If a place I have to go is less than about a six-hour drive from my house, I'll do that - drive - instead of fly.
Flying is no fun these days. And especially if you're heading to the US, you have to clear customs at Toronto, which means getting there two hours before take-off - heck; in my car I'd be one-third of the way there already.
So when this Bentley Continental Supersports event fetched up in downstate New York (near New York City) this week, I decided to drive. I still have the BMW X6 M that I drove to Mont-Tremblant last week, and while it isn't the most fuel-efficient cruiser going, it proved to be a surprisingly comfortable conveyance.
And I did manage to squeeze the average fuel consumption number on the Driver Information Centre down from 14.4 litres per 100 km to 14.0 during the drive down here. (I'm about to head back home now...).
The trip down here took a bit longer than planned because I was pulled over at US Customs for a 'random spot check'. The fact that this is a pretty hot looking car and the next car pulled over was a bright blue Mustang GT suggested to me that maybe the young, tough-looking, shaved-head males running this detail just wanted to get a close-up of the more exciting machinery. Doesn't explain the gray Camry though.
In any event, the procedure consisted of lining the selected cars up nose-to-tail; we drivers got out; then they drove this big white cube van slowly past the line, down one side and back up the other.
The van had "X-RAY" lettered on the side, so I assume it was checking to see if any of us were running guns into the United States. As if - most of our guns come FROM the United States.
It is of course part of the Americans' on-going attempts to strengthen their borders in hopes of improving their security.
The fact that Janet Napolitano, the new secretary of Homeland Security in US President Obama's administration, still thinks the 9/11 terrorists entered the US from Canada may be behind this. Her former position as governor of the state of Arizona presumably makes her an expert on US-Canada relations.
(Memo to Ms Napolitano - Logan Airport, Boston Massachusetts; Portland International Jetport, Portland Maine. You're welcome.)
Fortunately, the shaved-heads didn't find anything in any of our cars.
I'm just glad I have already had my children.
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