Hello guys! Welcome to a new episode of Nomadic Dmitry channel
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Today is a story time. I'm going to tell you what
happened to me two years ago. I was planning my trip to Oregon in
February of 2018. It was February and it was snowing (in Oregon and Washington) and I felt
it's going to be a last week of winter - not a big deal.
I was so basically wrong. I was wrong
at so many points, but I didn't regret my decision to go there.
I still decided to go and explore Oregon and Washington states.
Basically the coastal kind of trip. And I thought
that camping opportunities will be there and I'll be able to camp as usual
There will be some camping spots, I'll park my car and
travel. I decided to go anyway. That trip happened in my regular car, my
Honda Civic I was traveling in my Honda Civic and I thought it's gonna be
fine. Well okay, fuel-wise it was fine and I saved on fuel driving that small car, it
was cheap to travel but I think I should have traveled in my Van because it has so much
more space and it's so much more comfortable to drive long distances
Anyway, I traveled to Oregon and then I went up
to Washington State and after Washington State after actually finding a couple of
camping spots even like in the winter-time I decided to go to
Canada. I thought: why not go to Canada. I like this place
I've been to Canada before, I flew to Toronto many years ago
But I decided why not to go and try again but this time in the car. Well I was actually
not expecting that kind of problems that I experienced. I drove to the Canada
border and right at the border crossing the officer was asking me a question the
Canadian officer was asking my question "Where are you going? How long you're
gonna stay? Purpose of the visit?" and I just said straight that my purpose of
the visit is camping. For that reason the officer said "Hey come on, don't you
see the weather around? It is actually a storm predicted very soon. Where
are you going, what's the point and I said "No, I actually want to go to
Canada and I want to visit this beautiful place.
So they searched my whole car, asked more questions
Probably they were like say thinking
that this guy is like going there alone, for camping in the winter so they were
probably a bit confused with that. So actually went. They let me through after
10 minutes of discussions but it was fine I went to Canada and had
amazing time, amazing three days. My favorite place was Stanley Park
this is my one of the favorite places in the Vancouver. Probably the most favorite
place. During the time it was fine actually there was a snowstorm I was
trying to shovel my car of the snow, remove the snow and actually drive
around. But I decided just to park my car and just explore on my foot because public
transportation in Vancouver is great. I liked it especially compared to
the United States the coastal area of the California. It's it's great
I liked it. it was great. So then I decided to go back to the United States. I thought
it's gonna be not a big deal going back to us because I'm United States
citizen I'm just going back right I'm just going back home. It was not
actually that easy. When I approached the border and right on the border again the
same kind of questions happened but this time from the United States officers
They were asking me like what was the purpose of your visit (to Canada), what have you
done, Do you have any drugs? Do you have anything? And I said that I
don't have anything. They started to search my car, they searched my car over
looked all around just looking for any clues because they were also confused
They thought like this guy coming from Canada in the winte,r he said he was
camping. I think for them it was also confusing, but at the same time so many questions
were asked like: What was the purpose of the visit? How long did I stay and where
When are you going back? How long you are going to stay in the
Washington state. And I was thinking like hey guys like I'm US citizen, why you
asking all that kind of questions to me. I can stay as much as I can in
Washington state. Then they decided to ask me like what I'm doing for living
I said I'm freelancing I'm doing some freelance gigs. They were probably not
really satisfied with this answer. They probably thought:
What does his workday looks like, they were lots of questions
Again, they have searched my car completely (e.g removed stuff, etc)
It was intimidating I should say and I didn't liked that experience, but at the same
time what can I say. I guess it's part of the deal. There are probably some
people sneaking around, some bad people sneaking around something
It's their job to check people coming in. It was not great experience, but I guess that's what they have
to do probably. I think that they were overreacting. It was
probably too much. So I came back to Washington State with a bit confusing
feeling. I was thinking that it's not that great, I mean why they have
done all this stuff. All these questions and I'm just a typical frugal traveler I
didn't have any possessions there. I was just enjoying my time there in
Canada, in Washington. Anyway so after I returned back I camped in the
nice campground in Washington State it was really beautiful, peaceful there nice
I loved it. This whole experience of
border crossing and those negative emotions that I had
experienced were all wiped down. I felt good. I felt great.
I love the nature, I love the air, I love to breathe this air. I think that
this is great and life is good. That's my message today even though sometimes
it might be confusing and some experiences might be intimidating it's
all gonna turn out fine. Enjoy peace,
look around there are so much more than just all those emotions and this kind of
experiences. There are so much more you're gonna love it. Thank you guys
for watching, see you next time. Please subscribe
to this channel. Thank you!