Our Canada Vacation - 2021
by Philip Goutell
© 2021 Philip Goutell
The border finally opened up, on August 9th, for fully vaccinated Americans. But it wasn't so easy to get into Canada. There were conditions. We decided to wait, until September, to see what was happening. We started to read the rules, the steps we would have to follow. Some Americans, I had read, had been turned back at the border for their paperwork being not quite right. We read the Canadian government website's information and tried to understand it.
The website asked you questions and, if your answers were all good, you could — potentially — cross the border. Accepted covid 19 vaccinations were listed. We both had received the Moderna and that was fine. We had to have our original vaccination cards with us to present at the border and that was fine. Then we had to notify Canada that we were coming. Here things started to get a bit squirmy.
You had to download an app, which I did, but when you tried to enter your information, it wouldn't take it — yet. The app was only working five days at a time. The open days were in August. We couldn't get into our September 17th date — yet.
Then there was the covid test issue. At the border you had to present proof of a negative covid test taken within 72 hours of your arrival at the border — and it had to be molecular test, not the antigen test which provided near instant result. We had no clue as to where we could go to get the required test that would give us our results quickly.
Of course with covid raging in Orange County, New York, lots of places — hospitals mostly — did covid testing. I had already been tested twice with prompt results, both times for medical procedures. The first time at the doctor's office prior to a hospital visit. The second time at the same day surgery mini-hospital for a pain killer injection. But I never saw the results of either test. The procedures went off as scheduled so I must have tested negative and the tests were done, in one case the day before the procedure, in the other two or three days in advance. But this was just for the doctors and nobody gave me a certificate to hang on the wall saying I was covid free. Both Jan and I got busy online and on the phone.
When one of my phone calls connected me with a real person at a place where they gave real molecular tests and same-day results, we agreed to go with them, in spite of the $145 — each — fee for testing. Jan made the arrangements. Days or weeks later a friend of hers found that as local health service was doing the test with quick results free, but we already were booked for the test and, being really nervous about Canada's requirements with it, we decided to hold steady and just pay what was required. Perhaps Medicare or our supplemental insurance would pick up the tab.
Now, with the covid test booked for within 72 hours of our anticipated arrival at the border, we started to get our other ducks lined up. Again there were some curves.
When Jan tried to book a night in Bangor the motel we had used for many years was out of business. This seemed odd as, for years they had been expanding, upgrading. They always had a nice breakfast where you could eat and look out at their large swimming pool, which occasionally featured a young mermaid taking an early morning dip. But they were gone. No phone. No message. Just gone.
Our online searches through all the various travel websites finally settled us on a Howard Johnson's which, conveniently, was right across the road from the closed motel. And they allowed dogs, an essential for us. The rate was reasonable and the location, being what it was, was one I could find without trouble, even after 10 hours on the road coming from Walden. Also, in the morning, we knew what turn to take to get us headed down Route 1A from which we would cross over to Route 9 to take us to the border.
So another duck had jumped in line. Now for the ferry.
I made a reservation for myself and Little Red, our l979 Fiat 2000. Jan made a reservation for the van, our 2019 Dodge Grand Caravan. We would take the Fiat so we could have fun driving all over the South Shore with the top down and the breeze in our hair. The van would carry our luggage and essentials for the next two months. Most of the essentials were already at the house. On our last trip — the summer of 2019 — Jan had fallen asleep at the wheel about 15 minutes before we would have reached St. John. The car had left the road, rolled over a time or two, and died. Jan was taken to the hospital with minor bumps and bruises. Maggie's cage was destroyed. She was a bit shaken but otherwise okay. They fed her at the hospital.
We were very fortunate. only the car was destroyed. We spent two nights in a three star hotel in St. john and then, with amazing good luck (or a gift from God) the tow truck driver arranged to have all our stuff from the van packed in his wife's SUV and she and her mother followed the Fiat to our house, quickly unpacked and hurried back to Digby to catch the afternoon ferry back to St. john. It was Canada Day.
Making the bookings now for both cars, we were both a little anxious about the distances and hours Jan would be putting in with the van. Knowing I was looking forward to having the Fiat in Nova Scotia, Jan was guarded over her personal concerns.
Now the Fiat, after serving so well over the summer of 2019, getting us home sitting side by side with Maggie in Jan's lap and my guitar strapped onto the luggage rack, suffered its own breakdown in October of 2020. We were out for a drive and the power started to go... and go... until we barely made it back to our driveway with the motor smoking and streaming. This being the time of the covid, the Fiat was parked at Sourkraut's Automotive for a motor rebuild for ten months. Then, when I got the car back, I couldn't get it into reverse. This wasn't a new problem. I had always had to pull on the shifter with one hand while steering with the other. (This had made it impossible for the valet parking boys to park in our St. John hotel.) Now even that trick wasn't working.
But again Chris (Schellberg) whose ethnicity and attitude had provided the 'sour krauts' moniker for his business) said he understood the problem — a misplaced transmission with the shifter bumping against the center console — and, for the first time since I had the car, it went 'normally' into reverse.
Since getting the car back I had noticed it was pulling a bit — sometimes a large bit — to the right under braking. I wasn't sure whether it would work itself out or whether another trip to Sourkraut's was called for. Coming back from the liquor store on the Saturday before we were scheduled to depart, in a 30 mph zone slowing to make a hard left turn, the car steered sharply to the right. I slid past the turn but got the car stopped. We turned around and, going the short remaining distance slowly, made it safely home. But it was time for a conversation.
"Suppose we can't get the Fiat fixed before we have to leave? How would you feel about going together in the van?" A flood of emotion was released for both us. Yes, it would be very nice to leave the Fiat — which we both loved — and just take the van. I canceled my ferry reservation for the Fiat. Jan added me as an additional passenger to her booking. Monday the car went back to Sourkraut's. it was ready for us that same afternoon. The connection between the pitman arm and tie rod had come loose. Chris tightened it. No charge. maybe we would get a few fun drives with it in November when we returned from Canada. We were sticking with our "one car" plan.
Nowbeing Monday and Friday being our arrival date in Canada, I went to the arriveCan website to announce our intentions. Indeed Friday September 17th was no longer grayed out. But when I entered it I got an error message. Something like "wrong date — not within 72 hours of arrival." So it seemed that not only did we have to have a covid test — with negative results — within 72 hours of arriving at the border, we had to fill out the arriveCan data and get our ticked within 72 hours of arriving at the border — and we still didn't know what questions the app was going to ask! We had to wait another day.
Tuesday arrived,. Time for our covid test. The medical office had called the previous Friday to have us confirm our appointments which we did. We had never heard of this medical group but, as it turned out, they were located in a building which had formerly housed my urologist. As we parked by the building there was no one else around. We saw signs relating to covid precautions: Don't come in. Call this number or text this number. Wait in your car.
Not seeing to clearly, I got out of the car and walked over to one of the signs which was pasted to the wall of the building. I called the number: ring, ring, ring... "We're sorry, no one is available to take your call. Please leave a message or call back later." What??? I tried again with the same results. Maybe a text message would do it. But I'm a clueless texter and by the time I had entered the number and composed my message, the phone was ringing. Somebody on the inside was calling.
We spoke on the phone. Our appointments were 15 minutes apart although they said to arrive 15 minutes early for paperwork. We were directed to, at the correct time, follow the walkway around the building and wait by a side entrance. We waited about two minutes more and proceeded as directed. Turning a corner around the side of the building, we came to another "Stop! Do not enter" sign. I knocked but knew they knew we were here.
We waited a bit and then things got interesting. The tester came out the door and reported that they already had the necessary paperwork as we had submitted it online. She proceeded to ask us only a few simple questions. When she got to the "Why do you want to be tested?" and we answered, "Travel to Canada," she told how she had just gotten back from Canada. She had crossed at Niagara Falls, had all her paperwork in order, and had had no trouble at all at the border, even though one member of her party did not have a relative in Canada which she had listed as the purpose of her journey and even though they had not arrived at the border at the precise hour and minute entered in her arriveCan app. Of course she had done her own covid test. It was a great relief to me to hear all this.
So we each got the swab up the nose and the promise that the report — the paper document we needed — would be ready after four o'clock she said and she put the days test results out at four. And we could go to the Patient Portal app to find the results and, if all was negative, we could walk into the building to get our results without calling or knocking. "You have my permission."
A little before four, after registering for their Patient Portal, I logged in but no results yet. I was pretty sure that had we tested positive, we would have gotten an immediate phone call, so I was pretty sure we were okay. But why wait? We decided to drive over to their office and pick up the paper (which we hoped would be there.) It would be a little after four when we arrived and we could stop for a coffee at Adams on the way home.
We got to the office. I put on my mask and walked through the front door with the "Stop and call" sign on it. The lobby layout was just as it had been when my urologist had been there. nobody quacked at me for walking in. At the reception window I stated my business and gave my name. They handed me the papers and we all did thumbs up. The tests, as we had expected with great certainty, had come back negative. Time for a celebratory cup of coffee.
At home it was time to tackle the arriveCan app again. We were now within the "72 hour" zone and, sure enough, the app —which I accessed on my laptop which was hooked to a printer — was taking our data. I had already learned that we would have to upload copies — pictures — of our vaccination cards so I had them in the laptop. I also knew that we would be quizzed on our quarantine plan — should we have to quarantine — so I was ready for that. The only question that left me uncertain was whether we had had our 72 hour covid test results. (I realize now that I had filled the arriveCan app out before — not after — we picked up our test results.) Anyway I answered "yes " and the app seemed to like that answer so I was able to continue to the quarantine plan and — done! I could now print out our ticket to Canada.
I assembled our documents in a manila envelope when our test results were in hand: passports for each of us, original vaccination cards for both of us, proof of 72 hour negative covid results papers, arriveCan Canadian entry ticket. I was now feeling more comfortable about our trip. Within 72 hours we would be arriving at the Canadian border.