Picnic on the Platform

[Cascadia]

I had some mistaken thinking about customs and fresh fruit today. I bought some nice little tangerines in Vancouver, thinking I could eat them on the train before we got to the US border. I figured, if we were still in Canada, it wouldn't matter.

The inspection in the station at Vancouver is for Immigration, not Customs, Customs is at the border.

My logic was wrong though! I had to eat my little tangerines before I got on the train (or else throw them out). And I couldn't go back in the station either and eat them in there. The staff were nice and pointed me to some seats outdoors on the platform by where VIA boards the Canadian.

My hands weren't clean, that was my main objection to having to eat the fruit unexpectedly, but I made do with a little bit of bottled water and a tissue. The nice lady who runs the baggage Xray machine came out and brought me some paper towels too.

Anyway I had a picnic on the platform there and was thinking how some of you would have enjoyed the chance to sit there and look at all that VIA equipment and our Superliner Cascades train while having a contraband snack.

The moral of the story is don't assume when it comes to fresh fruit that you can take it on a train that crosses the border, even if you are an hour and a half from the border! I should have bought a bottle of orange juice instead, I guess.

 

[Neil_M]

Tangerine Terrorist.

The worse sort.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

This days things are only going to get worse. At least you didn't ditch the fruit.

 

[Cascadia]

Yeah Neil, terrorist is right. I guess if I had gotten on the train, the Med flies or whatever could have hatched and flown around the train and continued to Seattle. The peels would have gone on to Seattle. I guess.

Oh well. I wouldn't have enjoyed eating them by the Xray machine, but it wasn't so bad all by myself out there on the platform.

Live and learn

 

[Cascadia]

Hey Long Train, I am glad I didn't chuck the little things, I got them at a swank fancy grocery that I don't normally shop at, they were expensive! lol They were good too.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

:lol: Well thats good I'm glad you enjoyed them and the US was saved from another infection

 

[MrFSS]

Try and take stuff like that into Canada and see what happens. They really have no sense of humor about it.

 

[Cascadia]

All joking aside, if you are on a train that crosses the border, always tell them if you have fresh fruit, meat or other food. It's fine if you tell them, and then they decide if you can keep it or not.

If you don't tell them and they find it (she could see mine on the xray, I'm pretty sure), it's a BIG FINE. NO JOKE. Like 700.00 or something, I thought I heard.

They are trying to keep agricultural pests from spreading, that's the idea. Don't get stuck with an EXPENSIVE FINE!

 

[Shanghai]

When arriving in Australia by airplane, the flight attendants are forced to collect ALL food items one may have and then they spray the entire airplane with some type of disinfectant before landing. On my last trip, there was a air blower that all passengers must pass through before collecting their luggages!! Then there is entry into the US - practically nothing!!

 

[sunchaser]

Try and take stuff like that into Canada and see what happens. They really have no sense of humor about it.

I used to think some of those rules were kind of silly, until I saw footage of the many creatures & critters that manage to catch a ride into other countries with food. With fruit, the main concern is the fruit fly.

I think it is the island of Guam that no longer has any birds because of a couple of snakes that made it onto the island.

Australia is another example-they imported rabbits for food, & now they have a constant battle trying to keep the rabbit population under control.

But I'm glad you enjoyed the fruit anyway.

 

[wayman]

Try and take stuff like that into Canada and see what happens. They really have no sense of humor about it.

I used to think some of those rules were kind of silly, until I saw footage of the many creatures & critters that manage to catch a ride into other countries with food. With fruit, the main concern is the fruit fly.

I think it is the island of Guam that no longer has any birds because of a couple of snakes that made it onto the island.

Australia is another example-they imported rabbits for food, & now they have a constant battle trying to keep the rabbit population under control.

But I'm glad you enjoyed the fruit anyway.

Sounds like it's time for someone to bring a mongoose to Guam, to rid them of the snakes. Can you hide a mongoose in a tangerine?

 

[sunchaser]

Try and take stuff like that into Canada and see what happens. They really have no sense of humor about it.

I used to think some of those rules were kind of silly, until I saw footage of the many creatures & critters that manage to catch a ride into other countries with food. With fruit, the main concern is the fruit fly.

I think it is the island of Guam that no longer has any birds because of a couple of snakes that made it onto the island.

Australia is another example-they imported rabbits for food, & now they have a constant battle trying to keep the rabbit population under control.

But I'm glad you enjoyed the fruit anyway.

Sounds like it's time for someone to bring a mongoose to Guam, to rid them of the snakes. Can you hide a mongoose in a tangerine?

It would have to be a very small mongoose, or a very big tangerine! :lol: :lol: But I'm sure one of you would figure out how to do that!!!

 

[printman2000]

Sounds like it's time for someone to bring a mongoose to Guam, to rid them of the snakes. Can you hide a mongoose in a tangerine?

Yeah, but then you will have a problem with too many mongooses. Or should that be mongeese? :lol: So then they will have to introduce something to get rid of them, then something to get rid of those, etc.

 

[gswager]

If you're driving to California, there's a state border checkpoint, asking motorists if you have any fruits or vegetables. They're serious, esp. with pests.

 

[Cascadia]

When you guys started going on about the mongooses to get rid of the snakes, all I could think of was that kids' song "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly".

 

[sunchaser]

Sounds like it's time for someone to bring a mongoose to Guam, to rid them of the snakes. Can you hide a mongoose in a tangerine?

Yeah, but then you will have a problem with too many mongooses. Or should that be mongeese? :lol: So then they will have to introduce something to get rid of them, then something to get rid of those, etc.

It's mongooses. It's octopus & octopi. Not mongi! :lol:

When you guys started going on about the mongooses to get rid of the snakes, all I could think of was that kids' song "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly".

Funny, when it was mentioned I thought of rikki tikki tavi. An old old cartoon, early 60s, I think.

 

[Neil_M]

I used to think some of those rules were kind of silly, until I saw footage of the many creatures & critters that manage to catch a ride into other countries with food. With fruit, the main concern is the fruit fly.

How do the fruit flies know not to fly across the Canada/USA border then?

 

[Sam31452]

Immagine the whole story in Europe, where trains are running through several countries.

Austria-Denmark via the Czech Republic and Germany is one of my favourite, thanks to the European Union they don't do any controls there, on

Ljubljana-Thessaloniki through Slovenia-Croatia-Serbia-Macedonia and Greeece they keep controlling you.

I'm glad the bastards (I had quite a few bad experiences) at customs don't care about fruit over here,

but getting up at 3am for a 1hr control is still extremely annoying.

How could raspberries (and other fruit) threaten national security?

 

[printman2000]

I used to think some of those rules were kind of silly, until I saw footage of the many creatures & critters that manage to catch a ride into other countries with food. With fruit, the main concern is the fruit fly.

How do the fruit flies know not to fly across the Canada/USA border then?

Border fence. :lol:

 

[printman2000]

How could raspberries (and other fruit) threaten national security?

Has nothing to do with national security. Has everything to do with spreading insects and disease.

 

[Neil_M]

How could raspberries (and other fruit) threaten national security?

Has nothing to do with national security. Has everything to do with spreading insects and disease.

Its one of these things that looks impressive and makes like the government is doing something, but is fairly futile when there is a 5000 odd mile long border for those nasty fruit flies to sneak across.

You can understand it for overseas travellers, but for travellers on the same continent it's quite pointless.

 

[sunchaser]

I used to think some of those rules were kind of silly, until I saw footage of the many creatures & critters that manage to catch a ride into other countries with food. With fruit, the main concern is the fruit fly.

How do the fruit flies know not to fly across the Canada/USA border then?

Border fence. :lol:

It's the sign in fly language on the fence saying

Keep Out! This means You! Trespassers Will be Fumigated! :lol:

 

[jackal]

When you guys started going on about the mongooses to get rid of the snakes, all I could think of was that kids' song "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly".

Funny, when it was mentioned I thought of rikki tikki tavi. An old old cartoon, early 60s, I think.

And all I could think of was the movie Snakes on a Plane! (I had been trying to avoid it ever since it came out, but the last few minutes of it were on TV the other day while I was flipping channels and I got stuck watching it...fortunately, I missed the scene with all of the snakes, but the rest of it was pretty dang hokey...)

 

[Ispolkom]

How could raspberries (and other fruit) threaten national security?

Has nothing to do with national security. Has everything to do with spreading insects and disease.

Its one of these things that looks impressive and makes like the government is doing something, but is fairly futile when there is a 5000 odd mile long border for those nasty fruit flies to sneak across.

You can understand it for overseas travellers, but for travellers on the same continent it's quite pointless.

It's not quite pointless. If you're stopping people anyway at the border anyway, why not do an agricultural inspection? Even if you only slow the spread of pests, or reduce their rate of introduction, that is some accomplishment, since they travel much more slowly on their own.

I'm not sure how useful interstate inspections are, like what California does, but its borders are pretty hostile to invasive species.

There's a great article in last week's "New Yorker" on invasive species in Florida, including a great description of a death match between a 6-foot alligator and a giant Burmese python.

 

[the_traveler]

I used to think some of those rules were kind of silly, until I saw footage of the many creatures & critters that manage to catch a ride into other countries with food. With fruit, the main concern is the fruit fly.

How do the fruit flies know not to fly across the Canada/USA border then?

Border fence. :lol:

No, they're required to land at the nearest tree - and clear Customs! :lol: