It Was Dark When The Police Came

You are an RVer and you want to be able to stay in places without having to pay a bundle. Between those place may be an occasional truck stop.

Now, for us, truck stops are not ideal as they usually are noisy places, but when nothing else is available, we also stay at a truck stop.

Our last night before getting home, we stayed at Dysart's Truck Stop in Bangor.

Looking for a place to park, we discovered another RV, a 5th-Wheel at the end of the parking lot. Seeking the neighbourhood of another camper would be a natural choice for most RVers. And it promises a quieter night than besides a truck with a roaring reefer going all night.

So we backed in beside the other RV. After I got out of the rig Bea was already talking to the guy next door. When I saw him I looked into a very rough face, an open sore on his forehead, and talking in a slurred voice. He told us about being kicked out of a campground and having been poisened a couple of times. There was a lot of tales from him. A lot of red lights went off right away and we were  both quickly retiring in our rig.

That neighbour also had engine trouble with his truck and was hanging over his motor until dark.

We had drawn the curtains and finished our supper, when suddenly we saw a lot of very bright lights appearing outside. Taking a look from the window we saw several police officers rummaging through the vehicles of our neighbour. They even crawled into the luggage compartments of the 5th-wheel. There was only one reason for doing that.....DRUGS!

This action lasted about a full hour and they first left when we had gone to bed.

So what does this teach us?

1. Don't ever trust an unknown neighbour

2. Don't park in places if you feel uneasy about it

3. If you do have to park in unknown places, always lock access to your compartment doors.

4. Don't get into an argument with strangers.

5. Make yourself familiar with call numbers for local law enforcement.

So this time nothing bad happened to us, but how easily could that have been? Imagining this guy would have resisted police and drawn a gun, the police would have had an armed stand-off. With us being parked next, it would have been very dangerous.

We actually knew this truck stop and have stayed there before never having any problem. But things can change.

So after a quiet night we started off around 7:30am and made it to the US border at 10:15.

We stopped at US Customs and we got the export paper- work done. Then across the International Bridge and doing the Import paperwork on the Canadian side. 

The FDR Memorial International Bridge

CANADA CUSTOMS BUILDING

This all went like a breeze and we drove on to the Roosevelt Park where we parked our rig, moved the van off the trailer and unhitched the trailer. Then we took the van and the trailer to our house.

Still looking a little wintry

I clicked on the power started the water pump, and soon heard the splashing of water from a broken water line in the next basement room. Water was shut off again and we called our neighbour who is a plumber. Imagine being THAT lucky to have a plumber next door neighbour! 30 minutes, and 60 bucks later it was all fixed again.

Another neighbour had invited us for lunch and we chatted along. The rest of the day was spent with emptying the motorhome and carrying stuff into the house where we created a momentary chaos. But eventually, it all worked out. So now we have a fire going in the stove, a hot cocoa in the cups and a hot shower is waiting.