With the weather being so nice, my wife & I decided to take our son to spend the afternoon in Austin and walk through the Texas State Cemetery and then visit the State Capitol. The afternoon went well, with the exception of a security guard displaying some attitude as we entered the Capitol. I knew there was a special CHL entrance, so as I walked in, I had my wallet in hand and saw the CHL desk was at my far right. My wife wasn't carrying, but she had a large camera bag, so I told her and my son to go straight ahead to security and I veered towards the CHL side. This older gentleman says, "come this way sir". Thinking it was normal protocol to go directly to the CHL line (there was a trooper stationed there), I said, again, "I'm going to CHL line". She then left his spot, walked over and put his arm out and said "come this way now". I stopped and took a half step back, not that he could really reach me, but I didn't know if he was going to stretch out from the rope barrier, and - still smiling, I said "I'm going to the CHL line". By now, a few people turned around, and my wife had that "oh gawd" look because she hates drawing attention. The guard takes another step towards me and says, "where are you going - oh, do you have a CHL?". At this point I stopped smiling, looked him straight in the eye and said "Yes, I already told you that". He then give me "permission" and said, "say something then, don't just walk off." So, being a normal jerk, I couldn't just walk away and I said, "I told you twice, plus, I'm following the signs. What more do you want". Thankfully, he didn't want to continue the conversation, and turned around.
So, I head to the CHL desk. The trooper was talking to someone behind the barrier, so I waited. Then, the same guard turns around and shouts something to the trooper. All I could make out was "this guy". The trooper literally jumps, faking surprise, throws his hands up and says "what, who, whoa. Hellooo. What can I do for you? Why's this guy yelling at me? You do something bad?". He was laughing the whole time. I said I was just following directions, but that guy seemed to be a little excitable. He said it was alright, we exchange a few pleasantries as he tries to pull up my info. He even had a technical error when he ran my CHL, said "whoa, you a bad guy? look at this mess" as he pointed to the tech error. One click of the back button and poof - my face pops up on his screen and he says "sorry, I'm just trying to be funny. Enjoy the Capitol, yall folks have nice day". Thank the lord for our well trained Troopers!
