slug":"day-205-chalk-and-cheese-and-a-sniffer-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/expedition-updates\/day-205-chalk-and-cheese-and-a-sniffer-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 205 : Chalk and Cheese, and a sniffer dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

High Point: Everyone at Station 1, Portland Fire Department. What a great bunch of people. Thanks again to all of you for making us feel so welcome.<\/p>\n

Low Point: US border control. Was there really any need for them to be so grumpy?<\/p>\n

No Point: Bridge height readings on the bridges. It really is too late to do anything about it by the time you see them.<\/p>\n

Quote of the day:\u00a0 \u201cWhatever you do, do NOT touch the dog!\u201d<\/p>\n

We departed Vancouver this morning after a farewell coffee with Captain Mike Tookey and the crew at the fire station.\u00a0 They even gave mucky Martha a good clean for us.\u00a0 If everyone is this welcoming then we are in for an even better time in North America than we anticipated.<\/p>\n

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As the new rookie on board it really was an awesome feeling to get behind the wheel as we made our way to the US border en route to Portland, Oregon. The clutch control was severely tested as we got stuck in a tunnel for about an hour following a smash up ahead of us.<\/p>\n

Time to introduce the \u2018chalk\u2019 \u2013 the US border control. In case your wondering, the Canadian border control is the \u2018cheese\u2019 and the sniffer dog needs no introduction other than it was a highly trained intimidating Alsatian that loves to sniff people.<\/p>\n

Steve and the crew have successfully negotiated around 30 borders to date and we were certainly expecting this one to be fairly straightforward, especially given how friendly and helpful the Canadian border control folks were a few days earlier.<\/p>\n

\"Day<\/a>Our initial encounter with the \u2018chalk\u2019 was short and sweet \u2013 we were told we had to be escorted back to Canada to have the carnet de passage stamped, but before we could do that, a little fun and games was in store. Whilst we were waiting inside for them to inspect Martha and all the contents, which were left on the floor outside, we got a little more than we bargained for.\u00a0 We were instructed by officers with guns and big egos to stand up in a line so the sniffer dog could inspect us all. I don\u2019t know if scary is the right word, but we were certainly left wondering why it was necessary to make us feel like criminals. The funny thing is you can\u2019t help but feel guilty when something like that is happening \u2013 especially when the Alsatian homes in for a second sniff! \u201cDo NOT touch the dog!\u201d<\/p>\n

We got escorted back to the Canadian border by the \u2018chalk\u2019 who finally returned our passports. It was then time to meet the Canadian border control who were once again incredibly friendly and genuinely interested in the expedition. They quickly stamped the carnet and sent us on our way back to the US border control, a good three hours after our previous encounter. No sniffer dogs this time but seriously another world to the Canadian folks.\u00a0 Just like chalk and cheese.<\/p>\n

Our long day was all worth it when we arrived at Station 1 Fire Department in Portland. A great welcome and much fun had with the crew, playing ping pong following a Hawaiian pork supper. They were a great bunch of people and certainly no comparison to the chalk we experienced earlier at the border. Bring on the rest of the USA!<\/p>\n

Rob<\/p>\n

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\"Make<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more blogs using”George’s World Blog Map”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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High Point: Everyone at Station 1, Portland Fire Department. What a great bunch of people. Thanks again to all of you for making us feel so welcome. Low Point: US border control. Was there really any need for them to be so grumpy? No Point: Bridge height readings on the bridges. It really is too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates","category-stage-7-vancouver-to-phoenix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4834"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4842,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834\/revisions\/4842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}