The 'Great' Chair

This one is for Christine...who requested a post about 'the chair'...

Okay...really its not so great...but it has caused us a lot of hassle.  Mike's brother was ordering a load of furniture from Great Falls...due to a huge price difference across the border.  We had found an office chair at the same company and figured we would order it and hopefully have it picked up at the same time.  We ordered back in October. Well December came and their order was in...our chair, unfortunately, was not.  So they left to pick up their beautiful furniture and we waited.  Finally, the chair was in...but it was damaged so they had to reorder it.  We got a call just after James was born...the chair was in and not damaged...so we could pick it up. Well, bad timing to say the least.  But all was not lost...there was another order from Calgary and they were willing to bring it up.  Perfect. Well they got to Great Falls and couldnt squeeze the chair in ...so we were stuck once again.  Well, May arrived and still no chair.  I picked up the calendar and realized there was a day that would work. So with a little planning I arranged to pick it up and have a little girl time too.  So Christy, Marissa, James and I left for Great Falls.  It was a fun little getaway and we picked up the chair and a few other fun items..thanks to Target. All went so smoothly...until we reached Shelby.  Now apparently cross border shopping has picked up significantly due to the dollar at par.  So we heard rumors of 3 + hour waits to get back across. Christy's dad suggested that we take a smaller border crossing in Del Bonita.  So to Del Bonita we went. We were so thrilled...no cars on the road at all. Just us...with this grand idea of crossing at Del Bonita.  At first siting of the border crossing...we hooted and hollared as their was NO ONE...not ONE CAR at the border!  We patted ourselves on the back for saving ourselves a 3 hour wait.  That was until we saw the gate and the HUGE stop sign blocking our path.  Yes, the gate was closed! It had closed at 6pm and our clock said 645pm.  Dang.  Not only that...but in 10 days the summer hours began and the border would then be open from 9-9pm.  Dang again.  So we then headed to Carway rather than head back to Coutts border for a 3 hour wait.  This proved to be the right decision as there were no cars at this crossing either, it was OPEN and inside we found out the wait at Coutts had been 3+ hours all day!  So all  in all we 'think' we did save time and we got to see a lot of Montana.  A fun trip and a lesson learned....check border times!!