The Letter
I am so upset right now. So upset.
Greetings from Canada.
Lorraine and I are so very sad and disappointed that the Canada/US border continues to remain closed to non-essential travel by land. Until the border reopens, we are unable to cross into the United States with our motorcoach.
The current “temporary” border closure measures have been extended every month since they first took hold in March. There is currently no plan from the Canadian government to reopen the border and we expect, although we do not know, that the border will remain closed indefinitely due to the consistently high level of COVID-19 cases being reported in the United States.
As you can imagine it has made our planning as full-time RVers exceptionally challenging. We have to leave our site here in Canada on October 25th. Ordinarily we would be looking forward, with great enthusiasm, to returning to our beautiful home away from home, Myakka River Motorcoach Resort.
Not this year.
Unfortunately we have little choice but to make alternate arrangements to remain in Canada because of the border closure.
Lorraine has already reached out to explain our situation and this note confirms that we cannot commit to our site this year. We do not know when we might be allowed to once more travel into the United States by land.
We have made arrangements to rent an executive house in Canada on a month-to-month basis and our coach will be in storage on a month-to-month basis. Should the border reopen and, weather permitting, we can travel south, we fully intend to do so. Unfortunately we do not know when that might be and, should the border reopen, we will be in touch to see if we might find a spot with Myakka later in the winter/spring.
Best wishes to everyone at Myakka. Keep safe and healthy.
We will dearly miss you!
Richard and Lorraine
This makes us incredibly sad, Richard and Lorraine. We will miss you both so much! And sweet Tabby, too.
We keep telling ourselves this whole ordeal is just a temporary situation. It won’t be like this forever. We have to be optimistic!
Ron and I will both be thinking of you two this winter. Stay well and let’s be sure to keep in touch.
Fondly, Ann
Not a happy day but we remain optimistic that at some point this pandemic will pass along with the restrictions on our ability to travel.
We miss you and hope to see you soon!
Strangely, the border isn’t closed to non-essential air travel in either direction, and the land border isn’t closed to returning Americans. Could you fly down and have some American friends fly up and return to the US with your motorhome, meeting them on the US side? It’s convoluted, and maybe a bit wacky, but no wackier than the current inconsistency between international land and air travel. It might be one way to get down there this winter…
Hello Tim. Thank you for this idea!
Although the Canadian border is not closed for Americans to pursue non-essential travel into the country by air, there is a mandatory 14-day quarantine period. Upon presentation to a Canadian customs officer, the traveller must have a plan that demonstrates how the traveller intends to comply with the quarantine. The Canadian government will track the traveller to ensure that they comply with the plan.
The 14-day quarantine would prove quite inconvenient for any of our American friends to come up and attempt to bring our bus down to a U.S. border town.
Customs officers on both sides of the border can have a significant impact on our ability to travel in the future. Any suspicious or unusual travel attempts could be flagged. As both governments track citizen movements across the border, including registered vehicle data, Canada customs would know that our coach was driven down without us and that we flew out by air and returned by land in an obvious attempt to bypass the current restrictions on non-essential travel through land borders.
We’d love to be able to return to the US many more times in the years to come. We continue to comply with the COVID-19 measures (mandatory masking, social distancing, avoiding non-essential travel) and we hope that at some point in the not too distant future we can cross by land safely and legally.
All good points, and it’s probably wise to avoid doing anything that could create issues at the border going forward. I still have a hard time understanding how it’s okay to cross the border on an airplane with dozens of strangers, but not okay to cross in the ultimate “social distancing” machine.
I hope you can resume your travels soon.