On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 9:01 PM, Mark Linimon <lini...@lonesome.com> wrote: > My personal experiences are that big border crossings (e.g. at the terminus > of U.S. Interstates) are less likely to detain you for questioning. The > smallest ones are suspicious of anyone who isn't a local and will want > to find out why you used _that_ crossing.
I had that experience going to Ottawa via a small crossing in upstate NY. It was two guys from Ohio (one who was _born_ rather near the crossing, by coincidence) late at night. We got grilled but let through. Our good answer for why we were there was it was the fastest trip with the most time on the US side (where the gas is cheaper). Second longest time ever was coming back from a camping trip near Hamilton - I had my handmade "tent" (a Mongolian Ger/Yurt) on the roof of the car. They wanted to know what the hell was on top of my car since it didn't look like any tent they ever saw. Mostly, I cross at Detroit/Windsor and Buffalo/Niagara, and I agree they are less suspicious why you'd cross there. > On 10+ crossings I have spent between 30 seconds and 2.5 hours... I've had 30 seconds numerous times and I've had about an hour - that was in a VW Microbus painted camouflage. They didn't tear everything apart once a cursory search found nothing that obviously didn't belong. -ethan
