GDUAL SPORT
~
BackroadsAdventures
By Kit Palmer
.
"Passport? Since when
do you need a passport to
get into Canada?" I asked.
"Thi ngs have changed
la te ly, " said the agent
behind the a irline ticket
counter. "00 you have a
Social Security card with
you?"
Hmm! I haven't seen
my 55 card in 20 years, I
thou ght. "No," I said.
"H ow abo u t a vo ter's
re g is tr a tion ca rd?" she
asked.
I smirked sheepishl y,
and shook my head.
"Sorry," said the agen t.
Well, things could be
worse, I tho ug ht. The last
time I was caugh t withou t
a passport, I was trying to
get out of Czechoslovakia
a t night, moments afte r
having rea lized that my
passp ort had been sto len.
(If you ever happen to see
someone wit h, perhaps, a
towel wrapp ed a ro u nd
his head , posing as American Kit Pa lmer with my
p a ss p o rt , please let me
know . I ha d a good collection of stamps in it).
A n ywa y, here I was,
s tanding at the Delta ticke t cou n te r a t the Los
Angeles International Airp o rt with tw o gea rbags
hang ing off my sho ulders
an d my passport hidden
safely in a drawer bac k
home, some 50 m iles
away. It was almost 5:00
p .m., and the next (and
last) flight to Calgary was
in tw o hours . Have you
ever tried driving from
one side of Los Angeles to
th e other in afternoon
rus h-hour traffic? Need I
say more?
I had only one option go back home, retrieve my
passport and .take the first
fligh t ou t the next morning.
To ca tch a 7:45 a .m.
flight out of LAX means,
for me, ge tting out of my
wa rm bed no later than
4 :06 a .m . to bea t th e
m ornin g ru sh-hou r traffic. Even my dog refused
to see me off at that hour.
And my wife? - she rolled
over and mumbled somethin g a bout t u rni ng off
the light.
Ni ce s ta r t to a trip,
eh? Finally, after being
sq ueezed in to a center
sea t for most of the threehour, one-stop flight to
Calgary, the wheels of the
Boeing 757 touched down.
It was only a matter of
time, now.
•
Calga ry w a sn' t my
fina l destination; instead,
it was Cranbrook, a small
If you like switchb acks,
4
you'll love ridi ng in the
Canadian Rockies. The
folks at Backroads
Adventures know just
about all of them.
