Musical Border Crossing

[Meg Sullivan]

Gotta watch out for those "HIPPIE-TOURISTS" I guess..What a world..

On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Irene Shelton <ishelton at uoguelph.ca> wrote:

> 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!
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