Catching Up: Mid-October Rallies

Seven days until Christmas! And 13 days to finish writing about October, November and December if I want to be caught up by the end of the year.

In October we got to see Barack Obama, who was campaigning for Kamala Harris. I am less political than a lot of my friends, but I felt lucky to get tickets to this event, and was determined to go. I knew the large crowd would be intimidating, but I have never actually seen a president before.

Even the long line to get in was intimidating. The people walking away on the right are heading towards the back of the line (as were we, when I took that photo). You can’t even see the end of the line in this photo. Luckily it moved relatively quickly. Still, an hour or more in line is well beyond what I’m usually willing to wait for anything.

Once inside, we were packed, standing shoulder to shoulder. Luckily it was a friendly, happy crowd, or I think I would have bolted. As it was, John held on to my shoulders to ground me, and that helped.

We were very far from the speakers. This photo that John took is zoomed in quite a bit.

We stood forever, and listened to various speeches. I particularly liked the one by Tucson’s Mayor, Regina Romero. Finally it was time for Obama to speak. He’s an excellent speaker, very convincing, and we were all inspired to do what we could to help Kamala’s campaign.

As if we didn’t have enough of crowds for one weekend, the next day we went to a local car show. At least it was outdoors, and much more lightly attended.

The car show was right along the Loop trail, a bike path that goes all the way around Tucson, so we were able to ride our bikes there. Being near the Loop was one of my top criteria when we were house hunting. I like riding, but I’m not comfortable riding my bike out in traffic. Thanks to the trail, I can get to several great places on my bike: one of my favorite plant nurseries, several parks, a good farmer’s market, our local community center, several coffee shops, and even the local Lowes and Costco. Just don’t buy anything large!

It was just by chance that the car show was along the Loop. It was held on the grounds of a private school. Ironically, almost no one else rode their bikes to the car show. Huh, wonder why?

Political swag was not allowed at the car show, probably so we wouldn’t start shooting each other, this being late October. But there were some people who did more subtle things, like wear Trump hair wigs. I’d say it was a very different crowd than the day before at Obama’s rally.