It took me the rest of that day and half of the next to find the town with the bank. By that

time, I was really hungry, but I didn't want to flash any more Canadian money. I had no

wait in the bank, even though there was only one teller, he looked more like a bouncer in

the movies, in a caged in Plexiglas booth that only had a small hole to do business

through. I stepped up to the booth and waited for him to look up from his book. After half

a minute he spoke, without looking up from it.

"Can't help you if you don't speak up."

"Sorry, I was wondering if you exchange Canadian money to American."

"Yup. How much you got?"

"About six hundred dollars."

"Six hundred dollars!" he dropped his book, "Where'd a kid like you get that amount of

cash?"

"My parents. I'm heading west, figured it'd be easier to go this way than through Canada,

but I need American money first."

"Alright, let's see it." I hauled out the envelope I had my money in. we counted it and

figured I had six hundred, thirty-five dollars. I got it exchanged and ended up with one

thousand, two hundred seventy. Wow. I asked the guy if I should get my change switched

too, he told me only the one and two dollar coins, because the other coins didn't really

matter. I ended up only having five dollars in large change, so I made myself another ten

there. Before I left, the banker told me to keep my money well hidden, and to only keep

five or ten dollars on me at a time. I thanked him and left, finding a small, run down

restaurant and got myself a greasy breakfast.

~~