The article doesnt really give you a sense of what the frustration is until you look at a map. I'm surprised it's not in the article.
https://goo.gl/maps/bFfhSPPULyBTaNAYA
The map you shared doesn't give me this sense. It appears to be straight-forward in the US. From the map, I can't see why you would need to go to Canada first, to get to the rest of the US.