Exploring the Border by Electric Scooter

I'm not sure if US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ever intended its ports of entry or highway checkpoints to be handicap accessible, but if they weren't before, I saw to it that they were a few months ago. I say that in jest, only because there are few places I can't reasonably wrangle my way into with my walker or electric scooter.

However, it was important on this occasion for me to have access to a few places because I was working on a feature story for Homeland Security Today magazine on CBP's canine program. A few weeks earlier, I had driven out to El Paso to visit one of the agency's two canine training facilities. On this day in early August, I was going to spend pretty much the entire day watching how CBP and US Border Patrol agents trained together with their drug dogs--in a warehouse, at the Nogales port of entry, and at the Tubac checkpoint on Interstate 19.

When I made the arrangements with the Tucson Sector Headquarters public affairs officer, I gave him  heads up that I would need to use my scooter, which comes apart into four pieces, and I would just need to ride in an SUV that had enough trunk space to fit it. Trust me, for Border Patrol, that was no problem! And thus began a long but awesome day that was typical of my first weeks here in Tucson, working to finish the last site visits and interviews for my new book and making connections for great columns for HSToday. I dropped off my older son at school, drove to sector HQ, scooted around the building with my escort to meet people, then across the parking lot to the warehouse to observe the training scenario. That's me in the middle of the picture with most of the agents training that morning. My scooter is just off-camera, and I'm (successfully) hiding my cane behind my right leg. The official sector photographer was kind enough to take this photo for us, which I used in one of my HSToday columns. Then, it was off to Nogales.

Let me tell you, by the time the day was over, my escort could take apart or put together my scooter in 60 seconds flat. I know this because we timed him! It was pretty awesome, and incredibly kind of him to do that for me over and over every time we stopped somewhere. I scooted around the vehicle inspection area of the Nogales port of entry, went inside the port offices to see their "trophy room," and took a look at some cars that had been recently taken apart to get to hidden compartments. Later at the Tubac checkpoint, I scooted behind the barriers to watch Border Patrol agents do their thing with the drug dogs as dozens of cars and trucks came through the lanes.

After a very eventful day, we headed home, where my escort transferred my scooter one last time into my trunk. Then I was off to pick up my son at school and head home, him not ever the wiser--and not really caring (in a nice way)--the adventure my scooter and I had experienced during one of Mommy's crazy work days.