Waiting for the President

Monday night, driving home from my writing workshop in Arlington, I came back into the District over the Memorial Bridge and headed west on Independence. This is a beautiful avenue along the south side of the National Mall. I was listening to the Gov. of Kansas give the Democratic response to the President's State of the Union address, not so sorry that I had missed the actual speech. She finished, the pundits started chattering, and I came to a stop at a red light near 15th, close to the Washington Monument, south of the White House.

The light turned green. We didn't move. Then I saw the flashing lights of a police car up ahead. They were blocking the intersection; the avenue was closed. And then I put it all together; we were waiting for the President.

It didn't take long - 10 minutes. At 10:44, the procession started. A helicopter flew overhead, its searchlight prowling the streets below. Then two dozen motorcycle cops, followed by 21 (I counted) vehicles. All were black SUVs except the two emergency medical vehicles and a couple of limos.

When our newly released line of traffic headed once again down Independence, I turned north on 7th to head home, crossing the Mall by the National Gallery of Art. But once again forward progress got blocked. At Constitution, a line of police cars with flashing lights got priority at the intersection. They were leading three now-empty motor coach buses away from the Capitol to the east. Who got one-way rides to the speech, I wondered.

The next intersection was Pennsylvania. We almost made it through except for eight helmeted police officers on bicycles riding two-by-two up the avenue. It looked like they had the best transport of all.

I'm usually terribly impatient when stuck in traffic; I hate the trapped feeling I get. I tend to start searching for a side road I can turn onto, even if it means driving on the median or across a lawn. But knowing that my minor delays that night were due to an historic moment, one that I was even listening to, made it bearable, even interesting.