Pan Am Experience Part 4

["Bo Parrish" <lindap@lcc.net>]

Back in the USA

Part 4

Portal, ND Customs

With the truck missing-out badly, we pulled into customs to the words, "Where have you been?" I think they believed our story, since the storm had wrecked havoc in Portal. It was now midnight. We were ordered to open the back of the Animal Tacker trailer. The first item the inspector checked was not on the inventory list. After impounding the trailer, we were instructed to get a room at the local motel, not to leave town until further notice and to report back to customs at 8:00 a.m.

Next morning, Bo cranked the truck to let it warm up. The water-in-the-fuel light was on. Draining the filter housing seemed to solve the problem. However, the motor died within a minute each time he cranked it. The check-engine light was staying on.

I walked to Customs to tell them the latest in our on-going saga. Bo is diligently working on the truck; a real problem when the closest station is seven miles down the road! A local gentleman brought oil and transmission fluid from his own house for Bo to use. Unfortunately, this did not fix the problem. Time to call the tow truck. After clearing it with Customs, Bo and truck was towed to the nearest Ford dealership – only 94 miles away in Minot, ND!

Meanwhile, Ann is sporadically faxing, from memory, inventory lists – items sent into Canada and items brought back from Canada. This was also her first day of teaching at a new school. (The dark cloud was undoubtedly hanging over her, too!) After several pages of faxes, Customs sent me to the Brokers; as expected, none could help us. After 8½ hours, I was instructed to fill out a form, pay the money and they released the trailer! Now if only Bo and the truck were here.

When Bo arrived at the Ford dealership, it looked like a war zone. There were sandbags and construction everywhere. The storm had undermined a drainage culvert and the parts room floor had dropped 15 feet. There were sinkholes all across the parking area. Thankfully, they semi-fixed the truck enough that Bo could come back that night for the trailer, Earl, and me. We went back to Minot, spent the remainder of the night in a motel, and arrived back at the dealership when they opened next morning.

Bo rolled the flat tire to a tire store just a couple blocks away. We asked them to either patch it or sell us a new tire. They first tried to patch it, but the lightening really did blow the tire. There were 11 exit holes in just the one area the tire man showed Bo. We ordered a new tire. Westlie Ford of Minot, ND had us back on the road by 12:30. After mounting the new tire on the truck, going back to Westlie to pick up the trailer, we were back on the road by 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, August 10.