A little piece of history

The line that wrapped for MILES.


Shannon and Eileen in the line that wrapped for miles. Haha! Of which we were lucky enough to be in the first third, easily. It was hard to complain when you knew there were easily 25,000 people behind you.

The Pizza Hut for which I almost missed the entire thing. But I was desperate!
We're IN!



Warning- this involves politics. ;) I'm keeping it clean, but you can skip this is you want to! You've been warned if you proceed.
Phil guilt tripped Shannon into attending the Obama rally, reminding her that it would be a story to tell the grandchildren. I was a willing attendant. I wouldn't have stood in that line by myself for sure, but I knew it was a chance to be a part of history. Getting to see Barack Obama speak two days before the election? Um, YEAH! You didn't have to twist my arm.
So it went a lot like this. Get there at 4:30. Wait in line. Wait in line, wait in line. Wait in line a little more. Wonder why they said the doors would be open at 6 and at 8 we are still not moving? Decide we all might die of hunger so we should scout out some food. I left the line to hunt for pizza, and as I headed back with food, I get a frantic call from Shannon that the line suddenly started moving and we're going in. I rush back to the line literally in the nick of time to jump in with them before they go through the barricades. Now THAT is a story for the grandkids, that I waited in line and then didn't get to go because we got hungry! LOL! No sooner had we opened the pizza boxes to hear the man yell, "NO food or drink inside!" Are you freaking kidding me? They weren't. We get to the security gates, scarfing down the food as fast as we can, and in the excitement, Eileen and I toss full pizzas and unopened breadsticks in the trash and I think Shannon gave hers away to someone in the crowd. LOL! Someone who apparently was so hungry that they didn't care she'd eaten half of it. As we're passing through the gates, we hear a security guard ask, "What are we doing?" and another one yell back, "Just sending them through!" So they rush us through and don't check a single bag, send us through metal detectors, nothing. I'm sure the Secret Service would be thrilled to hear that. Apparently they spent hours checking bags thoroughly and that's why the line didn't move, and then they decided they didn't have time, so they just rushed everyone through without a second glance! A little unsettling as we watched 30,000 unchecked bags file into the stadium behind us!
In any case, we were practically pushed down the stairs and were asking the guards where to sit, and they yelled, "Straight down!" We were like, 'Straight down... where?' To which we heard, "To the field!" Are you serious??!! I thought I was going to pee my pants! Sure enough, we found ourselves sitting directly next to the press box, with a straigh on view of the podium. Most of the time, anyway- there was no shortage of big tall dudes in front of us! Who knew Ohio grew 'em so big?
We listened to a few speakers and then without much warning, Barack Obama was announced and walked up and spoke. He was in the endzone, we were on the 30 yard line. It was unbelievable! He spoke about his policies, namely his education policies of which we are big supporters. The whole time, I kept thinking, I can't believe I'm sitting here. I can't believe I am 30 yards away from the possible president two days before the election. It was truly a night to remember and one I will most certainly file away to tell my children and grandchildren about!