Possible road trip....Illnois, Canada, Maine and back

[Mark Linimon]

On Fri, Sep 04, 2015 at 12:55:25PM -0400, William Donzelli wrote:
> Several of us have been bounced at the border for trying to bring in
> larger machines. Basically, if it is something that is not a laptop or
> PeeCee or normal consumer electronics, expect trouble. It is not 1998
> anymore.

The FreeBSD Foundation, a 501c(3), turned down a donation of some
Canadian machines because the only place we could host them was NYI/
New Jersey.  The donating company was willing to let us have the
machines but could not figure out the legal complexities to provide
the paperwork.  (I was willing to be the labor).

The Foundation's lawyers advised that we should _not_ transport anything
across the border without paperwork specifying the origin of the equipment,
the intended use, the current value, and any number of other things.

My personal experiences are that big border crossings (e.g. at the terminus
of U.S. Interstates) are less likely to detain you for questioning.  The
smallest ones are suspicious of anyone who isn't a local and will want
to find out why you used _that_ crossing.

On 10+ crossings I have spent between 30 seconds and 2.5 hours.  The
latter they went through the car -- twice -- with a drug dog.  I was
sitting there thinking, ok, what if some asshole who had the car before
me left a dope seed in it.  (NB: I am not taking a position for or
against dope seeds here :-) )

Which reminds me.  The most important rule of all border crossings, and
pardon me for shouting: ALWAYS GO TO THE BATHROOM FIRST.

One of the 1.5 hour crossings they wouldn't let me, apparently nervous
I would flush my (non-existant) stash I suppose.

mcl