Traffic Jam

For a moment this afternoon I thought I was back in Los Angeles. I was heading to the airport to pick up a friend when I ran into a traffic jam. Our roads are rarely congested, especially the four lane highway to and from the airport. When I saw the funeral pass on the opposite side, I thought that was the issue. As I inched along, however, it became clear something else was holding up traffic. A checkpoint had been erected on both sides of the highway and was manned by military and police. There were a number of vehicles on my side of the highway being searched, luggage piled in heaps and people standing around, but I was waved through with barely a second glance. It did serve to stretch the 10 minute trip to the airport into a half hour, but I still arrived in plenty of time to meet the plane.