So this isn’t a VPN service, but having read your comments it might work…

When I was in Sweden recently I needed to do something online with the appearance that I was in the US. First I tried using a couple of VPN services but they were detected by the website I was trying to use and I got an “access denied” message. So my travel partner activated their Verizon TravelPass and let me hotspot off it. TravelPass gave us a regular Verizon wireless address out of California and I was able to complete my task. Unfortunately though it’s $12/day.

I do the exact same thing, except instead of paying monthly for hosting, I pay $12/year for addy.io. Super reliable service and I can easily manage my email aliases with their phone app.

Haha, they just told me in a normal voice, but obviously I had to play along if I wanted to get back into the country. The experience was a bit dramatic, like something from TV, but it wasn’t actually scary because I had nothing to hide. They also asked if I had anything in my car they should know about, so I said I had a stash of liquor and explained that I was moving and wanted to bring my booze – but they didn’t care and didn’t touch my alcohol.

I was moving from Alaska to Boston, so I had to pass through Canada. Everything I owned was crammed into my Honda Element and I was driving it solo across North America.

I re-entered the US at a border crossing in North Dakota. I pulled up to the window and without saying anything else the officer pointed at a detached garage and told me to pull into it. As I slowly pulled into the garage, there was only enough light to see the outlines of the walls. When I turned off my car, super bright lights were switched on and I saw 6-8 heavily armed border officers with bulletproof vests on either side of the car. One of them instructed me to get out of the car and give him my keys. He also took my passport and took me into a small room in the garage that had 1-way mirrors (so they could observe me and I couldn’t see out) and then he locked me inside. There was nothing inside the room except a few folding plastic chairs – nothing to read and nothing to look at, nothing aesthetically pleasing at all. I could hear them going through my car, removing my plastic totes full of shit and searching through them. After what was probably 20 minutes, they opened the door, handed me my keys and passport and told me, “You’re free to go, welcome home.”

Done! Wouldn’t have bothered voting if I hadn’t read your comment, so thanks for sharing. Voting was really easy, just had to enter my member number and zip code.

Good question, but we pay close attention to the news and hopefully we’ll get out before that’s a problem. If we’re unable to leave the country then I guess I’d contact the Swedish embassy to see if they can help.

Chile. Maybe it’s because I’m American but nobody there was interested in talking to me, sharing their culture or learning anything about me. I tried multiple times but all my interactions with Chileans were purely transactional and most of them seemed annoyed to have to deal with me. I’ve been to ~25 countries and wouldn’t bother returning to Chile.

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I’ve never understood the appeal of Target. There’s a huge Target 60 seconds down the street from me and I never shop there except to get one or two items. It’s expensive, has a ridiculously small grocery section while clothing takes up half the store, and they’re so worried about shoplifters that they have multiple security staff standing at the door giving everyone leaving the stink eye.

Not preparing at all, just living my life like normal. When things get really bad here I’ll sell my car and move to Europe with my girlfriend (I have dual citizenship and can sponsor her).

Haha yeah that’s a tough one! I’m in Colorado where Colorado potatoes are almost as ubiquitous as Idaho potatoes, so honestly lucked out there.

As an American mine is Europe/Canada > the rest of the developed world OR blue states > Mexico > other countries > red states. It’s surprisingly easy to avoid food from red states. For tech/online services I prefer European over everywhere else.

I worked at a food bank a couple years ago and we regularly received pallets of government cheese through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). They were massive blocks of orange cheddar with almost no text on the label. We also received pallets of government pistachios and dried cherries that were as good as any you’d buy in a store.