The Presidential Parade

So, Mr. President himself came to my quiet little hometown last week. He flew into our airport, took a helicopter to Iowa, spent the night, helicoptered back to our airport, hopped in a SUV and drove to Missouri (Macon, hello!) and then finally came back to Quincy . . .  for a 40 minute speech. Then it was back to running the country!

In other words, he was in Quincy for a net total of an hour and a half. And for this, our whole town was in a serious state of lather for almost two weeks. The last time Mr. President was here, he was still running to be Mr. President, and we were in the middle of a rather nasty flood. He filled a few sandbags, shook some hands, and posed for some photos. He was the only candidate to come, and our Mayor asked him to come back if he was elected. (Heck, he might have asked him to come back anyway. I don't know.)

So he came back.

Tickets to see him speak went like hotcakes, and the lines to get into the convention center where he was speaking were long. He was to speak at 4, you really sort of needed to be in the building by 2, and it was standing room only. And I'm paid by the hour, and someone's got to get the kid from daycare. So I didn't go see him speak.

But then the rumors started that he would be exiting our fair city down Maine Street, less than three blocks from where I live. Around 4:45 in the afternoon.

I decided that I'd get the kid right after work and we'd go wave at the motorcade. About 75 other people had the same idea. There was quite a crowd on our corner!

I took the Kid, the Girl Next Door, Gater, and some flags left over from the 4th of July parade last year.

We waited.



We waited for a long time before this police vehicle went by:


Followed by these police motorcycles:


The Kid began to get excited. But we waited some more before, finally, off in the distance:


See the kid holding the dog? He got yelled at for standing in the street. Standing in the street--even by a foot--is not allowed!



This was about the point that we all realized that the motorcade was traveling at about 40+ miles an hour (in a 30 mph zone, no less!).


40 miles an hour is really too fast to both take pictures AND actually look inside the vehicles to see Mr. President. But for our purposes here, I think he's in that first SUV. Someone to my right said she thought she saw him!

There were quite a lot of vehicles traveling in the world's fastest parade.

Close to 30 total, I think. All zipping down the cleared street at top speed.

And then it was over.



And The Kid looked at me with the greatest sense of disappointment on his face. The world's fastest parade had blown right by him with no waving, no dogs in silly outfits, and, most importantly, no candy being thrown out the window.

Something tells me this won't be a memory he treasures forever.