Well, where to start. It's been way too long since my last update as my life took a few massive twists and turns after I last wrote.
I suppose the best place to start is January 2010.......
So having made good time through California, Oregon and Washington I reached the border with about 3 hours left on my visa waiver. No problem huh?!
That's when it all kicked off!!! Canadian customs were suspicious of my meanderings and after a gruelling 3 hours with my camper turned upside-down, they REFUSED me entry. Or should I say, "suggested very strongly that I withdraw my application to enter the country". Having, by that time, not slept for nearly 24 hours and driven 800miles that day, my mind was too fogged to really argue the point or make proper representation. OK thought I, in my sleep deprived brain, I'll just re-enter the US and apply for a new visa waiver, make some arrangements for the camper with my Abbotsford friends and fly back to the UK from Seattle in a couple of weeks. HUH, fat chance!! BEWARE the U.S. Border Agency. I'll maybe go into more detail some other time, but basically I spent 14 hours in a cell at the border post, was then unceremoniously handcuffed along with waist and leg irons (YES REALLY!), given 5 minutes to pack ONE small bag and shipped off to Tacoma Detention Centre, where I was incarcerated for over 3 weeks before being DEPORTED!!!!!! And all this because, technically, I had not left the US and could not therefore apply for a new visa waiver. Having by this time "overstayed" by 12 hours, I was deemed a criminal subject to the full force of the law but without ANY rights to an attourney or judge to plead my case, as these were apparently signed away with the visa waiver application. (Hell, who reads all the small print?).
So, eventually back in England February 19th 2010, very disorientated and feeling very, very low. Stayed in a motel, thanks to my son Josh who paid for a few days there, until I could get funds sorted, my car and caravan out of storage, MOT'd, taxed, insured and onto a site. This done, I had to go to my GP as my back was absolute agony. He arranged a visit to a consultant within the week, who in turn arranged, in 6 days, a colonoscopy and delivered the news that I had a tumorous carcinoma - CANCER - Life just got even better.....
