He’s packed his bags, bought his ticket and gone through customs. The American custom officials were apparently skeptical about why a donkey needed to travel 1st class, but his ticket was legitimate and after a rather lengthy search, the only thing they confiscated was some grass stuck to the bottom of Basil’s hooves (you can’t bring plants into the US that easily, ya know.)

Basil called me from the Trudeau Airport in Montreal to let me know that he’d drawn quite a crowd of people interested in what he was doing. Actually, it sounds like people wanted to know if they’d be stuck sitting next to him or not…luckily it sounds like the plane isn’t quite full so no one will have to deal with Basil in such close quarters.

His ticket was with Air Canada, one of the only air carriers in Canada (the other major one is Westjet.) It was overpriced (surprise, surprise) costing $641 to get him to Hartford, Connecticut (from where he’ll rent a car to get to Stamford.) Amazingly, it’s still cheaper to fly into the US than it is to a number of locations in Vancouver (but that’s just me grumbling, Basil couldn’t care less.)

Basil’s off to visit Starbucker the first person on the list. He’ll be in Connecticut for a couple of weeks after which Starbucker will send him along to Chicago to visit with Liz Strauss. Normally, Basil would only stay in one location for a week at a time, but he’ll be awaiting the arrival of the Fawlty Towers DVD Collection which I just purchased at Amazon. Basil just couldn’t wait to hit the road though…

Starbucker: Basil’s fairly easy going, but make sure you take him out for nice long walks. Oh, and stay away from Margaritas (don’t ask.)

And enjoy the Fawlty Towers DVD Collection! Starbucker’s the first person on the list, and who knows where things will go from here!