This is not Iowa

On my way to work today, I encountered a new phenomenon. That of the lost tourist searching for the White House tours. Following September 11, the White House became a bunker. Only recently has it reopened to tours and only under some pretty strict rules. Today, I encountered people running (literally, in circles) around the perimeter of the complex asking everyone in sight (including the members of the Uniformed Secret Service, who, while polite, were not in the business of helping lost tourists) for help.

Now, DC is not all that tourist friendly. In fact, as the National Capital, it is almost hostile. The locals do not care that you are lost - despite the fact that most of them are lost too half the time and do not know where anything beyond their locality is.

The city is not really well marked. Sure, it has grand vistas (most of which do not exist any more because of building plopped in the middle, overgrown trees that either the city or the Park Service cannot afford to cut back, security bollards or fences that screen the view, or just the general lack of signage), so getting around is sometimes a challenge. But with all those faults, if you are coming to see the White House and have to be there at 0700 in the morning, would it not make sense that you should venture out the night before and find out exactly where you were supposed to go? They were all clutching letters that said which entrance and off of which street, so it was not a mystery, but it seems that looking up at signposts seems to be beyond their skill set.

In case you are wondering, yes, I pointed them in the right direction. No there is no sign that says "White House tours this way" and I only hope they had all the ID required of them in the letter, because some of them, frankly, looked like this was their first trip to a city of any size and in DC especially, if you cannot prove who you are, well, there are some imposing people with guns that will be happy to tell you to go away.