We were staying in West Des Moines, Iowa for a day to explore the area before we made our way to Chicago. I had been periodically checking Ron Paul’s event schedule for the odd chance that one of his appearances might line up with our plan. And one did.
Well, it almost did–Amber and I decided to stay three extra days in Iowa to make it work. He had three appearances scheduled around the state on Tuesday, 9/20. We drove two hours to get to the location of the first appearance, but right before he was supposed to go on there was an announcement that he would not be able to make it. Ron Paul himself got on the speaker phone and announced to the crowd that he had good news and bad news: he said the bad news was that he had some plane trouble and would miss the event, but the good news was the plane trouble happened on the ground, so he was alive and well.
We were told that he would still be making his other planned appearances later that day, so we checked the map and the only location that was a possibility for us to make in time was three hours away in Spencer. We had waited three days for this and another three hours of driving didn’t seem like a big deal, so we jumped in the car and drove straight there. We made it just in time. After he spoke, I got to introduce myself and shake his hand, and he signed my copy of “The Revolution”. It was too crowded and hectic to get a photo with him, but Amber did her best in raising the camera above the crowd to get a shot right before I spoke to him.
It was a really, really cool experience. We went all day without eating, spent many hours driving, and were crashing after a day fueled by caffeine and adrenaline, but it was so worth it.