Musical Border Crossing

[Irene Shelton]

Well, my daughter and I had an interesting thing happen the last time we went to the States, even WITH all our papers in order ..
We decided to take a very last-minute flight to Arizona just after Christmas, to spend a few days hiking around Sedona .. we had prebooked a car but hadn't booked a place to stay, figuring that since it was last minute and off-season we would just see how far we got the first day and stop where ever, make it a bit of an adventure ..
However - it seems that some US customs people just don't like the idea of 'no fixed destination' .. we were detained while the security people explained to us that we needed to be able to state a specific accommodation / hotel chain and street address (and not just the town).. apparently, as we were informed, 'the idea of foreigners just driving around "sightseeing" is just not "normal" .. I'm not sure why enjoying the countryside via car is such a weird concept, but the security woman who briefed us about future travel etiquette said that people without rigid daily plans tend to be 'hippies and terrorists'(?!?) and suggested making up destinations in the future, rather than say we were just on a driving holiday .. we were also told never to say we were going to stay in a hostel (isn't the word to be concerned about really 'hostile?) as, again, apparently 'normal' people don't do that ... we did get on our plane without further ado, after being 'briefed', and had a bit of a head-shake and laugh after ... but the whole thing WAS a bit over-blown and strange .. and not exactly welcoming!