It was quite a day.
The weather was cool but comfortable, with a breeze that came and went.
I arrived at 11:00. The place was already hoppin'.
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I tried walking up to the middle of the crowd so I could see the speakers well, but it was just too weird for a short person. Now if I was 6'4" or something, I might have hung in there for a while. As it was I adopted 'the bee' approach, and spent the day hovering all around the area. It was easier to walk around than stand still anyway.
Of course I needed to get a picture of one of the dogs that were in attendance.
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I saw at least 6 dogs there. Even a little yellow lab puppy that only reinforced my belief that they are probably the most adorable puppies imaginable.
There were signs everywhere. This was one of my favorites....
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Everyone was being asked to pose with their signs and happily would oblige you. I got my picture taken quite a bit by request with my sign.
It was a congenial bunch of people. There were no kerfuffles.
Fox News was there and I got this shot of Neil Cavuto:
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He seemed a congenial fellow. Some people were pretty glued to what the Fox people were doing in that tent. I was more interested in the people around and about.
Here is the one shot I managed to get of one of the speakers. He was leading one of the many chants of 'Vote Them Out!' of the day, pointing to the legislature [that was in session that day by the way].
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Speaking of which, both Democrats and Republicans were being denigrated at our gathering. We seem to have had it with all the bums.
In the meantime, the crowd was getting larger and larger. People just kept coming ....
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I tried really hard to find a place to get an overview of the crowd but there just wasn't a place high enough for me to do that.
There was a young woman there with her baby. She was standing there knitting him a little green cabled sweater. I stopped to see her work. She said it was her first protest, I told her it was my first one too and that I had brought some knitting.
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I did end up taking a break across the street where I could sit down and collect my wits and rest my feet. I knit a few stitches there...
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Then when things were winding down after 3PM, I spotted someone I admire and watch on YouTube...
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I love this guy. He sounds like he's had too much caffeine, but I love him just the same. If you can hang on for the fast ride, he has some funny and sharp commentary from a conservative viewpoint.
I got to say hi and tell him thank you for making me laugh and that I would be watching. He is actually pretty quiet and shy in person as is often the case with talented people.
Here he is signing the shirt of another fan...
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And one final picture..
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It was a great day. I cannot think of one thing that I didn't enjoy.
The most memorable moment however was when a French woman spoke to us. She talked about what a wonderful country France was when she was growing up. Then Socialism came. She said people now think, 'Why should I work when I can make more money by staying home [on the dole]. She said that Socialism promises you everything, but what it actually does is cause your dreams to die, and you lose your self respect.
It was a sobering moment.
She is now an American citizen. You should have heard the crowd cheer when she told us that. I think it was the biggest one of the day.
America.
It's still great.
We just need to make sure it stays that way.