Doing the flagpole ...

The road heading to the US border

On Thursday, I made the drive down to the Canadian/US border to renew my work permit.  According to the US immigration officers at the border, this is called doing a 'flagpole.'  Yes, that is the official term.  It's even on the form they gave me to give to the Canadian immigration officers.  It was a stressful day because I was alone (I've never driven that far - 7 hours return - by myself) and a little worried (because that's what I do) about the process going smoothly.  The questioning process what quite scary.  Why the immigration guys feel the need to be so unfriendly and mean, I'm not sure.  But, the main thing is that I walked out with my work permit in hand.  Which meant that I could now get on with organising a Chinese visitor visa, which was proving to be a complicated process, applying in Canada with an Australian passport.  

Typical Albertan scene - cows and mountains

The drive back to Calgary was much more pleasant and I took the time to stop along the way and look at some of the interesting little towns.  The town of Nanton reminded me of a what I imagine a typical prairie town would look like - rail road and grainery on one side of the road, the shops on the other side. Nanton is home to a fantastic antique store where I spent a good deal of time poking around.  A town that I didn't stop in was Stand Off (funny name, hey?!), home to a large Indian reserve.  It looked like a ghost town, with dilapidated buildings that looked long abandoned.  However, upon closer inspection, it appeared that they were actually still in use.  The drive itself (minus the stress, of course) was quite pleasant with the never-ending prairies to the east and the foothills and Rocky Mountains to the west.  Hopefully next time I take that drive it won't be to do the 'flagpole'!