[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Sweetie and da dog and I headed over to Tucson, AZ, to visit my brother and our 89 yo Mother for a few days. We drove, needless to say. On the way over, we passed through the Border Patrol checkpoint just west of Las Cruces, NM. Usually, it's a glance in the car, a sniff by the dog, a brief explanation by my wife "I'm Native American from Canada and have travel rights granted by the Jay Treaty back in the late 1700s, so I don't need a passport." and a wave through the checkpoint. This time, the agents seemed to be a bit agitated and especially concerned she didn't have a passport. After the explanation, we were instructed to pull into the left lane in front and stop. There was another car pulled over, driver not in it, 3 18 wheelers pulled over and a bus pulled over, too. One of the agents requested Sweeties driver's license so he could "run it through the system." *blink* Run it through WHAT system?? We handed it over (no, we didn't protest, don't even go there! LOL), he took it and walked away. About 2 minutes later, a 2nd agent came over and asked who, what, where, when, why, how long type questions after directing us to a farther left lane. Sweetie and I both noticed these young men and the other agents outside there looked a bit stressed out and on high alert. After about 5 minutes, the first agent came back, gave Sweetie her license and said we were good to go. He also said that he'd studied about the Jay Treaty in Border Patrol school, but had never run into anyone it applied to. Hmmmmmmmmmm, something was going on, I think, but no idea what had them so skittish. Coming back, in Lordsburg, NM, I stopped for gas at a little station next to the interstate. Their credit card machines on the pumps were all inoperable (and covered over) on all the pumps. There was a sign that said credit cards were accepted inside. I went inside, paid cash, got my gas and as I was waiting for my change, I heard the cashier tell a guy that the station was closing. He asked why and she said she didn't know. He was a local and noted that business there always seemed to be really good. Cashier said yep. It wasn't the nicest station at the little town, but it was ok. Also, there were 2 restaurants across the street that were closed. Maybe the economy isn't quite as good as being reported?? Then we stopped in El Paso, I let Sweetie out at the Outlet Mall, and went to get gas. First station is one I usually stop at. There was a bit on Food Network about the sandwiches there.....world class, I can guarantee!.....and the gas prices were reasonable. This time, the gas pumps were shut down and the place was for lease. Hmmmmm. OK, so I went across the interstate to the Shell station we used when we were going out 4 days ago. Well, it seems all of their pumps had a yellow cover on the handles that said "Out of Order". Now THAT seemed rather strange. No gas at a Shell station on the interstate in the summertime tourist season?? Hmmmmm. Anywho, our last Border Patrol check station on the way back home, just east of El Paso, went a bit smoother, but they requested that I roll down the back window so they could take a peek. Also, they asked where we were going and where we were coming from and when I said we'd been doing some gold prospecting in the boonies outside Tucson, the agent remarked "Oh, so that's where you got all the dust on your truck." and gave a little sigh of relief. Wow, wonder where he thought it got dusty and what I was doing when it got dusty? And yes, the agents seemed to be a bit more alert than usual. I'm not gonna draw any conclusions from these events, just giving a short report. Kajun[/FONT]
My wife ran into that checkpoint when we where traveling to my duty station in Az and it was funny that guy could not understand how we could both have dual citizenship and me beening in the US Military at the time .He called his boss over to him and hushed tones he was telling his boss that my wife had both US driver's lics and a Irish passport along with a US Military Dependents id card also as proof of beening in the country legaly . My wife who had been driving the vehicle when we pulled up to the checkpoint and her unmistakeable irish laced voice got us stoped His boss had to come over to him and explain to him that because of me marrying my wife who was from Ireland i could have dual citizenship with the country and allowed to have both American and Irish passports with me and be in the military at the same time. His boss give us back our id cards and passports and told us to have a safe trip to Az .He was laughing because of us driving a little pinto hatchback with a small 4.ft trailer loaded with all our stuff that was loaded into the car . This little red book got us stoped at the checkpoint
