I think it was just a few miles north of Fargo when I felt it, that feeling of being very far away from everything I had ever known before.
I had left home earlier that day, embarking on a 9 hour journey from the family home in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, destination: Winnipeg. This is probably a very unusual combination of start and end points to begin with, but a few other factors added to the list of unusual that day.
The first was that the trip was to go see a Canadian Football League game. Most people I told about the trip were mystified by this, as there are plenty of options for football viewing in my home state.
The second was that I'd never been more than an hour away from home on my own before.
Other than that, everything was perfectly normal.
......
The rest of the drive to the border was uneventful. I was tuned into CJOB, and Bob Irving was interviewing Troy Westwood about what was then recent history, as the Banjo Bowl had just been given life a few years before I made my first trip north in 2006.
After a short wait, I pulled into the window at the Canadian border station. I had my travel documents at the ready, really, I'd had them at the ready since Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and handed them over. I had a brief conversation with the agent at the window, and I could tell he wasn't buying what I was selling, which was that I was on my first trip, would meet the man who would become my Best Man in my wedding three years later, and that I was staying over in Winnipeg before we took off for Regina. He asked me to pull my car to the side parking lot and go inside.
That's when things really got interesting.
......
I spoke to another agent at a window not much unlike one you'd see at a typical banking establishment. She asked the same questions, and I gave the same answers. By this time, I was starting to get more nervous than I was originally, which was pretty nervous to begin with. She asked for my friend's name and phone number, and after assuring me she just wanted to make sure she was getting the whole story, went to a back room to call him.
It was probably only a few minutes, but it felt like eternity.
She came back, and explained again that she wanted to make sure she was getting the WHOLE story, and if there was more to what was going on, it was PERFECTLY fine, she just needed to know.
That's when I realized she was insinuating I had made the drive up to marry my best friend.
At that point, I got a lot less nervous, and a bit amused, as I explained one more time that no, I'm not here for anything like that, and at that point, I was let go, free to finish the last leg of what had become a very long day.
......
I arrived at the apartment building a little over an hour later. I came up the stairs, knocked on the door, and my friend opened the door, wearing a dress.
At this point I shook my head, knowing he had probably planned that from the beginning. I told him that I was very thankful he didn't have a video phone, and he went on to describe his side of the phone call. It was very similar to the conversation on my end, but he remarked that at one point, he had the urge to tell the agent, "Lady, why would I be importing from Wisconsin?" I'm convinced to this day that if he had actually said that (and no, I don't believe for a second that he would have), that there was no way I'd have been let in.
After finally being able to relax, as the first leg of a long weekend was over, I called my future wife, who I had met in person for the first time just a week before this trip, and assured her I was fine. I don't recall much more of that night, but I don't think I lasted long after the excitement I had already had. There would be more to come that weekend.
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