USA Trip Thoughts — August 2026

Last month we completed a trip to the States (Idaho, specifically). One of things trips do is throw the day-to-day routine up for examination, as you build one for the trip. So it makes me notice things that are otherwise just “normal”. Here’s some of the things I noticed this trip: US Border wait times got extreme: normally we cross at Coutts/Sweatgrass, and in planning our trip, it’s always a bit of question mark of how much time to expect to spend here, but it’s often less than 10 minutes, and half hour on the outside. Previously, the longest I remeber being stuck at the border was one time I was driving northbound in late March and got stuck in a line of Snowbirds returning north in the motorhomes. This time, we were stuck for 2 hours! If there would have been a way to get out of line, I was seriously considering 80 km (and back) to Del Bonita to cross there. When we did finally got to the front of the line, I asked if the delay was expectional and was told “no”, that it had been…