Well we have arrived in Denver! And what a neat trip it was to get here.
We left Central Point at about 4:00 a.m. on Friday morning. The drive through southwestern Oregon, Northern Nevada, and Northern Utah was breathtaking. We truly have a beautiful country and what better way to see it than on the road.
It was great to stay with my law school buddy Dave an his family in Salt Lake City. As promised, I planted an Obama sign in his front yard. By the time we left on Sunday, we noticed a couple more Obama signs up in his very conservative neighborhood. Perhaps they needed someone to break the ice.
On Saturday, Dave and I went down to the grand opening of the Obama campaign office in downtown Salt Lake City. What a great office they have! The place was hopping with about 60 people inside and out, signing up to volunteer, buying Obama gear and having a great time. The field director is Suzanne Gelderman who some of you may remember as the Western Caucus coordinator who was a key contact for our grassroots efforts in Southern Oregon before our Oregon staff arrived. I introduced her to my friend Dave and she quickly got him signed up for a phone bank shift.
There is a lot of excitement for Obama in Salt Lake City, even though the Democrats are are greatly outnumbered and facing incredible odds. What an inspiration to us in Southern Oregon. After the grand opening, our families enjoyed a picnic at Dave's church. Dave and I proudly kept on our Obama stickers at the picnic. Even though this was a Mormon church that you would presume as predominantly Republican, we met several Democrats. One older gal told me she had several "LDS for Obama" buttons in her car. Everyone was extremely nice and we had a great time. We even played softball with a guy who told me he just always votes for the Republican candidate no matter what. I told him that many Republicans are voting for Obama but that didn't seem to change his mind.
Afterwards, we dropped off a bunch of the food from the picnic at the home of a Sudanese family who had relocated to Utah. One woman raising 6 kids in a foreign but safe refuge. What a courageous family. Her son saw our Obama stickers and was clearly pleased. I am sorry but I can't pronounce or spell his name. I told him all about how we were heading to Denver for the convention. Why was he smiling? Perhaps he found hope in the fact that in America, a person with recent African heritage with a funny name can rise to the greatest heights if his heart is in the right place. That's the America we love.
This afternoon we drove through Colorado and into Denver where my wife Teri grew up. What a beautiful State. We were saddened though to see so many of the forests dying due to pine beetle infestation. I think that the dryer weather and global warming may be a significant factor in this, but we are going to read up on this a bit. Interestingly, when I looked at the news in our hotel tonight I noticed that a tornado touched down near one of the highways we drove in on today! Nice to miss that one and we are very thankful to have arrived safely.
Tommorrow is the first day of the convention and I am very excited about attending and sharing with you further in the days to come.
Comments are closed for this post.
