Here At Last . . . Here At Last – Thank The Lord We’re Here At Last

TO PARAPHRASE THE LATE – GREAT MARTIN LUTHER KING . . .

Anne, the Two Boys (The Falconator & The Mac-Attack) And I . . . Finally Made it to Myrtle Beach South Carolina, A Bit After 2PM Yesterday (November 1, 2025).

It Was A Long Drive (1,000-Miles), which for us, Many Years Ago would Have Been a One Day Non-Stop Trip . . . But We Aren’t 18 Anymore, and What would Have Taken us just One Day years Ago – Took Us 5-Days Now. And Even at that, we are Still Plenty Tired. But Not Too Tired For Me To Write A Relatively Long Editorial.

LET ME START OUT BY WRITING – WE LOVE AMERICA . . . BUT:

When We Arrived At The Border Crossing Between Cornwall Ontario & Massena NY, which is Generally a Busy Border Crossing, We were Literally the Only Canadian Car Crossing from Canada Into the United States.

The Border Guard Was Extremely Pleasant, who Asked us the Rudimentary Questions After we Handed Her our NEXUS Cards . . . You Know . . . the Perfunctory – Where are You Going? How Long will you be in the United States? Are You Crossing with Banned Foods such as Uncooked Chicken, Eggs – Etc?

And Then She Asked . . . Did You Already Fill-Out The I-94 Form?

The I-94 Form . . . is Something New to Canadian Travelers Going to into the United States of America, who Intend to Stay for More than 30-Days, which Requires Personal Travel Information, Including A Facial Bio-Scan & Fingerprints.

At First We (Canadians) Were Told We Wouldn’t Be Subjected To The Bio-Scan & Fingerprints.

The Border Guard Gave Us A Choice . . . We Could Just Continue into the USA & Fill Out the I-94 On-Line for Free Before the 30-Days Are Up, or we Could Go into the Customs Office Now, And For $30 Dollars Each . . . A Customs Agent in the Office would Fill It Out For us as he or she would Conduct the Bio-Scan & Fingerprinting. We Opted To Spend The Money & Let One Of The Border People Do-It For Us.

Please Bear-In-Mind, $60 USD Converts To About $100 Canadian. To People like Anne & Myself, that’s Not Chicken-Feed. But to our Way of thinking, it was Worth the Price.

AS MUCH AS WE LOVE AMERICA – WE KNOW THAT AMERICA IS NOT OUR COUNTRY:

We Are Canadians . . . Born, Bred & Generally Proud To Be Canadians, which Doesn’t Preclude the  Fact that America Has Been Akin to Canada as a Beloved Relation for as Long as I’ve Been Alive, And Much Longer Than That, to the Point, that When we are in the United States of America, the Last Thing we Think-Of or Feel, IS THAT WE ARE IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY . . . UNTIL NOW!

The I-94 Process Took About 40-Minutes To Complete, Since the American Border People Needed to Figure-Out the Procedure, since Anne & I were the First Canadians Going through the Process at their Border Crossing.

During The Procedure, I Asked Why was it Necessary for Anne & I to be Bio-Scanned & Fingerprinted, Since we Already Went Through a Comprehensive Security Check by Homeland Security (FBI) and the RCMP (Canadian Federal Agents), with Fingerprinting & Bio-Scan? It’s Part Of Our NEXUS Membership.

The Answer Was . . . One Thing Has Nothing To Do With The Other.

To that, Anne & I Looked at Each Other & Came to the Same Conclusion . . . Of What Value Did We Receive From Spending About $400 Canadian, To Recently Renew Our NEXUS Cards?

Before You Think You Have An Answer For That – The Response from the Border Agent was Thus . . . The NEXUS Card Only Helps us to Speed your Entry into America, because some of Your Basic Personal Information Doesn’t Need to be Asked by the Border Agents. Otherwise It Is Nothing More Than A Pocket Passport.

After Spending all this Time, Effort & Money to Become NEXUS Card Holders, because we were Led to Believe the American Hype, that the NEXUS Card Program Entitles Canadian Card Holders to Be Considered (In Their Words) “Most Trusted Travelers” . . . That Illusion Quickly Went Out The Window.

I Guess Things Have Changed . . . Or The Nexus Program Was Always Bullshit.

Either Way . . . The American Custom’s People were Very Business-Like & Perfunctory. Not Rude Or Aggressive, But Not Warm & Welcoming As They Always Were Pre-MAGA.

Both Anne & I Came Away With The Same Sad Feeling. America was Doing us a Favor by Allowing Us to Spend the Winter & Tens of Thousands of Canadian Dollars Converted Into US Dollars to be Spent in America Over a Period, Slightly Longer Than Five Months.

Canadians Are Warned Daily through our National Media & Social Media . . . WE ARE NOT SPECIAL . . . That Travel to the United States of America is Nothing Like it Used to Be.

The Following Is According To The Newly Published Homeland Security Rules & Regulations:

Canadians Need Special Forms (I-94), Bio-Scans, Fingerprints & I-94 IDs on our Persons at all Times, at the Risk of Being Detained if we Don’t Have them, Fined Up to $5000 if they are Not in or on our Possession, and the Possibility of Arrest & Deportation . . . How Welcoming Is That?

We Know America Is Not Our Country . . . But None Of Us Ever Expected This.

Is it a Wonder Why as Many as 33% of Canadians Now Refuse to Cross Into America just for Day-Trips . . . Shopping & Leisure?

Large & Small Border Cities & States Are Losing A Fortune.

THE FOLLOWING REPRESENTS BILLIONS & BILLIONS OF LOST DOLLARS:

According To A Statistic Just Released Which We Read The Morning We Set-Out From Home To Cross Into America . . . Canadian Boomers, for the Purpose of this Statistic, Aged 61-Years-Up, who Generally Spend their Winters in America, Will Be Down By As Much As SIXTY-ONE PERCENT.

The First RV Park we Stayed at (A Name Brand Franchised Family-Owned Business) on our Journey South, an Hour or so From the Canadian Border, only about 3-4 Hours from where we Live in Ontario, Had Just One Canadian Over-Nighter, And That Was Anne, The Boys & Myself.

I Asked the Owners How the Business had Been this Past Year, since a Big Portion of their Revenue Comes from Canadian RV’ers. Their Canadian Business Was Down More Than 30%. I Doubt they will be in Business this Time Next Year, which Makes me Sad, because they are a Mom/Pop Enterprise who Invested Everything they had to Buy this RV Park.

The Next Stop Was At A KOA In Hershey Pennsylvania, where Anne and I Have Stayed More than a Dozen Times as a Nightly Stayover, Coming & Going to the South & Back Again. Generally we Would Have to Make a Reservation Many Months Ahead to Book a Spot During Fall/Winter/Spring Travel Seasons . . . The Park Was More Than Half Empty, Where It Has Always Been Sold-Out To The Max.

We Walked Around The Park & Saw Very Few Canadian License Plates. What we Did See, were Fewer Employees working at the Park, with those Working, who More or Less were Sitting Around Looking for Something to Do, Since This KOA Is Very Large, And Up Till Now Has Been Very Busy & Active.

We Stopped Over At Two Other Transit Parks, which We’ve Stayed at for Years. They Were No Different. Business Looked to be at Least Half of What it Always was Previously, with the same Observation, Few To No Canadian License Plates.

From What I Can Discern From Reputable Travel Sites, Including – Directly from the Airlines Flying the Once Ultra Lucrative Routes Back & Fourth Between Canada to the USA for Canadian Snowbirds Flying to Florida, Arizona, California – Etc . . . There Are Very Few Happy Faces In The Aviation Travel Industry.

I Could Continue By Sharing Snowbird Horror Stories . . . Told to Me Directly by Friends & Relatives Living in Florida & Arizona, about Retirement Communities Populated Heavily by Canadians, Many Of Whom Have Their Homes Up For Sale.

Please Don’t Tell Me The Problem Has To Do With The Aging Conditions Of Canadian Travelers, or the Cost of Health Insurance, or the Weak Canadian Dollar, because our Canadian Dollar Has for the Longest Time Been Weak in Comparison to the US Dollar, Never By More Or Less Than A Couple Of Points Up Or Down.

Travel Insurance Has Always Been A Problem. This is Nothing New. And Canadians Have Always been Aging, Replaced By Younger Canadian Retirees.

BUT THIS TIME IT’S DIFFERENT . . .

This Time . . . Canadians Just Don’t Feel Welcomed.

While It Is 100% True & Accurate – That Age, Insurance and a Low Canadian Dollar are Playing a Major Role in Canadians Rethinking whether they (We) Can Afford Coming South for the Winter or Not, This Is Nothing New, since the Preceding Has Always Been a Consideration About Traveling South for the Winter or Not.

WORDS HAVE REAL CONSEQUENCES:

Make No Mistake About This . . . Canadians Are Pissed At Trump For Referring To Canada As America’s 51st State. And even though Most Canadians Despised Prime Minister Trudeau for the Doofus he was and Continues to be, he was Still our Elected Prime Minister, And Canada Did Not Deserve To Have Our Prime Minister Referred To As Governor Trudeau.

CANADA – LIKE ALL COUNTRIES IS NOT PERFECT – BUT . . .

Having Canada Referred to as a Poverty Country Ripping Off America in Trade, Defense & Manufacturing, as we Supposedly Opened the Flood Gates to Fentanyl & Mass Illegal Immigration to America . . . Was Untrue & Terribly Unwarranted.

Because Of Trump’s Tariffs . . . Canada Is Bleeding – But That’s On Us Not On America.

We Made The Mistake In Believing That Our Countries Were Intrinsically Joined At The Hip. That What was Good for America was Good for Canada. And what was Good for Canada was Good for America. I Still Want To Believe That, But I Am Afraid That Is No Longer The Case, Which To Me Is A Travesty.

BACK TO WINTER TRAVEL FOR CANADIANS:

Canadian Airlines are Scrambling to Focus their Snowbird Business to Alternate Routes . . . Towards the Caribbean, Europe (Portugal/Spain) and Heavily to Cuba . . . So It’s Not Just Age, Travel Insurance Or The Weak Canadian Dollar Because Canadians Are  Still Traveling.

ANNE & I LOVE ALL OUR AMERICAN FRIENDS & THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:

We Are Generally Welcomed As Family. We are Respected as Great Neighbors, and we are Constantly Offered Apologies for How the American Government is Treating-Us.

I Feel Horrible for the Millions of American People who are Losing Billions Upon Billions of Retail Revenue, which they Need to Run their Businesses, Keep a Roof over their Heads and to Feed their Families, because Canadians by the Millions Have Decided to Boycott American Travel . . . Because They (We) Feel Unwelcomed.

But I Also Feel Horrible for the Canadians who are Losing-Out on Travel to the Best Country in the World, Where they Would be Welcomed with Open Arms . . . In Spite Of Canadian Media Anti-American Propaganda.

And In-Spite  Of The Stupidity Blurted Out By Politicians & Ignorant Media.

IT’S EASY FOR ME TO SEPARATE THE PEOPLE FROM THE CHAFF:

In The Meantime – To Quote A French Quebec Saying . . . “Je Suis” – Je Reste. I’m Here I’m Staying.

Best Regards . . . Howard Galganov