Apparently, it would be financially crippling to try and do a North American version of the event that would be self-selected to only the USians that could get it together to travel outside of their country. It was sadly enlightening.
I can believe this. A friend from the US was driving up to visit me in BC and was planning on picking up and bringing along a friend who lived in Bellingham, WA. This plan was scrapped because the friend (a woman in her 30s) didn’t have a passport and didn’t want to go through the process of getting one.
You can throw a rock and hit a border guard from Bellingham. That someone could spend 30+ years there and not once get curious enough about what might exist 20 miles from their house to get a passport boggles my mind.
