By Felicia A. Petro

Allied News Staff Writer



Grove City is a household name in the country just above us.

I learned this when traveling to Canada last week for a conference to a quaint, lakeside town in Ontario about 330 miles from here.

Although I never heard of Orillia, Orillians had heard of us.

It was ironic, since my Pennsylvania license plate stood out in the sea of Ontario ones at places like Walmart or Tim Hortons – which, by the way, is similar to our Dunkin’ Donuts but is more wildly popular.

Every Orillian had a sincere interest in why my friend, Bridget, and I had traveled that far into the “great white north” for vacation. In fact, people at the conference were outright blessed by it, calling us “the Pennsylvanians.”

We loved the attention, since Americans are typically, well, not as enthusiastic about such things.

We were equally surprised to learn that mentioning our hometown would provoke more conversation: “Oh, yeah, the outlet mall,” was the usual enthusiastic response.

Everyone we met had either shopped at Prime Outlets at Grove City or stopped to lodge at a hotel in Springfield Township, the home of the outlets.

It was kind of odd to us, since Bridget and I agreed that we rarely go to the mall. But we started making a point of mentioning that we were from Grove City, nonetheless, to shamelessly help ourselves feel even more special.

It made us Grove City people feel like the Orillians knew us – even though we had never heard of Orillia before.

The Canadians also liked traveling to America.

They not only shop here – consider clothing is not taxed here, but is taxed 13 percent there – they enjoy visiting closer cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland and New York, and sunnier states like Florida.

Hey, if I was that much closer to the north pole, I’d want to come further south, too.

Talking about the differences between our sister countries seemed to be a favorite topic of our northern friends, however.

Their knowledge about the U.S. was quite frankly more than our knowledge about Canada – or any country, I imagine – and they knew it.

They told us they knew it, and weren’t afraid to give some of their lively opinions on it, either. Some Americans may have been put off by this, but I liked their friendly candor.

In return, they had a genuine interest when we updated (or even corrected) them on U.S. topics and wanted to know what we thought about hot issues in Canada like their “free” health care system. In all honesty, it doesn’t seem very free to me, considering they pay out the wazoo for other things.

Imagine 95 cents for gas. That’s 95 cents times 4.5, since they go by liters, not gallons. Ouch.

And we thought we had it bad last summer. The 6 cents extra we exchanged in Canadian money for every U.S. dollar hardly dented our budget. I kept one of their colorful $5 bills just as a souvenir. I mean, it’s only worth $4.68 here.

A couple we met said they hold onto our dollars for when they return to the U.S. We talked to Harry and June about these important issues at length in the Orillia Bakery.

We also found Orillians to be very generous. Our trip was more affordable due to conference-goers who put us up in their homes for free. We had planned on camping to save money, but the weather was cold and/or rainy.

In fact, it snowed a bit on Sunday in Orillia; those dense, beanie-size snowballs. Imagine us waking up with those resting on our tent.

It was much more pleasant lodging with locals, whose company we enjoyed with tea biscuits, coffee and conversation.

The Orillians genuinely asked things about us, talked about their views, and let both sides flow freely without the fear of misinterpretation.

I’m sure Canadians have their own social quirks as Americans do, but their balance between being nice and expressing their ideas was refreshing to Bridget and me.

Perhaps all those sub-degree temperatures make them a little more thick skinned, eh?

Ontario was once my home for three months – at the ripe old age of 20 when I hadn’t accumulated so many of these observations about life.

I was enrolled in a missions course at a small campus in Cambridge, which is over two hours south of Orillia. I last visited it 12 years ago, and it had sadly been abandoned and vandalized.

I wanted to see it again, and took a detour to Cambridge on my way to the conference. Like so many towns here, the downtown had deteriorated but the outskirts had burst with development.

Our campus was made up of a handful of brick buildings originally used as a girls’ school. When I finally managed to find it again, it was surprisingly replaced with over 200 condominiums. Almost all the green was gone.

It was a strange but fitting sight. Bridget, a motherly figure to me in her 60s, said that sometimes we try to go back, but often we can’t. It was so true.

In an instant, my old memories changed. It was like saying good-bye and hello simultaneously. I told Bridget that all the prayers of the youths who lived there must have been put in reserve to help the campus eventually come to life again.

Ironically, something old helped me find the location.

On the same corner was the same Tim Hortons I knew 20 years ago. Probably a dozen have sprung up since, but it was novel to me then – and apparently still is.

I kept calling it “Tom” Hortons, like I did at 20 when I used to mix it up with the name of a friend called Tom on campus.

So you see, even as God makes all things new, he gives us recognizable signs to help us find our way. I was energized to see the town’s first Tim Hortons still going strong, as well as the campus coming back to life again.

It all seemed to speak to me that I had evolved into something new as well – or was about to.

So I took a few pictures, and as a memorial we stopped to see “Tom” for some baked goods and coffee before saying good-bye to Cambridge.

I sensed that I would probably never visit there again. I no longer needed to.

Waiting for us in Orillia was an incredible time. Our trip was inspiring and we made loads of new friends – whom we hope to see again.

Bridget made sure to tell everyone we met to take that extra 4 miles from the outlets to see us – and what our quaint Grove City has to offer.

The Orillians definitely sold us, and we certainly hope to return the hospitality.



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New passport regulations cause run for border



If Bridget and I didn’t make a run for the border on May 31, we may have become illegal Canadian aliens.

After years of prepping Americans, the fateful day has finally arrived.

By June 1, passports were required to return to the U.S. by land and sea. Passports had already been required for air travel since 2007.

Canada has generally been more lenient in letting Americans in, but it also promises to stick to the passport mandate as of June 1.

Was it divine intervention or sheer coincidence, then, that Bridget and I went to a conference in Orillia, Ontario, that ended just one day before the June 1 deadline?

I believe it was the former, since we didn’t know of the June 1 mandate until a few days before we left Grove City. Plus, our trip was an inspiration from start to finish – and then some.

We stayed to the end of the conference, but had to leave Orillia by 7:45 p.m. May 31 to make it back into the U.S. with only a driver’s license and birth certificate.

Including a stop to eat, we drove across Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls into the U.S. around 11:15 p.m. – 45 minutes before we turned into pumpkins.

Canadian alien pumpkins.

At first it seemed as if it would have been better to avoid late-night driving, and travel on June 1 – but our adventure later proved differently.

However, Bridget thought our country would be lenient if we stayed a little past deadline. I personally didn’t want to find out.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a warning on its Web site: “If you think you’re going to get in with a friendly face after May 31, think again. We are so not joking about this passport thing.”

Or something like that.

To me, it all spelled d-e-t-a-i-n-m-e-n-t, and I didn’t think I was up for that much of an adventure.

A Canadian border agent didn’t help when we first left the U.S.

He warned us that the U.S. “wouldn’t let you back in” if we didn’t make it by June 1, then let us into Canada without even checking our drivers’ licenses.

On the way back, the U.S. border agent asked for both a driver’s license and birth certificate. But that won’t be enough now.

There are other government-issued identifications that can be used in getting back into the U.S. from Canada – as well as Mexico, Bermuda and parts of the Caribbean.

They include passport cards – enhanced driver’s licenses or “trusted traveler” cards for land and sea travel. Youngsters and certain cruises are exempt from having the IDs.

Those may be less money, but they are limited. Having a passport will ensure that, for the next 10 years, you’ll have many more borders to choose from.



Learn more about passports and other acceptable border-crossing IDs at www.dhs.gov/xtrvlsec/crossing borders.