Postcards from the Bleeding Edge: 700 miles for Paul, no further plans (yet)

Sunday, December 09, 2007

700 miles for Paul, no further plans (yet)

After fruitlessly waiting 3 days for the space shuttle to take off (and spending a small fortune in parking and center tickets), I decided that I'd rather help get a more virtuous ship get off the ground. So I packed up my tripod, laptop, surround sound recorder, and video camera, and drove up yesterday to Williamston, NC, from Cape Canaveral, FL, to check out the Ron Paul Blimp effort, and see what I could do to help.

I came here, because this is near Elizabeth City - Tuesday's launch point for the blimp. I was kind of stupid in not looking at a map before jumping in the car, instead of just turning my gps on - I assumed that today's rally would be nearby. Nothing doing.

The rally today in Asheville is 600+ miles away!

Given a choice between driving another 1300 miles in the next two days, or camping out in a nice, cheap, warm hotel room with internet, I'd rather camp out here and get a backlog of writing under control. Maybe I'll get some lunch/dinner with some Paul folk locally, or be able to help at the field.

So if there's anybody out there setting up for Monday's rally... is there anything useful an old geek can do here today and tomorrow? My phone number is: 973-685-6032, but email is best...

I am pathetically not plugged into new fangled web 2.0 things like myspace and meetup et al. Tomorrow will mark the first time I've attended a presidential rally in 20 years. Ought to be interesting.

Labels: Ron Paul

¶ 4:04 AM

Comments:

Take all your money and drive to Durham NC and go the The Magnolia Grill for dinner tonight. Get the scallops. Skip the desert.
You'll need "all your money" because it *is* expensive. Probably $50 for one person if you have a glass of wine.
Anything on the dinner menu will be fabulous. This is one of the top ten best restaurants in the entire United States. (Be a Hedonist for one meal.)
And skip the deserts. They are made by a different chef (the wife) and, unless they've changed chefs, it doesn't measure up to dinner.

# posted by

Ed Skinner : 7:57 AM

Regrettably I'm allergic to scallops, but I will consider making that drive, although I am more interested in company than a meal.

Last week I ate dinner at one place in Florida that ended up setting me back 100 dollars. At least I had some leftovers for the next day, but wow...

I've been living on a daily food budget of 7 dollars a day for quite some time now, and this trip is killing me. Worse, I'm gaining weight - the portion size here is incredible.

In the space of a month, even staying with friends and family most of the time, I've cost myself 6 months or more what it would cost me to stay fed and afloat in some foreign land...

# posted by

David Täht : 8:03 AM

so...this means you are coming to chambana to kittencon in april, right? good food, good friends and it won't cost as much money because we will be cooking most of it and if we go out it's generally to the chinese or mexican place that is $10-20 per person maximum.

btw, my nephew the guitar playing, dreadlocked, multiple pierced campground manager from big sur has been in town and he is not only a ron paul supporter he is po'd that the mainstream media is ignoring paul.

*hug*

# posted by

kittent : 3:48 PM

Don't get me started on the Launch waiting. Kinda' different than getting a day's sleep, turning right around and driving right back to the Mojave, eh kemosabe?

I'm over in Huntsville (you might imagine why, but I was up at BFAM for both the Thursday and Sunday attempts just to have my hopes dashed against the rocks.

Let me know next time you head to the Cape, I'll meet you there.

# posted by

`Da Elf : 4:47 PM

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