I crossed the Canadian border at Sault Ste Marie on Saturday just after 5 pm. There was no traffic on the bridge itself heading into Canada, and I only passed a car and a semi heading to the States. The inspection station had two bays open, one occupied by a semi truck and one with a van that pulled out right when I passed the bridge abutment. There was a handwritten sign at the "proceed when bay is clear" sign stating masks required beyond this point.
The border agent was super friendly as well. I had a few more questions than some others have relayed-my 78-year-old dad is at the cabin, so he's a "vulnerable person" in Canadian parlance. That said, I had a letter from him stating he was fine with me being there and a copy of his vax card which seemed to answer all the questions. Also funny was that I was wearing my sunglasses and a mask, and she asked me to remove my glasses and not my mask to check my identity versus my passport.
What was
NOT smooth was getting my negative COVID test results. I took a COVID PCR test around 4:30 pm Wednesday at my local Walgreens in Westminster, Colorado. The websites of both labs that Walgreens uses to process the tests at that time stated there was about a 24 turnaround after receipt. Walgreens told me they were overnighting the shipment. In my mind, I'd receive the test results well within the required 72 hour timeframe. Friday night comes around after a long day of driving, and I'm staying in Menominee, Wisconsin just off I-94. The lab still "hadn't received" my test results. In fact, they were not "received" until Sunday per the website, and, as of noon Mountain time today, I still have not received the email with the test results.
I did some googling and found some same-day PCR tests for traveling. The only one in the Sault was open weekdays only and it was a Saturday. There was one at the Minneapolis airport, but I would have had to wait until 4:30 pm Central to get my results. And then I found
Welltopia in Thiensville, Wisconsin. They had $199 appointments starting at 9:25 am. Waze said I'd be there about 9:10 so I booked the appointment. I took WI 29 east to I-39/US 51 South to US 10 east to US 45 south to I/US 41 south almost to Milwaukee and cut across WI 167 over to Thiensville. It was a quick appointment at this mom and pop pharmacy with friendly staff-the lady even played with my dog while I was filling out paperwork-and we were back on the road around 10 am central time, taking I-43 north back to US 41 where I resumed my normal routing. I had my negative results emailed to me in just over an hour. All-in-all, it cost me a total of 200 miles and 4 hours including stops, and I was able to cross the border that day and get to the cottage around dusk.