Here's an amusing story concerning the border between Canada and the U.S. When I was living in Vancouver I used to go to a lot of shooting competitions in Washington state and made many friends from there. One, Ken Tuttle and his wife loved to ride their horses in the mountains and I told them about what a great place Golden Ears Park was in B.C. so they trailered their horses and spent a few days exploring the park. Coming back through U.S. customs an agent inspected their horse trailer, looking for marijuana from B.C. which is a big problem in that area. Instead, he found a big steaming pile of fresh horse manure. Well, apparently it's illegal to import manure into the U.S. so the U.S. customs agent made them turn around and re-enter Canada. Upon reporting to Canada customs, a suspicious agent who saw that they had been refused entry into the U.S. checked their horse trailer also. Of course, the pile of steaming manure was still there in all it's glory. Well, since it's illegal to import manure into Canada Ken was refused entry and made to turn around and re-enter the U.S. Pulling up to the U.S. customs once again, Ken was asked if he still had the manure onboard. He answered in the affirmative and explained that Canada customs refused him and his manure and pleaded to be allowed to enter the country of his birth. The answer was still no! Even though he and the horses were American by birth they had deposited Canadian manure and it was not allowed in the country. Once again Ken reversed course and presented himself and the still steaming pile of manure at Canada customs. Please! he begged. Someone has to relent and allow him a chance to clean the manure out of the trailer. After all, the manure was derived from Canadian feed, he explained. Fortunately, the Canadian Customs agent relented and told Ken to go up the road a ways and quickly clean the manure up. Ken did so and on the way back to the U.S. side of the border prayed that his horses didn't go again!
Somewhere in this tale is a lesson for all of us to learn, although what it is, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's "Don't try to horseshit a Customs agent."
I fervently hope our Border Patrols guard against terrorist's biological weapons as assiduously as they do organic fertilizer and marijuana!
CHIMO!