Off to my other country again

Tomorrow I'm headed for a quick overnight trip to a little town outside Calgary, in search of more family papers. Supposedly the journal kept by the great-great-aunt in the 1890s is there, along with a couple of boxes of other relevant material. My aunt tracked it down, and connected me with this distant cousin who will be meeting me at the airport and putting me up in her home.

It's a little odd, jetting off to stay with a complete stranger, even one who is distantly related. (If I understand correctly, her great-grandparents were my great-great-grandparents, which makes us some kind of cousins but damn if I know what that's called.) She said I will recognize her at the airport because she'll be wearing a funny hat, which seems like a very good sign.

I'm rehearsing what I'm going to say at customs. I'm heading to a foreign country for one night - not even 36 hours - with nothing but a backpack. I'm visiting family - that I've never met before? Who are related to me but I can't explain exactly how? In an obscure cowboy town in Alberta? I guess I'll just say it's a research trip and hope US customs doesn't treat me to a full body search on the way home.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get some last-minute advice from a family friend who is a professional archivist. Can I take this 120-year-old journal to Kinko's? Should I be wearing gloves or something? Should I wait until it's deposited in archives (planned soon) and ask the experts to make any reproductions for me?

Anyway - it should be a bit of an adventure.