Once you have created a container, when you want to "open" it, you need to start VeraCrypt, click on Select File to select your container, and click on Mount to be prompted to enter your password. After that it will appear as a virtual drive on whatever letter you chose (it does not matter). It does not really matter if you create the container file on your computer or directly on your USB drive. However, if your USB drive is slow / old / low quality, you may indeed expect to wait a few hours to...