Attention! Use this as a learning lesson!

[CritterGetter]

On my way! Got flight 10 hours earlier and hopefully will be in camp tonight!

 

[Mikeha33]

Good luck and shoot straight!!!
I had a similar experience a few years ago. My wife (fiance at the time) were going to Cancun for her college graduation gift at the end of may, in 2007. I had planned the trip in November, and early December 2006 I applied for my passport. Fast forward 5 3/4 months to the end of May 2007, still had no Passport, and wa leaving for Cancun early on a Sunday morning. SO Thursday night 3 days before our trip, I was freaking out, could not get any answer from anybody other than "it's being processed". SO I jumped on a red eye flight to Houston at 3:05 am, landed in H-Town at 6ish Friday am, and took a taxi to the Federal building downtown to get my passport. When I got to the building around 7am, the line was literally all the way around the block, 500+ people in front of me. I sat in line all day, and finally at 6:45 pm, 11 hours later, a man got on a megaphone, and said " If you do not have proof that you are travelling in the next 72 hours, I'm sorry we cannot help you." A mini riot began. There were probably 25 police and security guards pushing people, arresting people, and even had to pepper spray one large, very upset (understandably so) man. Fortunately I had brought my itinerary, and they let me and about 75 other people in. I finally got a temporary paper passport about 10:00 that night. It was horrible. People peeing in the landscaping in downtown Houston, 95*, mothers with babies that ran out of diapers by early afternoon, fights, and worst of all, they sent well over 400 people packing after being in line all day. Never again will I go without having a current passport. It cost me $600 for a last minute ticket, missed my return flight to KS, $130 for a hotel in Houston, and a trip to and from Tulsa (the nearest airport to me, 2 hours each way) and worst of all, I missed my fiance's Saturday morning college graduation because of the whole ordeal.

 

[2ski]

Air you need a passport both ways
Ground you don't need one to get into canada, but you do need one to return to the US. Highest form of I'd you can possess, worth having.

Tip to the op - go I to outlook and pit a reminder in 6 months before it expires...

Set it for more that 6 months. I know a guy that was supposed to go to Europe for a conference he was presenting at. He went to the Bozeman airport to fly out and was told he would not be able to get into Europe as his passport was 5 months from expiring. This was a European Union thing. So that you couldn't come into Europe and then have your passport expire while there and be unable to get back. I'm not 100% on the how many months it was from expiring, but I know it was within 6 months, so people might set the reminder for a year out. Just to make sure it gets taken care of and you don't run into something like that.