I was stopping along Rte 111 east of the Salton Sea to take a picture of the sunset. Suddenly a truck with red and blue flashers stopped behind me and a Border Patrol agent asked me what I was doing there in an aggressive tone. I answered I was taking pictures of the sunset on the Salton Sea and showed him the pictures on the backscreen of my Canon compact digital camera. He seemed perplexed and asked me from what part of Mexico did I come. When I showed him my Canadian Passport, he was totally flabbergasted. He had no idea Quebec was a part of Canada and had never heard the name "Quebec" before. As our license plates are written in French, he thought I was a Mexican as he couldn't read it. What do they learn in High School geography courses ?

[MikeNArk]

Nice sunset shot. Interesting story.

[RICHARD L.]

It seems very few people living in Eastern Canada traveled to the American Southwest by car as almost nobody I met who saw my License plate knew where Quebec was.

Regards

[ToddK]

A very nice image Richard. I really like the soft, unique look that the rising sun created with the mountain range. I guess not many of the border patrol agents get assigned to the northeastern US border. However, it is pathetic that they don't have even basic geography knowledge. I grew up reading books, looking at maps and going through our encyclopedia set. It is a shame that with the world at our fingertips on the internet, the younger generations don't take advantage of it.

[RICHARD L.]

THX !

When I was in the 5th grade, we learned the names of the 10 Canadian Provinces and of the 50 American States, plus plenty of cities and regions of North America. I remember we had an illustrated book in 1963 showing CN and Santa Fe locomotives in the 2 countries, grain combines in Saskatchewan as well as in Montana, the Grand Canyon and numerous other topics of interest. I was once stranded in Manchester, New Hampshire with a car problem in 1970. Big children, between 12 and 15, came and asked me from where I hailed. I told them "Quebec". They had never heard of it though Quebec and New Hampshire share a common border and Manchester, N.H. is only 300 miles from Quebec City. But they knew "Kansas", 2000 miles away, so I became "the guy from Kansas" ... SIGH !!


Regards

[angkymac]

Interesting shot
Yet I feel some grief over the "sad" story!
I've worked in far away geographies and have found people in the most remote areas of the world who know more than many people from my own country!
And often the attitudes I've met up with tend to match the lack of knowledge in so many cases--as you seem to have found!
A "sad story" in my book!
Glad you were able to get good images of the US Southwest to show us.
Angky.

[RICHARD L.]

I couldn't travel to the U.S. for over two years because of COVID. Now, with incessant random shooting happening everywhere and everybody carrying a gun, I'm starting to be afraid and I don't think I will ever return to the U.S. My recent health scare last winter has left me weaker and less confident in my abilities to travel vast distances all alone. Finally the soaring cost of energy doesn't help either (it would cost double my former expenses). So for the moment I will stay close to home and only "dream" about all the natural beauty of the American Southwest..


Best Regards