We enjoyed spending most of the month of July in Canada. We met lots of great people including a long lost cousin, saw the Calgary Stampede, had some spectacular views of the Rockies and drank some good wine.
In many ways Canada seemed just like the US. Several people in Canada said Mrs Ram could even claim Canadian citizenship since both her parents were born there.
However we had little reminders that we were in a foreign land. First was cash. Having a few bucks in your pocket can really weigh you down. Loonies and twonies as they called there 1 and 2 dollar coins are not light. And the “paper” money is colorful and seems to be made from plastic rather than paper.
Using a credit card? The gas stations insisted that US patrons pre-authorized an amount and every store has Americans sign a paper receipt.
Writing a check? Don’t plan on it. Some places refused checks from our American banks. ATMs did work well though.
Converting from gallons to liters, pound to kg or miles to km was another reminder things were different here.
And Mr Ram was very annoyed at the bottle deposits and some costs in Alberta.
We slowly drifted south and eventually crossed into Washington State. The border guard asked for our passports and had a few other questions. He then said “Welcome Home”
As we drove south on US Route 97 we realized it did feel good to be home.