Spring Valley High School Columbia SC

I am sitting in my car outside of a UPS store connected to Wifi (paid) waiting for Katy go finish her exam. We woke up bright and early at 5 am and hit the road at 5:20 am putting us in Columbia SC around 7:20 am. Katy was supposed to be at the school around 7:30 am to check in so that she could take the test around 8 am. Well, little did we know there would be several HUNDRED other souls there doing the same thing. Can you say parking NIGHTMARE. No, I am not talking about having a hard time finding a parking spot I am talking about those of us that were trying to drop our spouse off and just leave so they could take the test. Basically it worked like this. Drive in the first drive way go to dead end where there was other folks blocked in backing out and turning around to leave. I follow them and go to the next entrance and let Katy out of the car. I turn left to go down the driveway in front of the school to find that while it is a one way drive there are people doing the same thing. They are running into a grid lock at the gate that is closed and locked and they are turning around and trying to come out the same way they came in except for the fact that I and about 20 other folks were trying to leave the same way they were coming. We are all sitting in our cars shaking our heads wondering why we are running around like geese with our heads lobbed off. Security shows up and we all think "goodie, this person will make sense of this nightmare and help us". Think again, security was clueless and wondered how we even got onto the property in the first place. So much for being aware of your surroundings. LOL... Well, anyway , I dont fault the security officer he was only doing whatever it is he was supposed to be doing. I asked him if there was any way he would entertain the option of directing traffic and get it flowing in one direction or the other. He tried to open the gate down at the end which was the direction folks were supposed to leave and he did not have the keys. He called his supervisor who did not know where the keys were either. Imagine my surprise when I found that out. LOL... Approximately 35 minutes later enough cars filter out to where I can turn my car around and follow the secruity vehicle the wrong way down a one way driveway to the front gate where he kept people from entering in and eventually let me out. I was so thankful to be free of that clusterfuge.

One of the things that amused me was that security did not know how the gate got opened to begin with. The other thing that was amusing is that there is a huge parking lot that was empty next to the school that everyone was supposed to use this morning. My question is this. Why was security not notified of this and who opened the wrong gate? Why wasnt there someone there this morning around 6:30 am to guide folks from out of town to the correct parking lot? Well, I have to run, wifey just called and said she is done with the test. Yeah!! Go Katy!!