I figured I'd post this up so everyone gets the right story.
Friday, everyone left for Canada. I led a group of about 13 cars up there nd everything went off without a hitch. Everyone stayed together, there were no close calls to speak of, and I can honestly say it was the most organized long distance caravan I've ever been in.
Around 6:30 we met up with Andy, Greg and John, and Tim from oemacuraparts.com. Tim gave me four boxes of stuff to give out at the meet (t-shirts, cups, coozies, car care kits) the following day. We all soon left to cross the border via the Rainbow Bridge. I pulled up to the customs booth, and the officer asked me that standard questions; why are you here? how long are you going to be here? you got any guns? etc. I answered all his questions, then he saw the big boxes in my back seat and asked what was in them. I told him and he told me to pull over to the customs building so my car could be searched, which I did.
A couple officers then proceeded to search my car and then sent me in to immigration. When I was talking to the immigration officer, he asked me if I have ever been arrested (those of you that know me well, know I had some problems when I was younger, but have since straightened my life out) I told him yes, there were two reckless driving charges from June and December 2000, and a possession charge that was expunged in 2005. He then hand me my **** back and hands me back over to customs.
The customs agent then tells me that I have two choices because the stuff that I have in my car is considered commercial goods. Those choices were to leave it on the US side of the border, or I'd have to go through a commercial entry point at another bridge. I opted to go through at the commercial entry point. I had no idea where this other bridge was, so I stopped at a hotel and got directions. Turns out, the guy who gave me directions was completely inept and I ended up going about 20 min out of my way in the wrong direction.
I FINALLY made it to the other bridge, and went through customs again, and told them what had happened at the rainbow bridge. the customs agent sent me over to a warehouse where commercial trucks go so they could search my **** again. Right now it's about 8:00. So they go through my ****, and then tell me I need to go see immigration, and I tell them I JUST went through immigration and they sent me here. "Well you gotta go through again" (now I'm starting to get pissed). They walk me over to the immigration building, and on the way over there they're telling me that I'm going to have to pay a tax on the **** I'm bringing in because it's something you could get in Canada and the way the Gov't looks at it, I'm taking money out of a Canadian business persons pocket (go **** yourself).
Once I get over there, they pull up my record again, and the immigration person is a real DICK, basically judging me and making me feel like scum (Now I'm getting REALLY pissed). He asks me if I've even been to Canada before, and I told him yes, last year, FOR THE SAME EVENT. So at this point I give him a short synopsis of what I had been through, "Parents got divorced, took it hard, made some bad decisions, got into drugs, got arrested, went to rehab, turned my life around and haven't been in any trouble in the past five years....as you can see by looking at my record." After I tell him all that he starts trying to be nice to me. I sit down and then see him talking to another officer, who I think was his supervisor (looked like one of those cops that probably got his *** kicked in high school, so he became a cop to get back at people), and I can here him saying "yeah not interested in this guy" and "we don't want him" (more internal raging). After another 30 minutes, he calls me up and tells me he can't let me into the country because of the two reckless driving charges in 2000 (hasn't been 10 years). At this point it takes every ounce of strength I have left to NOT flip out. I just grit my teeth, and clench my fists.
The agent said he was sorry, and hands me a piece of paper with a list of the consulates in the US, and tells me I have to write to them to get permission to come into the country, but once I do that I can come in whenever I want. I push the piece of paper away, and tell him the won't be necessary because I won't be coming back, and next year I'll take the car show with me across the US border.
Next he gives me a "Permission to Re-enter" form to get back into the US and two customs agents escort me back to my car. So I get the **** out of there, raging and shouting obscenities to myself in the car and pull up to the US border. I give the agent my "permission to re-enter" form and he asks me what happened, and I give him the run down "Made some mistakes when I was younger, they don't want me, but wanted me last year, etc". He asks me how long ago I was in trouble, I tell him about 10 years, and he says, "well that wasn't THAT long ago" (I took this as another stab to my character) and I just gave him a blank stare, and he then said, "yeah they have no idea what they're doing over there". He then tells me to shut off my car and give him my keys (WTF), then four (4) customs agents come walking up to my car and tell me to get out asking me if I have any weapons on me (oh ****, here we go) and they then escort me inside. I stood there for about three minutes, wishing death and suffering upon ever customs agent I saw, before they handed me my keys and told me I could go.
So now I talk to Kevin, and tell him everything that happened, and that I'm going home. He tells me to wait, and he'll drive back with me, and I tell him no, stay and enjoy the meet. Then then tells me to just stay in Niagara, NY for the night and try again in the morning, and I told him I wasn't interested. If I went through all that again, just to get denied entry again, I would probably really lose it, and additionally, I'm not interested in EVER coming back to Canada as long as I live. So after that, I jump on the highway and just drive toward home, with Carries radar and two way radio, Kevins GPS, a car full of acuraoemparts.com promotional items, and Matty's front lip.
I drove and drove and drove until I just couldn't go anymore. I pulled over in Syracuse, got a hotel and slept. I got up yesterday morning at 7am, as everyone in Canada was leaving for the cruise, and drove the rest of the way home.
So that's the story..........................And I'll leave you with this little tidbit....
**** you Canadian Immigration, **** you up your stupid asses.
BTW, I do plan to write a letter to the Consulate in New York. Not to ask permission to come into the country, but to tell them the bull**** I went through, and how I was treated and because of this, next year we're going to have the CanAm Cruise in the States, to benefit a charity in the States.
That's all. Just wanted to set the story straight before people start talking about it.
