What could you do with 4 hours? (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

On the way back from Montreal yesterday, I got stuck in a hideous line at the border, did 2km (less than 2 miles) in 4 HOURS. 4 friggin hours folks, no exaggeration (actually it was more!) As the car was about to run out of gas, we would shut it off for most of the time, only start it to inch forward by a car length every -- oh 3 days or so.

That I hadn't eaten in 24 hours didn't help (which is like not eating for 6 weeks for everyone else.)

I am still hating. I want an inventory of useful things I could have done in that time. What did I miss out on while I wasted 4 hours of my life that I will never get back?

--
H

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

That sucks. I was just stuck in a drive-through line at Taco Bell for a mere 25 minutes on Thursday with my low gas light lit, I shut off my car every time I stopped it. All I originally wanted was a damn large Baja Blast! How did I know the person in front of me was going to order the entire menu in triplicate?! I couldn't back out because of the cars behind me, and because I was irrationally certain that things would speed up at any minute. Not to mention I had a hungry 2 year old and a cranky 6 month old kid in the car! The good news is that after I complained I got some complimentary food for the kids.

With your 4 hours, you could have watched Gone With The Wind, or any of the director's cut length individual versions of the LOTR trilogy (and had a little time to spare).

Or:
Read a book
Write letters to people
Finished a lot of housework
Gotten major dental work done
Explained anamorphic vs. nonanamorphic to a newbie

 

[KurtEP]

I improved my meditation skills quite a bit thanks to innumerable delays in various airports (meditation's free and you always have it with you). Read a lot of bad books, too.

 

[Patrick Sun]

You probably missed some awesome Wimbledon tennis finals between Nadal and Federer.

 

[Mike Shellito]

Coming back from Montreal, hmmm... I'm going to guess you live near Lake Champlain, therefore I'd say you could have spent 4 hours relaxing on a boat on Lake Champlain. Have to take my wife and daughter to the airport in Montreal in a couple weeks, hope my border wait won't be as bad as yours. Shouldn't, no July 4th traffic to worry about...

Mike

 

[Mike Frezon]

The Last Emperor came to my mind...

===========

Holadem: Are you a NY resident? I'm just curious if you're familiar with the new NY driver's license that I've read about which is supposed to have some kind of computer chip installed that's supposed to make it easier to get back into the US from Canada. Apparently it's tied into a national initiative to improve border crossings between the US and its neighbors.

I haven't found much more info on it, however.

And I cannot imagine it will speed things up too much at the borders--unless, of course, they create something like an EZ-Pass lane!

And, most certainly, it won't get you your four hours back...

 

[troy evans]

This cracked me up. I can hear the customers responses now, "I used to wait hours at international borders, but, now that I have International Speed Pass, I've knocked 10 minutes off that time! Thanks I.S.P!

 

[Steve_Tk]

Never leave the house without a PSP. But had I been stuck in the car in Atlanta for four hours, without the engine on to run the AC, you would have found a PSP in a skeletons hands.

It's the end of the month, you could have paid all your bills online if your phone lets you do that. But then again that only takes 10 minutes.

I have a portable DVD player in a bag in my trunk now that I think about it. It plugs in to the cigarette lighter. You could have watched a LOTR EE on dvd! Or two bad spiderman films, whichever you choose

 

[Jay H]

Was coming home from the Adirondacks on Sunday, I live in NJ, and I had to get off at exit 21 on the NYS Thruway cause it was creeping very slow. nothing like getting to sit in miles of traffic and then having to PAY for it.. I think NYS should make the tolls free if you have to go through traffic. I took exit 21 and took back roads all the way to NJ since I'm quite familiar with the alternative routes. Every time I crossed the Thruway I was rewarded by signs of stuck motorists...


Jay

 

[Mike Frezon]

How the heck was the traffic at the intersection of the Northway (Exit 1) with the Thruway at Exit 24? THAT'S usually the bear.

I only made a quick trip into the ADKs from the Capital District on Saturday. Traffic was amazingly light. On Friday, around the Capital District it was like a ghost town on I-90 and I-87.

 

[Holadem]

Mike, not an NY resident.

Funny you should say that. I have done an excellent job of resisting "gadgets" for years now -- cool fun stuff for which I have absolutely no need. But I played with my friend's iPhone for the first time over the weekend and fell in love (which I precisely why I have avoided even looking at these things since they came out last year.) The good thing is that I will soon be busier than I've ever been with a couple of major commitments, and can actually justify carrying those things around. I wonder how many full length movies or episodes of TV shows one can store the (newer) iPhone.

Serves me well for spending July 4th in Canada. I love love love Montreal, the clubs, strip joints and jazz festival were awesome. Easily my favorite city to visit in North America. But I will be avoiding that one crossing in the future, unless I plan to be there at like 3am.

And then the agent at the borders who asks how my buddy and I know each other. I wanted to say "we met in a gay S&M club / Al-qaeda training camp" just to see his face but thought better. After 4 hours in that line, it's hard to humour stupid ass questions.

--
H

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

My buddy and I visited a friend in Plattsburgh last summer and decided to go to Montreal on a whim the next morning. Had an excellent day, even though the drivers there are crazy. But leaving La Ronde (where we managed a whopping 4 rides in six hours) I couldn't for the life of me find 87 south. We ended up following the border on 20 to the 401, finally crossing at Cornwall thanks to excellent directions from a nearby truck stop. After paying for the privelidge of driving across the Three Nations Crossing/Seaway International Bridge, an old station wagon cuts in front of us at the last minute. I was pissed, but I let it go. What's the worst that could happen?
Sure as shit, our car hits the quota for a DHS flag. I get interviewed. My buddy gets interviewed. We get interviewed together again to make sure our stories haven't changed. The car is strip searched. I'd been driving for about ~14-15 hours at this point, and I was exhausted. After all is said and done, we dragged our asses into Massena around 3 am.

All of which is to say: Don't give the border guys reason to fuck up your day. They can make the experience miserable even at 3 am.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Having caught up on the Peak Oil thread just before I started this one, it appears as though gas is not yet high enough to deter travel.

 

[Stan]

I also spent about four hours crossing the border.

About ten years ago, I took a day trip from Seattle to Vancouver, Stanley Park and other sights.

Coming back into Washington, I was directed to pull over. Got to watch them tear my car to pieces. Took the seats out, removed the door panels, brought out the drug/bomb sniffing dogs, etc. They put everything back together, gave me my keys back and just said "Sorry". Apparently a bad day for white guys in sunglasses driving red cars.

Oddly enough, crossing into Canada was nothing. Canadian border employees were perfectly polite. Coming back into the US, that's when you get to deal with a bunch of quasi-military twits with sticks up their asses, I can just imagine how much worse it must be after 9/11.

 

[Lucia Duran]

Got stuck at the US/Mexico border Apr 2007 for 3 hours. Fortunately, we had stocked up on food and drinks and had an ipod to keep us busy.

 

[DavidJ]

Well, it is not a border crossing, but a couple of weeks ago we were returning home from a two week trip to New York when we got stuck on a bridge for four hours. It was a trip that on the way to NY saw us stop at an urgent care clinic on the way up and as we were leaving to head home our kid threw up all over the car. We had to turn around and go back to clean her and the car. This put us behind schedule. We had to get back for my wife to go to work and we were trying to get back in time to see my parents before they left for a two week trip. We didn't want them to go a month with out getting to see the grandkid. I drove the whole way and we were making good time. As we got within 2:30 hours of home, everything ground to a halt. Two semis collided in a one lane construction zone and we got stuck on the bridge.

After loving bridges as a kid, I have in recent years developed a bit of a --phobia is too strong a word-- fear of bridges. I think God may have been using this experience to teach me patience and to help me deal with my fear. Fortunately it was not as hot as it had been, but it was still not an ideal situation for a two year old and her parents at the end of an exhausting trip.

I spent the time trying to gather info, visiting with the other stranded souls, etc. I probably walked about 10 miles. I couldn't just sit there. The guy in front of me had just started a vacation with his family. He just kicked back and read. I had books to read, but there was no way I could do that. I did learn a lot about some various truckers and their stories. It was interesting. We were going to get in around 7:30 pm and ended up getting in around 1:00 am. Oh, and no one was seriously hurt in the accident, but that bridge has a bad history,

 

[Jay H]

They had those LED signs from as far as exit 8 or so on the northway southbound warning of the delays, I used the standard fare of taking Route 7 towards VT and then I-787 south to the Northway which is longer but moving well when I got there. The traffic was slow where exit 24 for I-287 merges with I-87 South but that lasted for just a 1/2 mile as it was merging traffic.

I drove to a friend's place near albany thursday night and traffic was pretty heavy... I left Albany at about 5am so no traffic then going north, except for the truckers.

Jay

 

[Holadem]

As someone who has been guilty of the odd DWB, excuse me for smiling at this.

--
H

 

[Jay H]

I once crossed the border into Canada on my bike, on a bike tour around lake Champlain, cycling along the Richelieau canal bikepaths which go up by Fort Chambley. Anyway, on the way back to the US at the custom's agent at the border crossing,t they ask if I have anything to declare (standard fare for the time, this was pre 9/11 anyway). I was very tempted to say, yeah, I bought an armoir, a queen sized bed, and a small coffee table. I just have it packed into my rear panniers which are bigger than my front ones...

Jay

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

No one got my Taco Bell/"Run for the border" reference...:frowning: