On crossing borders

Just contemplating the long flight home which entails flying down to New York to pick up the Qantas flight.Another meeting with US Border Protection.What a contrast between driving into the US from Canada and being aggressively interrogated and almost intimidated by the surly US Border Protection officer and then coming back into Canada two weeks later and being greeted by a friendly,cheery Canadian official at the border .It is not difficult to envisage a scenario where a tourist with a short fuse could tell the US officer to stick his country and do a U- turn and go and drive through the Rockies instead of visiting the US .And talking to Canadians confirms that our experience was far from being unusual .Which is a great pity because the majority of Americans are friendly,welcoming and very helpful to tourists and it is a wonderful country - despite the overzealous security.