Up in the trenches of Northern Minnesota, surrounded by lakes, bald eagles, and forests of white and red pine, lies Voyageur National Park. It is a wondrous environment that sits on the border of the USA and Canada. The majority of it is surrounded by water though, making a boat or tour guide a requirement to fully enjoy it.
I spent a day hiking through the areas that don’t require a boat and I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of life I saw, ranging from white tail deer, to hawks, and eagles. Especially exciting, was the fact that I found morel after morel while I was hiking. With the park being so remote, and there not being any Superchargers close, a charge will be needed if you are really wanting to explore. Sure, you could probably get there and back from the Duluth Supercharger, but it would be close and (for me) the range anxiety would be a little too much. The closest Level 2 charger is right across the border in Canada though, which brings me to my quite interesting experience.
I had scheduled a boat tour out of the visitor center near International Falls and had arrived 4 hours early so I decided to hop across the border real quick to get some energy. The way across was painless, and I quickly arrived at the level 2 charger at Le Rendezvous. It was located right next to a lake, and the scenic views provided a pleasant place to sit out and consume some chapters of my book while I waited. A little over an hour before my tour was scheduled to depart, I decided I should get on over there.
The checkpoint at the border returning into America had about five cars in front of me and I quickly reached the front of the line as each of them was waved through. As I pulled up, I handed them over my passport card, and they asked me to pull my car over to the side. Assuming I was the choice of their random deeper inspections, I smiled and complied. I excited the car and they started inquiring about my Tesla and wondering why I had only stayed over the border for an hour and had no luggage with me. I explained my blog to them, and that I had killed some time to get a charge, and then glanced back at my car and noticed that they were doing an intensely deep inspection of it. Intrigued, but not really worried, I continued to chat with the officer that had pulled me aside.
At that point, another officer asked me to follow him into an office and started to question me about marijuana. He said that he realized that it was legal in California (where I reside) and in Canada but it wasn’t in Minnesota and wanted to know if I had any on me, or any paraphernalia. Knowing that I didn’t have anything, I said no. He continued asking me about concentrates and edibles and when I continued to deny having anything, he asked me about gummies. At that point I knew what he was talking about. I had a bottle of Centrum Men’s Gummy Vitamins in my trunk that I took daily. I asked if that was what he was talking about, and he responded that he was skeptical that they were vitamins.
Well, after about an hour of going back and forth with him about it, he succumbed to the truth that all I had were, in fact, vitamins. I was able to leave at that point, but unfortunately I had missed my boat tour. I’m not bitter about this though. I know it was a combination of lot’s of things that led to the situation and the officers were just doing their jobs. The morel (see what I did there?!) of the story though is even if you think the border won’t take any time, don’t count on it!
Closest Charger: Le Rendezvous Fort Frances Ontario Ca 10 mi
1201 Idylwild Main, Fort Frances, ON P9A 3M3, Canada
Voyageurs National Park
360 Minnesota 11 East, International Falls, MN 56649
