I knew it was not going to go smoothly when I pulled up too far behind the car in front of me at the border booth. The border guard threw me a cross look and Dianne told me to pull back a little. I'd never been out of the US so I didn't know. I had a feeling at that point that things were not going to go smoothly. When we pulled up to the booth, we were asked what I assumed would be the typical questions;

"Have you ever been to Canada?"
"What is the purpose of your visit?"
"How long will you be staying?"

Then the questions started getting a little more in depth;

"Are you carrying any weapons?"
"Do you have any items you intend to sell, such as cigarettes?"
"What is the nature of your relationship?" (referring to Dianne and I).

We told him that we were visiting friends in Ottawa. Dianne's thinking was that if we said nothing about the compass there would be fewer complications. Wrong. The guard told us to pull in under the canopy and come into the customs office. You can imagine the choice words going through my mind at this point.

We came into the office and sat down. They asked us each several questions about our reasons for visiting Canada and then asked me for permission to search my car. I agreed and went outside with a customs agent. At this point I was asking myself why we hadn't told them about the compass in the first place but it was pointless to ponder. As the young lady with customs rummaged through my car, I couldn't help but wonder what they were going to do when they found the compass. Finally, with her search focused on the back seat, she pulled away the blanket we had secured over the compass. She stepped out of the car and asked me if "the clock" was a gift for our friends in Ottawa. Clock? I chuckled. I explained to her that it was a compass and that we were donating it to the museum in Pointe au Père. The truth known, she took me back inside where Dianne was taken into a separate room and questioned about the compass. She had paperwork from the museum that supposed to facilitate its return to Canada but the paperwork was written for Kim Martin, an Empress diver who was originally to be the one to transport it to the museum. At this point I really thought we were in trouble. They referred to the compass as "merchandise" and wanted to know its dollar value. To me, it was priceless, but if they want us to pay some kind of tax on it; how do you put a price on an artifact like that? We came clean about the entire story, appealing to the woman in charge. We explained to her that we were returning the compass to its rightful home. She had been to Rimouski before and told us all about her trip. Hoping to gain her sympathy, we listened intently. She said she could see that we were sincere and allowed us entry into the country. Amazingly the question was never put to us as to why we had lied.

We thanked her profusely and headed out the door! The customs stop had cost us two hours and we were eager to get back on the road. We stopped briefly to take a picture of me giving the "victory" sign outside the customs office and then we were on our way north...