Taking a trip across town

In the old days -- for me, that means pretty much anytime before May 1st, 2005 -- picking up my sons from my former spouse's home was pretty much a breeze. Three miles and that was that. Well, it's still three miles, but that's not that, at least anymore.

Now I have to decide what route I'm going to take. Each decision point leads me to the possibility of a check-point which could turn out to be fatal.

I've given up driving Crawford Street between North and the pavilion. The Portsmouth Federal Building is still the federal presence in Portsmouth, albeit a slightly different "federal." Now the building is the Portsmouth Central Government Building, and it doesn't house the U.S. Coast Guard any more, either. And there's no post office there, of course. That wouldn't make sense: let's have a post office where no one can get to it.

The PCGB is behind layer and layer of security; it's not possible to drive within three blocks of the building, at least for us regular Joes. The PCGB is home to several agencies of the RUSA, including the Border Services Agency. I guess you could say that the Coast Guard is still housed there, since the BSA subsumed parts of the Coast Guard.

Anyway, getting back to trips to get my sons. I don't get to see them as much, now, since the trip is sometimes problematic. Today, I took the most direct route, straight down London Boulevard. Thankfully, I had to only pass through one checkpoint staffed by members of the Internal Security Force. There were no problems... getting into the neighborhood where Dianne lives, was a little more difficult. There was a neighborhood-staffed checkpoint, the sort that just folds up and disappears when the uniforms show up.