In order to prepare for our US entry – after 34 months out of the country – I went through our medical bag checking to see if we have anything to declare. As expected, I found nothing, but we do have hypodermic needles in the bags. When we began this journey in Iceland on 1 January 1999, we set off with clean needles, so we would have them available anywhere in the world. Today, we decided to get rid of them, as we want no problems entering the US border. Imagine someone saying we are drug users, even though they are in a bag filled with bandages, Neosporin, a couple of blankets, antibiotics, etc.

Granted, the chances of the needles causing a stir are almost nil, but we just don’t want to offer any excuse for a problem. And, crossing the border at this point, while America wages a war on terrorism, will be difficult enough if everything goes perfectly. We read that five-hour delays are to be expected at Nogales border since 9-11 and security is on highest alert, searching everything coming into the country. Our car and trailer are small, but we have enough stuff to keep us there for several hours. It will be interesting if we find crossing our own country’s borders to be the most difficult of the journey! I’m expecting the check to be as thorough as our search in China and Saudi Arabia, where nothing was left unturned.

And, with the needles, we don’t want to throw them away in our hotel, since the housekeeper might call the manager, “I found needles in the Rogers’ room.” Again, the likelihood that the needles would cause a stink in a hotel trash can is near zero, yet we just don’t want to push our luck at this point, since Lady Luck has smiled so warmly on us thus far. I wanted to give the 10 needles to the Los Mochis hospital, but Jim says explaining why we have them would be too difficult. No matter that we have them purely for medical reasons, we fear someone might think otherwise. We’ll dump them in a roadside trash can tomorrow as we leave town.