My trip almost ended before it even started. As I waddled awkwardly with my heavy bicycle, bearing all my belongings, towards the US border I started getting nervous. What if I didn’t get in? What would I do then?
The exchange with the border attendant was jovial and I was fairly at ease. When I was asked how much money I had on me I answered: “80$ and my credit cards”. Regardless of the fact that I use credit cards for their benefits and not to incur debt, this wasn’t a good answer to her question. Not sure if this is a new focus at the border or not but it took me quit a while to convince them that I wasn’t trying to illegally immigrate to their country. I didn’t think that this would be an issue visiting from Canada (a relatively prosperous country) but life is full of surprises!
The silver lining is that this stressful event (being asked the same questions by multiple agents to see if I would “slip up”) made me super grateful that I was finally able to begin my journey.
Check out the video below to see what my first ever three days of bicycle touring were like