I’m writing this post on my phone as opposed to my laptop. I’m not sure how it’ll look, so bear with me.
I traveled to 3 states yesterday. That must be some kind of record or maybe that’s just me because I’m from Western U.S. and the states are huge compared to the east. Anyway, we crossed into the US early in the morning after we were grilled by the custom officer.
He asked why, of all the cities in the whole world, we chose to visit Toronto and Ottawa. I don’t remember being grilled like this when I returned to the US after visiting Canada 5 years ago or is that just typical manner of the people on the east coast? Mom said he was just doing his job but really?
It certainly left a sour taste in my mouth.
We drove through New York and Pennsylvania before getting to our destination – Washington Crossing State Park in New Jersey. It surprised me by how green it was. Perhaps, it’s because I’m from out west where there’s little to no rain.
I loved the greenery and seeing the autumn colors starting to peek through. It was one of my purposes of the trip.
I’ve always wanted to see the place where George Washington crossed the Delaware river as depicted by the famous painting but it turned out, the painting had exaggerated the event as often history does. It was certainly a good history lesson and I learned quite a bit from this little history tour.
Which brings me back to why I’m writing this post on my phone. I stayed at the worst motel in the history of worst motel last night in Bordentown, New Jersey. I requested for a non-smoking room and the moment I entered the room, the smell of pot and smoke hit me like a punch in the face. I told front desk and all he did was spritzed air freshener in the room.
After he left, I discovered not only could I not get wifi in the room but my cell signal was gone too. It was like being sucked into a black hole. Normally, I wouldn’t mind a night without internet but I happened to need to modify the itinerary which involved modifying a few hotel reservations and I can’t do that when I don’t have internet.
After complaining to the guy and showing him the room was a black hole, he switched me to another room. Still, the smell of pot and smoke hit me when I opened the door. I’ve stayed at plenty of bad motels before but this is by far the worst.
Well, I’ll reporting from Philadelphia for the next 2 days. Hopefully, my living accomodations improves.
This is Another Story 
You know the word suffer translates to agony in my language. So while we travel, we often expect to suffer 😅
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My husband, bless his heart, booked smoking rooms in New York. I smoke. Sounded fair. But I gagged in there. I sat on the toilet windowsill and smoked out the window. Smoking rooms are disgusting. I can always not smoke. It’s not hard. So I sympathize.
I found American customs frightening. We were randomly selected at each airport and one x ray machine found metal in my stomach. SAY WHAT? Turns out to be a staple left in after an operation. Ha Ha. I thought prison here I come. Careful with those guys.
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I don’t think there was any non-smoking rooms in that motel.
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International border crossings got rougher with the coming of CoVid.
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Maybe that’s why.
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Crossing border has been hard everywhere. We went to Alberta via the US. Getting in was no problem, getting and back into the US took us 2 hours. BTW, feel better. I can offer you my grandpa’s hot toddy, but you’ll need to go to grocery store, but it works great.
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Thank you. I think the worst is over thanks to some herbal medicine bought at Philadelphia Chinatown and modern medicine at Walmart.
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The herbal medicine is probably doing the best work, If you continue to cough a lot, buy over the counter cough medicine with alcohol in it. That will control the cough center.
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Ah, that’s why the pills I bought in Canada worked. It’s got alcohol in it.
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Perfect. Alcohol or codeine relaxes the cough center. That’s what you need to top coughing.
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Idk what it is but US border agents have a way of asking you questions that make you feel like you did something wrong lol. When I went to Maldives the guys there barely even looked at my passport. When I came back through JFK, the customs agent asked “Do you usually travel internationally by yourself?” I hesitated for a minute. I was like “no, yes…sometimes…please let me in I’m American! 😭”
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I think it might be the events happened in the recent years because I went to Canada 5 years ago and the border agents were nice. No interrogation.
Haha, I was actually about to get angry and tell the border agent, “what the hell is wrong with you? I’m an American citizen. Now let me in.” but I think that might get me into even more trouble.
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