So finally, we got there! In the last few weeks, it seemed more and more unlikely that we would be able to make it. We planned this trip 6 months ago, 2 weeks at Jean-Pierre’s house in Cape Coral. But since Isabel was in LOA because of her damn arm which simply does not want to heal, we did not know if we could come. And my parents being in Italiy for 3 weeks and Jean-Pierre coming up here for a few months, we would have been Grand-Parents-less for many weeks… Me being in a crazy projet with our favorite client, Isabel would have been left quite lonely with a hurting arm and 2 children… So, coming up here where at least Jean-Pierre can help with the children was the best we could do!
So we left Thursday at 12:15PM. Picked up the children at day care and drove to the States with a car packed as usual (2 children, you know…). The flight was at 7PM but we needed to leave some time buffer to cross the border. Why ? Oh well, long story short: Last January, when we drove back from Florida to Montreal, I got pulled over for little bit of speeding… And since the States are handling tickets a little bit different then we do in Quebec, I was not able to find how much I needed to pay, and I did not really tried to find out. My bad, I know…
So New York State revoke my driver’s license! After a thousand phone calls to try and speak to someone who can tell me how much and where I need it to send the money, I finally talked to a Judge and resolved the matter. But still, since we were crossing the borders in the very State where my license was removed, we feared that we might get into some troubles. If their files were not fully up to date, they could have not known I paid the ticket and they could have put me in jail until they talk to the Judge. His Honor told me that himself… So we were a bit nervous…
Isabel was driving and we arrived at the US border at 1:30PM. She gave the officer all our passports, plus her Florida driver’s license (yeah, she got one, another long story I could explain later ;-)). The officer asked:
Why do you have a Florida’s driver license ?
And Isabel:
Well, we were arrested once in Florida and they said to us that since we had a house in Florida, it could make things easier to have a driver’s license.
The only problem is that the term « arrested » in french does not mean the same thing in « english ». For us in french, it means that a police officer pulled us over because of speeding, or a forgotten stop or something… But in english, « arrested » actually means that the officer said something like:
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, the state appoints one for you free of charge if you wish.
So the officer:
And why were you arrested ?
I got a little bit more scared! We SOOO don’t need more attention to be put on us! I was fulminating on the passenger’s seat! Why the hell would you say to this officer that you got arrested !!
After a few explanation, his colleague understood and explained that « arrested » usually means handcuffs… We all had a good nervous laugh, Isabel did her « merlant frit » eyes and the serious officer glimpsed the beginning of a smile. They let us go.
Fiew…
But we were still long from getting in Cape Coral… More in my next post!
Vous en pensez quoi ?