An Unexpected Evening

I did something totally out of character this week. While at Tractor Supply on Sunday, we noticed a plane flying overhead that said "Romney here 10/4." I thought that was a bit extreme: there have GOT to be better ways to advertise for a candidate than flying a plane overhead announcing his rally.

But since Phil hadn't heard about it on the radio or any other way, and since I've been learning lately about the election process, and since I have never seen either president or presidential candidate, and since the event was to be held only an hour away (practically next door in this area of the world), I got us tickets.

All the sources I read both in print and online make it sound like Romney is totally finished, so there was a little bit of my mind that wanted him to at least have SOMEONE at his rally. How embarrassing to have an event with only 100 people there. With the Lykoshes, we could make it 106.

The doors opened at 4pm for a 6pm start. We could have left to be there at 4pm, but no one in the family is really that excited about this candidate, and, realistically, he probably wouldn't come out until 6:30 anyway. Who wants to sit for two and a half hours with four antsy boys?

We left a little after 4, and drove happily until we were about five minutes away. What should have been five minutes.

It was 5:15, and I had considered stopping at the last exit before the proper exit to get some diesel cans at the Home Depot, but traffic had backed up right around there. Surely an accident; we decided to keep going.

A few minutes later we learned that the freeway was backed up both directions: everyone, apparently, was going to the rally. We figured we probably wouldn't actually make it: four miles at a crawl was going to take forever.

The left lane moved a little faster: through traffic figured out they needed to go there (as did all the smarties who cut in at the last minute). We considered getting over, but how to turn around? If it was backed up in both directions, there wasn't much hope.

At 6:21, we saw the motorcade, and that was quite a thrill. About three cop motorcycles, frantically motioning the large trucks out of the way. Then a few SUVs, a large passenger van, the secret service car with guys in suits hanging half out the windows (and I would like to say, guns pointing out, but Phil isn't sure I saw that). It was over in about 20 seconds, but it was really neat! We probably saw Romney's car, though we had no visual. Still, though, it was my closest brush with an elected official (that I know of), and that was kind of fun.

An hour later, the glow of the moment had worn off. Isaiah was lying on the floor of the car, Joe was standing, just standing. Since we had now spent two hours traveling two miles an hour, everyone was a bit punchy. When the cars turned left to go to the event, we turned right: get us out of there!

But there were people walking the last mile or so, having parked on the road. It was 90 minutes after the start, and they were determined.

We, however, were just happy to get home. The five boys ate the entire 4 1/2 pounds of hamburger I had thawed (I enjoyed a lettuce and anchovy salad, with almonds and raisins). I am happy we didn't have to deal with traffic on the way home, happy Phil got to see the secret service dudes, happy we were all talking and laughing (almost) the whole time, happy Romney can leave feeling popular enough that he backed up one of the main roads for hours.

Because when we returned home, I was expecting the line of waiting cars to be done. But no: the end of the jam had moved ahead only a few hundred yards.

Crazy. But fun! I'll be chuckling for some time over how badly I misjudged the situation. Four miles in two hours. Teehee!