What We Do For Love

Merika · 03-10-2005, 08:55 AM

Man caught cold in quest for love

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A Los Angeles man who sneaked into Canada in February to see his Internet girlfriend will be deported -- minus all his fingers and some of his toes, the Winnipeg Sun newspaper has reported.

Charles Gonsoulin, 41, will have the fingers and toes amputated because of severe frostbite suffered during a 100-hour trek from Pembina, North Dakota, across the border to Emerson, Manitoba, where he was found wandering on a golf course on February 23, suffering from hypothermia.

"It is better to have loved and to have lost than never to have loved at all," the Sun quoted Gonsoulin as saying. "It was all worth it for me. It's the difference between sitting around dreaming about things and going out and getting them."

Gonsoulin and the Canadian woman met in an Internet chat room in 2002. The woman lives in Quebec, Gonsoulin's lawyer, Mike Cook, told a court hearing. Quebec is about 2,500 kilometres (1,600 miles) east of Manitoba.

Gonsoulin could not enter Canada legally because he was convicted of robbing a Pizza Hut in Arkansas in 1984, the newspaper said.

His girlfriend could not afford to travel to Los Angeles, he told the Sun. So he took a bus to North Dakota where he crossed the border.

"Mr. Gonsoulin didn't really know that there was any place on Earth that could be so cold and so inhospitable," Cook told a court hearing on Monday, adding his client had never felt temperatures colder than 10 degrees Celsius (50 F).

Temperatures dipped below -26 C (-15 F) during his long hike.

Gonsoulin is receiving medical treatment in a Winnipeg jail. He still has not met his girlfriend face-to-face but they have spoken on the phone and Gonsoulin said they are still in love.

No deportation date has yet been set.

Duke · 03-10-2005, 01:37 PM

I'm not sure if that's a happy story or a sad one.

Star · 03-10-2005, 02:59 PM

I find that to be a sad love story. I'm wondering why the guy couldn't buy a return plane ticket for the girl he loves so she can visit him where he lives.

He had a lot more walking to do to get to quebec! wow!! :?

twinkle · 03-10-2005, 03:04 PM

It sure is a pretty dumb one. He could at least do a bit of a research as to what the weather is like if he felt like adventuring into the unknown...

Merika · 03-10-2005, 04:24 PM

Well....he WAS from California!

Home of the

Star · 03-10-2005, 04:27 PM

that was a really really long trip for him if he was going to quebec. that's like on the oposite side of the country! Only in california LOL

twinkle · 03-10-2005, 05:55 PM

Gooooood, losing all your fingers over it, that's a high price to pay for being such an... well, ignorant

. I remember some of AISEC stories here - some foreign students had to arrive at Bucharest, the capital of Romania. The only problem was they took tickets to Budapest (they thought Budapest was the capital of Romania)... So they called from Ungaria asking us to pick them up :roll: !!!

I don't remember their nationality... but there are stuff like... MAPS!!! Jeez!

Vautrin · 03-10-2005, 07:21 PM

If my brother were Californian, and 41 years old, I would know what he had been up to in the last days. His geographic "genius" is equalled by no one. At least I thought it was. Now, he may have found his match,

Duke · 03-10-2005, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by star_64

I find that to be a sad love story. I'm wondering why the guy couldn't buy a return plane ticket for the girl he loves so she can visit him where he lives.

He had a lot more walking to do to get to quebec! wow!! :?

I was wondering the same thing, or at least meet her at the US side of the border. Something tells me he was broke too if he had to do all that walking.

Star · 03-10-2005, 07:51 PM

I thought that too. the guy must have been really broke to want to walk across the country! Wonder if she's still interested in him now? Wonder if she thinks like we do; that he must be broke? She couldn't afford to go there either so I guess they can be in love and broke together. :?

Duke · 03-11-2005, 02:54 AM

Didn't the story say that their still very much in love or did I imagine that?

Merika · 03-11-2005, 09:45 AM

You are right Duke....that's what he said.

I also thought the 'robbing Pizza Hut' also signified he's not the brightest crayon in the box. Had he robbed a bank....he could afford a dang plane ticket!

Duke · 03-11-2005, 11:28 AM

I ordered a Pizza from Pizza Hut once, bad mistake because there pizza sux, but when I got there to pick it up they had just been robbed. Why would anyone rob a pizza place?

Merika · 03-11-2005, 12:13 PM

Maybe they are confused as to what 'dough' means! HAHA!