SARANAC LAKE, New York — Back in June I wrote about getting popped – twice – in Canada. The first time was by a CN railcop in the Charny yard outside Quebec City on my way to Halifax. Second arrest was in St. Leonard, New Brunswick after my 48′ container car was flooded by a dozen dreadies just as the train pulled outta’ Halifax.

They were climbing the stacks and waving at school buses to it seemed inevitable that we’d eventually get collared. We did. CN stopped the train and RCMP cops pulled us off and dumped us about a mile from the Trans-Canada highway.

While the Quebecoise gendarmes cashed my $141CAN fine some months ago, I’d been playing phone-tag with the RCMP corporal who busted us to get a copy of the group photo he’d taken of us. He told the photo had been accidentally erased (yeah, right) but then went on to inform me that he was working on getting me my money back.

Excusez-moi?

Well, he explained in his French Acadian accent, it seemed the tickets had been written improperly. They wrote us up for a provincial crime on a federal ticket (or vice versa) and so he asked the station commander to refund my money.

Today a brown envelope arrived in my post box. As long as the Canadian post office is willing to cash the money order, I’ll soon have $100CAN and the best part is, the Canadian dollar has increased in value. So, my $100CAN money order which cost me about $93USD earlier in the summer, is now worth about $98.60USD and is increasing…

Not a bad investment, eh?

Jaco out