November 8, 2021 Border opened

Jack sat at the wheel of his motorhome and waited. Time passed slowly, moments ticked away. After eighteen months Jack struggled to remain patient.

The border was going to be opened to him and his wife. Their son waited in California with his young family.

Finally, their family could be reunited. 

“Jack I can hardly wait to see my grandson… to hold him.” Nancy’s hand vibrated as she opened her purse and checked her paperwork. She pulled out their passports and fidgeted nervously.

“Yes honey, I know but playing with those passports isn’t going to open the border any sooner.” he sighed,  “It’s about time they let us in.” Jack glanced over at his wife and looked ahead again. The line of vehicles in front of him stretched around the corner towards the closed barricade. It was 8:50 pm and the border was scheduled to open at 9:00 pm. 

The minutes stretched on.

The clock on the dash of the class c rig they drove seemed to freeze as each minute ticked by.

As the light on the dash switched to 9:00 the truck and trailer in front of the sixty-eight-year-old man and his sixty-five-year-old wife fired up its engine and slowly moved ahead. The line began to inch forward and the longest land border in the world fully opened up.

“Here we go hon, finally moving.” Jack smiled and looked at his wife as he put the motorhome into gear. 

“I can’t wait, I hope it doesn’t take too long.” Nancy yawned and stretched her arms. 

It had been a long day. The couple hadn’t been south to see their son and his wife since before the pandemic, despite the fact they were family they couldn’t travel to see their grandson’s birth or his first birthday. Now as the long line of vehicles moved forward they would see their newest family member for the first time. 

Osoyoos was busy on this chilly evening. They were a long way back from the front of the line despite the fact they were there hours earlier in the mid-afternoon. It was a line they were happy to be in. 

After two hours of agonizingly crawling along the road they came to the border control building and the man in uniform smiled at the couple in the motorhome. 

“Hello folks, where are you off to?” His American drawl was almost a balm to the anxious couple. 

Jack handed over their passports and sighed, “California sir, we are going to Carson to see our son and grandbaby.” 

“How long do you plan on staying? Do you have any meats or veggies? Any Firearms or illegal drugs?” The border agent took the passports and opened them up.

“We are going for three months and we have nothing to declare sir, no firearms, and I haven’t even seen any drugs in over forty years.” Jack’s stomach jumped as he said the last words. Would the agent look at him anymore? It was only a small lie… 

The border patrol agent stamped the passports and handed them back through the window. “Here you go folks, welcome to America, have a safe trip.”

With that, the couple pulled ahead and into the USA for the first time in eighteen months. They hadn’t been south since they fled back to Canada in March 2020 while the world seemed to implode around them. 

“Woohoo, we made it!” Nancy’s cheer broke through his tired brain and the reality and relief struck home.

The road in front of them would be a long one but it was a step closer to the world they once knew.