Canadians RV'ers crossing the border these days......

[Vladimir]

I was looking forward to a quiet winter at my Arizona property, with many fewer "snowbirds" particularly from Canada.

This Washington Post article indicates otherwise.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/12/15/canada-us-border-rv-snowbird/

According to the article it appears to close to HALF of Canadian snowbirds will be wintering in the states, due to a loophole in Canadian law.  Yes, I understand that the US could put a stop to this quickly, but that is not the question.  BTW...... the comment section is worth reading and a hoot!!

BUT....for those "down south".......IF I can make it through California from Washington state is Arizona going to be crowded AGAIN??

 

[Darryl&Rita]

Old news, and I doubt the numbers are anywhere near half. The rules allowing air crossing has nothing to do with Canada, as the landing is in the US. The Canadian rules only apply to Canadian airports.

[Barbaraok]

Well those Canadians aren't coming to our park in Mesa.  I can't say what will happen after Christmas, but have seen a lot of for sale signs on PMs that I know belong to Canadians. Usually they are here the middle of November since they only have a limited number of months in the states and some fly home for Christmas.  Our Canadian neighbors did rent theirs out for the winter - so there may be more of that.    I would be very surprised if that many were going to pay to have their rig hauled over the border and then pay costs of flights to join the rig.    

[Jinx & Wayne]

And we aren't seeing Canadians here in the Sebring, FL area, either.

[sandsys]

And the few RVers I know from Canada are staying put there.

Linda

[bobsallyh]

Not many but there are numerous Alberta and B. C. tagged vehicles traveling around Yuma, AZ.

[Barbaraok]

Wonder how many store vehicles during the summer versus having to drive down. Haven't seen ANY RVs with Canadian plates but a few cars that were stored, covered, for the summer.  

[Dutch_12078]

We don't head south for a few more weeks, but I do recall as we headed north last spring seeing a number of Canadian plated cars, trucks, and RV's in the storage lots in Florida and Georgia.

[LindaH]

We arrived at Pilot Knob LTVA last month and, at that time, there were about a dozen RVs here, none of which had Canadian plates.  While more RVs have shown up since (but still pretty sparse), we haven't driven around to look at license plates, so don't know if any have Canadian plates, but doubt it.  The Pilot Knob RV Park which is directly to the north of the LTVA is virtually empty and usually it's packed.

[noteven]

On 12/16/2020 at 4:52 PM, Vladimir said:

I was looking forward to a quiet winter at my Arizona property, with many fewer "snowbirds" particularly from Canada.

...

 

... "particularly from Canada"... 🤣

I don't camp with 'em either the scoundrels

 

[Bill Joyce]

One Canadian is on our campground street, since she has a trailer parked year round.  She is walking to the grocery store across the street, since she does not have a car with her. 

[Barbaraok]

1 hour ago, Bill Joyce said:

One Canadian is on our campground street, since she has a trailer parked year round.  She is walking to the grocery store across the street, since she does not have a car with her. 

And that Albertson's even has a Starbucks inside.  😎

[bobsallyh]

Barbaraok, there is some that do store a vehicle on there property or in an RV park here in the Yuma area. Two weeks ago there was a couple backing in their truck and enclosed trailer into their lot near us. Had an Ontario plate on it. I too wondered if he stored it somewhere or had it transported commercially across the border and then caught on to it somewhere. Check this out:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/snowbirds-canada-u-s-border-drive-winter-travel-covid-19-1.5810104

Edited December 19, 2020 by bobsallyh

[Jinx & Wayne]

From the 12/23/20 Tampa Bay Times and Washington Post:

BREACHING BORDERS

The land crossings are closed, but Canadian RVers are finding a loophole to winter in the U.S.

BY SHANNON MCMAHON

Washington Post

Canadian border officials announced earlier this month that the land border with the United States, which has been shuttered since March, will remain closed to nonessential travel until at least Jan. 21. The rule has barred both Canadian and American travelers from crossing since the spring, but only Americans have not been able to fly across the border.

Canadians can fly to the United States — which has a higher coronavirus case rate than Canada — at their own risk and must satisfy testing and quarantine requirements when they return home. The Canadian government has been unwilling to comment on the fly-only loophole since October, according to the CBC.

And now, with harsh winter weather returning to Canada, snowbirds who typically RV across the more temperate southwestern U.S. states during the winter months have found a way to still make the trip. Cross-border towing companies, which are considered essential businesses, can take the recreational vehicle across the border for them and meet the RVers — who fly across the border — on the other side.

“Winter in Canada — even where it’s the mildest — is rainy, cold, miserable, and it wasn’t something we wanted to do,” says Alex Kurm, 44, a longtime RVer who entered the United States with his family last month. They took a 12-minute charter flight across the border, and they retrieved their RV from a shipping company that transported it to the U.S. side.

“Our lifestyle is basically socially distant by design,” Kurm says of he and his wife’s decision to head south this year despite rising coronavirus cases in the United States. “We’ve been in an RV for four years . . . in the desert, mountains, and rural areas all the time just hiking and living in those places. So, we were not too worried.” Kurm and his wife have long home-schooled their kids, and they work remotely from the road.

The loophole has created a business opportunity for cross-border towing and shipping companies, which say inquiries for cross-border jobs have spiked. Cory and Dennis Rushinko, co-owners of British Columbia-based shipping and towing company Bayview Towing, say their U.S.bound transport is way up. Dennis, who manages all cross-border jobs, says he’s doing two to three times as many trips across the border compared with last year — as many as three to four journeys every day.

Cory Rushinko, Bayview Towing’s general manager, says the rule does not seem to promote safety. In contrast with people’s option to get in their car from home and drive across the border, he says, the current loophole requires contact with a lot more people. “Tell me how it’s okay for someone to go to the Vancouver airport, fly to Seattle and rent a car, drive up to the border and meet us, get in their car and go on their holidays,” Cory Rushinko says.

Glenn Williamson, a Canadian by birth and the creator of the Canada Arizona Business Council in Phoenix, which monitors tourism and business investments by Canadian visitors to Arizona, says his data shows the state has retained more snowbird Canadian visitors than it has short-term Canadian visitors in general.

Of the Canadian visitors Arizona usually gets, it has retained about 20 percent because of the border closure, Williamson says. But when looking only at snowbirds, a greater 40 percent have returned — thanks in part to the emergence of younger RVers, who are less at risk during the pandemic and still determined to escape Canadian winter, as they have in the past.

“When people here think of Canadian snowbirds they think of an older RV clientele, and it’s really not anymore. About 70 percent of it is Canadians coming down who are much younger, looking for a new lifestyle,” Williamson says. “When I talk to a lot of these people, (this year) you can tell that the cabin fever had really set in, and they are bound and determined one way or another to get down here.”

Another Canadian RVer, Adam McLaughlin, 36, says he and his family, which includes three home-schooled kids, decided to delay their usual RV trip to the United States this winter. But he notes that it is not because of health concerns: They will soon fly to Mexico for an extended stay until February, and they hope to travel to the United States soon after through whatever means necessary.

“Mexico is just really hurting for tourism dollars,” McLaughlin says. “For us we haven’t really had that (safety) concern because we don’t have any preexisting conditions. We’re not haphazard about COVID . . . we don’t want to get it, but we’re also not in a high-risk category if we do.”

McLaughlin is hopeful the border might reopen come spring, but he says if it doesn’t, he will hire a company to ship their RV to the states.

Canadian border officials have not signaled when the border might reopen, but they reassess the closure on a monthly basis.

Williamson of the Canada Arizona Business Council is hopeful that tourism dollars will return to Arizona soon if the United States can get coronavirus cases under control. He notes that businesses are suffering because of the absence of Canadian snowbirds, and he says that in a normal year, the state’s nearly 1 million annual snowbird visitors contribute more than $1 billion to the state’s economy.

“I don’t think we should have an absolute opening, but we should be very creative,” Williamson says. “If we can put a man or woman on the moon, I think we can figure this one out.”

 

Wayne & Jinx
2017 F-350 diesel, dually
2006 Carriage Carri-Lite 36KSQ

 

 

[Darryl&Rita]

This is venturing into political territory, a bit. All the hand wringing about the Canadian decision to close the border is purely smoke and mirrors. The Canadian government doesn't control who comes into any country, but Canada. Every news report I've seen has been quick to point to our government, and exonerate the US government. It's a mutual agreement, between multiple national governments, that are attempting to control the spread of a hard to contain virus.

[bigjim]

They had so much time time to prepare for landing on the moon. If this situation carries on more of the bugs will be worked out and better solutions will be worked out.  I just hope it doesn't go on that long.

[Pappy Yokum]

On 12/23/2020 at 9:08 AM, bigjim said:

They had so much time time to prepare for landing on the moon. If this situation carries on more of the bugs will be worked out and better solutions will be worked out.  I just hope it doesn't go on that long.

 Landings on the moon have been prohibited - unless a pardon has been granted.

Loophole:  Extra terrestrials and Canadians are exempt.

However, ETs should phone home prior to landing.  

.

 

[noteven]

Pappy - the Canadian Space Agency is a part of the next moon program as long as they meet Facebook and Instagrams Terms of Service. 

[Kirk W]

On 12/26/2020 at 12:03 PM, Pappy Yokum said:

Landings on the moon have been prohibited - unless a pardon has been granted.

I believe that restriction has been lifted as long as those who go to the moon, self quarantine there for 14 days before they go anywhere. 

[Jinx & Wayne]

13 hours ago, Kirk W said:

I believe that restriction has been lifted as long as those who go to the moon, self quarantine there for 14 days before they go anywhere. 

Don't forget the overnight parking restrictions.