I tried to do a lot of research before we went into Canada with our RV. I wanted to make sure we didn’t break any rules. We looked all over the internet and we didn’t find any horror stories, thankfully!
We planned plenty of time just in case the Canadian border agents wanted to search our RV. We ate the last of our fresh food while we waited in line at the border – lunchmeat, celery and fruit. We answered all of their questions – how long are you staying? When is the last time you were in Canada? When you were here last, where did you enter? Do you have any guns or weapons? It was easy and we were relieved.
When we came back into the US from Canada, we were not nervous at all. We were coming home and we didn’t think we had anything to worry about.
We did come back into the US from British Columbia’s wine country. One of the questions the US border agent asked us is if we had any beer or wine. We said no. He didn’t seem to like our answer. He looked at James the Poodle and asked if we had any dog food. We said yes. He asked if it was in its original packaging. We said no. He then said he needed confiscate the dog food and search our RV. At this point my heart was racing! I knew we didn’t have anything to worry about – we weren’t hiding anything – but was he going to take our entire RV apart? Pull everything out and set it on the curb? This could be a big mess if so!
(Sometimes we keep J’s food in its original bag and we scoop it out from there. But we also have a large plastic storage bin we use for dog food. When we went into Canada from the US, the dog food was in a new bag. But there wasn’t much food left in the bag by the end of our Canadian trip and we dumped the remaining kibble into the plastic bin. This dog food was bought in the US and taken into Canada and was being taken back into the US.)
Chris waited in his seat while I showed the border agent where the dog food was. He then asked to see inside of the refrigerator. I think he was hoping to spot some beer or wine and catch us for lying about having any. But our fridge was pretty empty. He asked to see a few other things and that was it. He disappeared with the dog food container. I actually thought we were going to lose the plastic bin but he ended up bringing me back the empty bin.
The whole thing was definitely nerve racking but thankfully we didn’t have to take every single thing out of the RV for inspection. I was also worried if the agents inspected the RV without us if things might get broken. I have these plastic craft bins I use for beauty products in the bathroom. They snap together but you can’t be careless with them or the clips will unsnap and beauty products could fly all over the bathroom floor. Yes, this has happened to me! So I was imagining all of my makeup broken all over the bathroom floor. And Chris was worried about his electronics. He has his computer and fun electronics toys in a perfect little puzzle for when we travel. I don’t even touch them because it is like Jenga – pulling out one little thing could cause the whole system to come crashing down! But thankfully we had nothing to worry about and I was glad I was able to help with the border agent when he asked to see certain items.
The sad part was we had a LONG day of driving and we weren’t exactly driving through any major towns where we could buy dog food. James ended up having a special meal of ground chicken for dinner!