Saturday morning at 7:00, Mom, me, James, and Jacob, as well as our cousin Sarah, all took a bus, paid for by the organization “Strong America Now”, at 7:00 in the morning to travel to Ames to cast our vote in the first big Republican event of the political season, the Iowa Straw Poll. (I think that was one of the longest sentences I’ve ever typed.)
We all wore our “Strong America Now” t-shirts. (Sarah got one later)
Some friends, Carla and Eric Glover also rode the same bus.
Sarah brought along her sewing to keep her busy
The stage in the tent where our organization had it’s headquarters.
There were a ton of tents set up. One for every presidential candidate, and a bunch more for other organizations.
This was our tent. It was even air conditioned!
Sarah kept asking me to take her picture, and I gladly complied, as it is very rare that anyone asks me to take their picture. Most of my family hates it when people take their picture.
This was the only picture I got anyone besides Sarah to pose for.
The reason Sarah asked for so many pictures, was to show off each new item she acquired.
There were quite a few historically costumed people there, but this guy was the best. I love bagpipe music. (I also love jokes about how awful bagpipe music is, but that’s another story :p)
Michele Bachman had a blimp flying above her tent so her supporters could find her.
There was a huge windmill blade there for people to sign.
The sky was amazing the whole day.
Sarah showing off her “Strong” America Now shirt.
This was when we went to get our tickets to vote. They wanted all the Strong America Now members to march together to show how big our group was. As you can see there were a lot of us.
I spotted Carla ahead of us.
Sarah with her ticket.
Anyone willing to pay that much for a bottle of Coke? I’m not. This machine was almost empty, so plenty of other people must have been.
The stadium was huge. Mom, Me, and Sarah sat almost near the top, and it was pretty full. (According to Eric, MSNBC was reporting that there were only a few hundred people in there. Apparently MSNBC needs to go back to kindergarten for counting lessons.)
We missed a couple speeches, but I saw the people I wanted to see.
Ron Paul was the first speech we heard.
Then Tim Pawlenty
Michele Bachmann
Thaddeus McCotter
And Herman Cain.
James and Jacob came in later and sat way on the other side of the stadium in a place with as few people as possible. James called mom and told her where they were so we could spot them.
We went to vote after the speeches were over, and we had to dip our fingers in blue ink, so Sarah and I took each other’s pictures.
This was the railing going down the stairs outside the building where the voting took place. Sarah noticed it first and thought it would make an interesting picture.
Back on the bus at the end of the day, Sarah had me take a few more pictures.
This is Ivah, Eric and Carla’s daughter.
I amused myself by taking pictures of her. :)
We passed through a huge wind farm on the way home.
Ivah was so cute and kept pointing to them exclaiming, “Fans!”
Sarah kept falling asleep on the way home. I can’t blame her. We were all tired.
And that was our day at the Straw Poll. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to be as politically active during this next election as I have been in years past, what with being back in school now, but I’ll try to be, and I will be sure to bring my camera with me. :)
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