Newton, North Carolina Post Office - Getting your passport

So since we are doing this epic trip this summer in the RV and planning to go to Canada, it is time to get the three kids passports. To figure out how to apply for passports I went to the site travel.state.gov and followed the directions.  For an individual getting his or her passport for the first time, one must go to either a passport office or a Passport Acceptance Facility that handles the applications.

So I did a search for a Passport Acceptance Facility near me on the travel.state.gov website. It showed me the results below:

So I thought it would be no problem to take the children to the Newton, NC Post Office Passport Acceptance Facility on a Monday to submit their applications for their passports.

So I leave work and meet the wife and three children at the Newton Post Office at about 3:30 PM.  The nice lady in the Post Office kindly informed us that the person who did the passport applications was not there today and that he took appointments.  We had to schedule an appointment for this coming Thursday.

It would have been nice if the travel.state.gov website actually made mention that we needed an appointment to get a passport application submitted.  I guess I should not be surprised that when dealing with a government agency I would have my time wasted.

So if anyone needs to know:
If you want to submit your passport application at the Newton, NC Post Office, you need an appointment.  Call ahead in plenty of time and don't expect that you will be able to get just the time slot you need.  They were pretty full.  The person who accepts teh applications is not at the Newton Post Office but on certain days.

The Hickory, NC Post Office accepts walk-ins for submitting passport applications but there is often a significant wait.  The travel.state.gov website doesn't indicate that the Hickory Post Office accepts walk-ins.  Lots of room for improvement with that site on this front.