The weather was iffy in Maysville when we got up early Thursday morning to fly to Denver for Barack Obama’s historic acceptance speech.
We strapped ourselves into our seats that would become increasingly small and cramped and uncomfortable as the day wore on, and blasted off anyway. Shortly we blew through the clouds and broke through to blue skies headed for Missouri, our first stop on what the captain kept referring to as our “adventure.”
We couldn’t have asked for better flying conditions and after gassing up (stop laughing Carla) took off for Kansas, the next gas station on our trip. It was the first glitch.
A quick check of the computer before we began the last leg told us something we should have already known n there were restrictions at the airport where we planned to land because a presidential nominee was scheduled to be in Denver. Oh yeah.
We had our car reserved at that airport and we were cutting the timing extremely close already. But again we made it.
Now we were really on our way. The drive to the stadium was easy thanks to the GPS computer which very politely told us the way; we called her “Bertha.”
There was controlled mass confusion at the stadium where after driving around a half hour we gave up and decided to choose a parking space that only cost $ 40. That’s right.
Now we were in line, sort of, because it was just a mass of 60,000 people who seemed to be moving in a line-like fashion.
Here’s where the fun started.
My campaign contact forgot last week to mail our credentials so we decided just to meet up with him when we got there and retrieve them. Sounded easy enough at the time, but he was inside the stadium and once in, you weren’t allowed out. Oops.
Since we’re not from Denver we couldn’t really tell him where we were anyway. Eventually he and Jeff managed to get close enough to see each other and a very nice policeman agreed to be the go between.
That took well over an hour and Jeff found me in line almost exactly where he left me when he got back, credentials in hand.
Would we make it? That had become the question on the collective minds of the crowd, which admirably kept its cool the entire three hours. It was a hopeful atmosphere.
About midway through, hundreds of police officers descended on the “line” and handed out free water. They were pleasant and helpful and funny.
They would direct us to go down a hill toward yet another parking lot, then threaten to ticket us for walking on the grass.
They were great n America’s finest.
The Secret Service? Not so much.
Finally we made it in to choice seats. Level 1, row 8, seats 1 and 2. Nice n if you wanted to be so close to the network boxes you could see the makeup caked on your favorite news anchors. Not so nice if you wanted to see Obama.
They looked like cadavers nseriously, Brian Williams looked pale compared to Britt Hume. He must be Revlon No. 110.
No worries because we could catch glimpses of people on the stage and there were jumbotrons everywhere.
The speech was amazing. No one wanted to leave the stadium when it was over which was in sharp contrast to a sporting event when people practically push you down in a rush to their expensive parking places.
We walked for a couple of miles and my back and the blisters on top of blisters on my feet were starting to complain loudly.
Sitting in the car was one of the nicest experiences of my life.
We gave “Bertha” the address of the hotel and she began expertly telling us where to turn and how far to go. Until it was time to turn right to the freeway. There we found the road blocked so I rolled down the window and asked the officer how to get on I-25 to which he responded it was closed for the next two hours. Apparently it was taking Barack a long time to get out of the area as well.
We were exhausted but our mood was still high so we simply asked “Bertha” to give us a route that did not make use of highways.
By the time it was over we expected “Bertha” to be saying “Why did you do that?” or “I said turn left,” or “Are you listening to me at all?”
But we made it to our overpriced room and hoped our son doesn’t expect us to walk much when we got to Chicago later Friday.
It was the hardest thing I’ve put my body through in years and I will feel the aches for days, but I would do it all just the same again today.
Because I witnessed history and got to see the most electrifying candidate our country has seen in decades n arguably ever.
It was definitely worth it.
Reader Comments
Comments are limited to 200 words or less.
Jules wrote on Oct 10, 2008 10:00 PM:
" I'm curious as to what her problem with the secret service was... They have a tough job, lady. You sound like you have as much respect for them as the Clintons. NONE.. truly sad. "
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