Stuck between two worlds

What do you do when you can cross the Canadian border but can’t get back into the U.S.? And your American girlfriend isn’t allowed into Canada and can’t drive back to Florida by herself? For Teuvo Nupponen it was a troubling dilemma. Staff photo/Brian Larsen

Teuvo Nupponen had an interesting dilemma. He came by the Cook County News-Herald on Thursday morning, March 19, hoping we could help him solve a problem. He was stuck between two worlds, and he needed to find a place to stay for about a week until things settled down.

The retired Thunder Bay man looked fit enough to run marathons or race long distance cross-country ski events like he did when he was younger. He had been vacationing in Venice, Florida for the past two months when, all of a sudden, Canada was advising its citizens to come home in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Because of the crisis, planes were canceled. Flights into Thunder Bay were canceled. My girlfriend, who is American, said she would drive me back to Thunder Bay and we would wait out the quarantine there at my home,” said Nupponen.

It sounded like a good plan, although the drive was about 2,000 miles long, and a plane flight would have been much preferred.

However, after driving from Venice to the Canadian border last week, they learned that while he could get into Canada, she wasn’t allowed to cross the border with him. That’s because on Wednesday, March 18 the Canadian government announced Americans were banned from coming into the country so she couldn’t get across the border. Plus, “If I got in, then I couldn’t go back into the U.S. because the U.S. had banned Canadians from entering,” he said.

The couple was stymied. Tired from an epically long drive, they were stranded in Grand Marais and looking for a temporary place to stay, hoping to see if things settled down and a sensible solution for their dilemma presented itself.

“It’s not like she can just drive back to Florida on her own,” said Teuvo. “With the hotels and motels and restaurants closed, where would she stay? Where would she find a place to eat?”

However, most short-term rentals in the county were closed, so it took some time to find options for the couple. Visit Cook County employee Carah Thomas had a line on one short-term rental. Some calls around to other businesses resulted in one more spot that would take Teuvo and his girlfriend, a retired architect and a watercolor instructor, and her small dog.

“Neither of us have the symptoms of the virus,” Teuvo said. “We are both very diligent about our hygiene, using disinfectant sprays and hand sanitizer. We spray ourselves about 50 times a day. We wash our hands often and use hand sanitizer. Here, I have a bottle of hand sanitizer in my pocket,” he added as he pulled it from his pocket to show me.

As far as leaving Florida two weeks earlier than he planned, the retired public accountant said that when New Hampshire closed its public schools, the retirement community he was staying in, “filled up with lots of children. And then there was spring break for the colleges and the area filled up with 20 something year-olds. It was kind of counterintuitive, all of the people coming to the area. And, while I like kids, being around a bunch of busy 10-year-olds in a retirement community, I don’t know what to say.”

So, when the Canadian government called him home, he was ready. Now, if he could only get back into his country with his American girlfriend, that was the dilemma. For now, the couple is stuck between two worlds, caught in the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, wondering, like the rest of us, what’s coming next?