A Half Assed Alcoholic's Guide to Invading Canada

by, Ren

You know where Canada is, right? It's that giant wasteland north of Montana where they try to pass curling off as a sport and ham as some sort of exotic bacon. Yeah, that maple leaf flag place with pictures of the Queen on their money. It also happens to be where Roode is from. Yuppers, Roode is Canuckian. We all knew there was something wrong with him. I mean other than the whole rage-a-holic who sneaks into the women's bathroom categorizing cartoon women he would lay watercolor pipe to thing.

The janitorial version of hockey, I guess. Next, the sawdust on puke competition.

Before some pug nuts accuses me of being anti-Canada and writing hate speech, let me set everyone straight. I like Canada. I've visited often. Some of my best friends hail from the Great White North. In fact, I love how some of Canada's citizens celebrate their patriotism.


I'm an alcohol enthusiast. I dare say I can give Tresckow a run for his money; which is to say drink his Eliza Dushku obsessed ass under the table. Sure, he drinks a bottle of bourbon while watching Hell's Kitchen. That's kid stuff. My people refer to whiskey as "water." You got it, my family is right off the potato boat. My Irish ancestors invented the bar fight, alcohol poisoning, and booze fueled domestic abuse. In short, Momma can drink like a champ. So, why not exercise my drinking muscles once in a while? Hey, I drink responsibly. I always cut myself off when I lose consciousness.

No, this isn't me. I don't drink shitty beer and I'm a fuckload cuter.

Not too long ago, my merry little band decided to go bar hopping. It's the tried and true tradition of crashing a bar, drinking to the point of arguing with one of the bar stools, then moving on to the next pub before the cops arrive. It's never a good idea to wing your itinerary. To hedge your bets, you really should plot out your drunken flight path with Google maps. It just helps avoid the inevitable geographical catastrophe. What about your cell phone's GPS? Forget it. You can barely dial drunk, let alone operate any application that requires more than just yelling at the phone.

And this is just using the key word "bars."

Fridays bring out the worst in drunks. Especially if that drunk is a booze swilling, obscenity spouting, potato farming Mick. Hey, I can say that shit. I'm Irish. Not just Irish, but NORTHERN Irish. It's not a racial slur if you're talking about your own people. Your own smashed, whiskey gulping, fighting mad drunk people. Éirinn go Brách! Póg mo thóin!

We're not exactly in the cradle of civilization over here. It's an arctic tundra during the fall, winter, and spring and a sadistic Easy Bake Oven in the summer. As with most of this part of the country, civilization is completely spread out. If what you want isn't located in the town you're in, you're pretty much shit out of luck. You're going to have to sit there and live without a Snuggie. If you can call that living. Or, you can suck it up and drive the two hours to the next town with a fully operational Bed Bath and Beyond.

Yes, I know this is just a backwards, terry cloth version of a Jedi's robe
and it just might be the most retarded "As Seen On TV" product known to man.
Don't ask a girl to explain. I just fucking want one!

A good, hardcore pub crawl in this area is only for the dedicated. I can completely use up all the bars worth going to in one city with ease. It'll take your professional bar hopper no time to vanquish the worthwhile watering holes. Where do you go from there? You take your wasted show on the road. That's precisely what we did.

Take that shit on the road!

Someone had the brilliant idea to just "head north." Why not? Like I said, everything in this God forsaken state is a hundred miles away from everything else. Bars (the acceptable ones, anyway) tend to cluster in decent sized towns and cities. I've learned to keep the fuck out of back road shit holes with a flickering sign that simply reads "BAR." I'm way too girlie, have too many teeth, and 200 pounds too light for syphilis rampant road houses.

Sorry, dude. Still no deal.

The only one of us not investing in a future case of Sclerosis of the Liver was the designated driver. That poor son-of-a-bitch had to drive our belligerent alcohol soaked asses from bar to bar. Before you start feeling too sorry for him, take this into consideration: 1) He's one of those Canadian people, 2) he got to watch a couple of the girls play a drunken game of "make out and giggle," and 3) I'm pretty sure I let him cop a feel a few times. That last part is a little hazy.

Bar by bar we worked our way North, hitting a string of towns and the only "city" in that area, Great Falls. Being nice and liquored up, it was decided that the trek North shall continue! Hey, our DD knows a pretty awesome bar a little further North. We totally should go! Fuck yeah! NORTH! BAR! GO!

Point that arrow thingy to N and move out!

This is when it all gets a little muddy. I remember a strip club that had some pretty rock'n wings. I want to say one of the girls ended up dry humping the stripper pole on stage (Jesus, I hope it wasn't me). Someone brought a monkey, because the monkey knocked over the drink cart. What I clearly remember is our DD getting obliterated on shots of grain and Captain Morgan. Alright, whatever. So we'll have to find a place to crash and sleep it off. After kindly turning down an offer for shelter from a nice man in a trench coat and sunglasses, we all decided to get a hotel room, collapse, and each engage in our own, personal vomiting ritual.

Post a sign all you want, society. I'm still going to do the technicolor yawn in your bushes.

As pleasant as it may be to pack 5 people who smell like stale alcohol, vomit, and vanilla cupcakes (that one has me baffled), the first thing you want to do when you rejoin the world of the living is get the holy fuck out of that room and get some fresh air. Okay, I did take a few quick seconds to take a a couple cell pics of the rest of my party in strange, passed out positions. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?

Having no recollection of where we were, what hotel we were in, or why my underwear was now blue instead of green (I could have sworn I put on green undies before this whole thing began), I stumbled out of the building. Thank God. Finally, somewhere that doesn't smell like a bus station in Belfast. Sun? WTF? Oh yea, I have a hangover. I scanned the area looking for someplace to get a few dozen cups of black coffee and more whiskey (hair of the dog and all). My poor eyes were just slits. They hated the sun too.

The sun is such a dick when you have a soul crushing hangover.

I started walking around looking for a combination Starbucks-liquor store. Hey. There sure are a lot of cars with Canadian license plates. Damn Canucks, always coming to this state, eating our food, breathing our air... Damn, Alberta? Most of the tags were from Alberta. What, is there some sort of Albertian invasion of Montana? Dude, take it.

I noticed something else that seemed strange to me. The speed limits in this town are absurdly high.

Holy vehicular homicide, Batman!

Oh, wait. The sign continues. Hmm, there is more writing under the numbers. Shit, I hate lowering my head. My eyeballs hurt. My neck hurts. If it was important it would be in my line of sight. Holding my chin with my hand, I slowly lower my entire head, using the least amount of neck power possible. I have no doubt that I looked like a little blonde mental case. This shit better be worth it.


KM/H? Canadian car tags? Alberta? The smell of cooked ham on pizza? Did I hear someone say "Aboot?" Aboot? Eh? Alright, let me do the math. Ugh, my head. No. Concentrate. Whose thong is this in my pocket? STOP! THINK. KM/H. Canadian tags. "Aboot." This all sounds familiar. God, I want a slice of pizza. Maybe one with Canadian bac..... FUCK! It can't be! How the shit did this happen.

I thought the US flag looked strange. It's all maple leafy...

We went North, alright. The damn hoser DD did know of a kick ass place to party. He just left out the part about crossing international borders. Canada? The four of us from a country that's had a flag for more then 50 years were a might concerned. Not so much about Canada; I mean who's concerned about Canada? It was more about re-entering the United States and dealing with border security, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the fun time guys in Homeland Security. Did I mention none of us had our passports? I should have mentioned that none of us had our passports. Who the fuck takes their passport along when going on a bar crawl? Apparently, I should have. Come on. We managed to get into Canada without papers. Five sloppy drunks drove over the border without so much of a "Hey there,hi there, ho there, Eh." How hard will it be to slip back over?

shit.

Canada is the roach motel of North American countries. I'm not comparing the nation to a poisonous roach infested trap, so don't get your panties in a bunch, Canada. It's more like Americans can enter, but they can't leave sort of thing. Obviously, no one gives a flying fuck who enters Canada. But, when you want to turn around and drive the other way, there's a problem. You see, the US is all bent out of shape about terrorism and terrorists sneaking past the border from Canada and doing harm unto us. Hey, that's a legitimate concern. The problem is that its nye im-fucking-possible to secure a 3,142 mile long border. In the good old days, if you lived close enough, you could pop into Canada and back, no questions asked. Today, fuck you! You're a terrorist until we can prove otherwise. I sure as shit fit the profile being 5' 2" 100 pounds, pale, and blonde. I'm part of the little known Al Qaeda cell made up completely of angry Mick leftovers from the PIRA (IRA to you slaves of movie pop culture).

But, when the Irish found out that whiskey and Guinness were forbidden by religious law, they promptly gave everyone the finger and went to the nearest pub.

After the last of us came to, we decided to make a break for it. Our Canadian DD couldn't remember exactly how we came in. It seemed like every secondary road was blocked from the Alberta side. Awesome! They're just waving people through! We might just pull this off!

Fuck.

Before I knew it, a couple of officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police knocked on our window. Our ship was sunk. We were caught. Maybe it was because the car reeked of vomit and Irish Car Bombs. Maybe it was because I said the phrase "Irish Car Bombs." Whatever it was, the Horsemen nabbed us and impounded the car. Why? Fucking racial profiling, man!
Once again, four out of the five of our little posse came from the States. Out of that four, exactly ZERO could provide any sort of paper work to the RCMP, let alone US border patrol. Our state drivers licenses were useless. My attempt to seduce my way out of Canadian custody fell flat. Great. Now I have self esteem issues to boot. Fucking Mounties.

For the record, we were "detained" not arrested. There's a mile of difference. Being arrested involves jail and a cavity search. Being detained entails a lot of retarded questioning, bad coffee, and constantly reaffirming that when you said "Irish Car Bomb" you meant the damn drink.

Don't you Sasquatches mix drinks?

It was a chicken and the egg routine. In order to get past the border, we needed our passports. In order to get our passports, we needed to get past the border. Our options were:

1. Have someone mail them to us while we wait in Calgary, in custody.
2. Get shipped to the US Embassy in Ottawa.
3. Have someone drive to the border checkpoint and bring them to us.
4. Undertake a Steve McQueen type "Great Escape."

We didn't have enough shovels or Charles Bronson to complete number 4. Number 1 and 2 would just take us deeper into Canada; the OPPOSITE direction we needed to go. Not to mention staying longer than humanly possible. Number 3 seemed the most possible. I knew precisely who to recruit. My big brother! That's it! He lives where this whole carnival of dipshittery began. That was only a mere... 1... 2... 4... 6 hours away! That's practically down the road.

After some convincing, pleading, and threatening to tell everyone that he secretly watches iCarly when no one's around (oops), he reluctantly agreed. It took him over an hour to locate and secure all four of the needed passports. A friend of his tagged along for the ride to watch the hilarity ensue. Joke's on that asshole. He doesn't have a passport, so the border patrol made him wait on the US side while my brother drove through. HA!

I was free! Even though, I'm damn sure I was entered in some sort of Albertian-Canadian-Canuckian watch list.

I'm sorry, Ms. Ren. You appear to be a person of interest...

I suppose I should be grateful that it was the RCMP that kicked up a fuss and not Homeland Security. I'm not sure I could take a stint in Gitmo. I guess I should be grateful that my brother made a 12 hour round trip to bail his little sister out of an international bind. But, dude, some of those strippers at the club were HOT!