Great Falls, Montana: Around noon today we crossed the border where I-15 meets Alberta 4, at the adjacent towns of Coutts, Alberta, and Sweetgrass, Montana. The process was simplicity itself, we answered a couple of questions, showed our passports, and were welcomed home.
We saw something interesting in Sweetgrass: a business offering package storage on the U.S. side of the border. They cater to Canadian snowbirds who own handguns while resident in the States in winter but cannot take them when they go home for the summer as such are illegal in Canada. I suppose they might also cater to Americans who RV with a gun in the States but wish to travel in Canada and know they daren't take it with them. Honestly, the former is a much bigger market share than the latter.
Roads are striped differently in Canada, much as we found them marked differently in Texas. It is easy enough to figure out, but you do notice the differences in merging and turn lanes.
In the 2 1/2 weeks we were gone, the prairies north of Great Falls have gone from green to golden. We hear it has been hot in the States. Rocky Mountain Canada was pleasant, warm enough but rarely hot. We noticed a few leaves starting to turn in Lethbridge, maybe a "downpayment" on autumn?
For all that Canada values not being "American," the cultural differences - priceless to Canadians - are quite minor. Culture shock is little more vivid than that of traveling to another region of the U.S.
If one emigrated there the adjustments would take some doing, but it wouldn't create a feeling of "foreignness" or being an expat.
Examples: while Canada values its ties with the United Kingdom, it uses the same electric current (110 v) we do. The Brits use the 220 v the rest of Europe does. Canada is also the only former UK colony which drives on the right hand side of the road as we do, whereas NZ, AUS, Ireland, India, and Singapore all drive on the left as the UK does. And Canadian RVs have all the mod cons U.S. RVs have, whereas those in Europe and down under don't run to sewer systems but tend to feature porta-potties of various sorts and have self-contained-only water systems.
