Yesterday was my first trip on Air Force One with the new POTUS and boy, what a crazy day it was! It's a good thing I'm not completely intimidated by pool duty on AF1 since I've done it a few times before. I was soooo busy that I would have crumbled if I had not done it before. And traveling with Obama is a totally different experience than with Bush (although I completely missed my Bush friends like Karen and Rachael yesterday!)
My day in travel pool was a trip to Peoria, IL to speak to employees at the Caterpillar plant about the economic stimulus. Next on the schedule was a stop in Springfield, IL to celebrate Abe's birthday. Luckily it wasn't a really early start so I was able to sleep in and catch up on a little sleep. That was important because I needed all the energy I could get. Back in the Bush days, oh the Bush days, things were rather predictable. He never came back to the press cabin. He always ran on time or early and generally stuck to the schedule and there weren't many surprises. Usually the biggest surprise was what was for lunch on the plane. Yesterday was so incredibly crazy compared to that!
First of all, the new POTUS *LOVES* to shake hands with people. In my humble opinion, he is just eating all of this attention up. I can't say that I blame him. If I had a crowd around me everywhere I went screaming "Becky, BECKY, BECKY" I think I would shake their hands too. That hasn't ever happened before but if it does, I'm making the pledge to do a ropeline! Anyway, I digress. Back to new POTUS. After he arrived by motorcade instead of helicopter (due to the high winds), he got out of the limo or "the Beast" as is its official nickname, and walked across the tarmac. He shook hands along the ropeline with about 40 screaming ROTC cadets. I heard sounds and shrills like I had never heard before. I was a little scared at one point. Then he walked back to the plane while his limo was following him. I think they just idled their way the hundred feet or so. I don't think they wasted too much gas. Anyway, before we knew it we were up, up, and away on our way to Peoria and it was really really bumpy, even on AF1! Press Secretary Gibbs came back to gaggle during the last few minutes of the flight. That made for some stressful times of trying to keep the audio recorder steady, take good notes, and balance myself during a very bumpy landing. Thank God I have mad blackberry typing skills as I was able to type up most of the notes in a very short amount of time and send them out to everyone in the press.
My day in travel pool was a trip to Peoria, IL to speak to employees at the Caterpillar plant about the economic stimulus. Next on the schedule was a stop in Springfield, IL to celebrate Abe's birthday. Luckily it wasn't a really early start so I was able to sleep in and catch up on a little sleep. That was important because I needed all the energy I could get. Back in the Bush days, oh the Bush days, things were rather predictable. He never came back to the press cabin. He always ran on time or early and generally stuck to the schedule and there weren't many surprises. Usually the biggest surprise was what was for lunch on the plane. Yesterday was so incredibly crazy compared to that!
First of all, the new POTUS *LOVES* to shake hands with people. In my humble opinion, he is just eating all of this attention up. I can't say that I blame him. If I had a crowd around me everywhere I went screaming "Becky, BECKY, BECKY" I think I would shake their hands too. That hasn't ever happened before but if it does, I'm making the pledge to do a ropeline! Anyway, I digress. Back to new POTUS. After he arrived by motorcade instead of helicopter (due to the high winds), he got out of the limo or "the Beast" as is its official nickname, and walked across the tarmac. He shook hands along the ropeline with about 40 screaming ROTC cadets. I heard sounds and shrills like I had never heard before. I was a little scared at one point. Then he walked back to the plane while his limo was following him. I think they just idled their way the hundred feet or so. I don't think they wasted too much gas. Anyway, before we knew it we were up, up, and away on our way to Peoria and it was really really bumpy, even on AF1! Press Secretary Gibbs came back to gaggle during the last few minutes of the flight. That made for some stressful times of trying to keep the audio recorder steady, take good notes, and balance myself during a very bumpy landing. Thank God I have mad blackberry typing skills as I was able to type up most of the notes in a very short amount of time and send them out to everyone in the press.
Once we got to the Caterpillar plant, we found out that Judd Gregg had withdrawn his nomination to be Commerce Secretary. I don't really care about the politics behind it (well I do but that's not appropriate for my blog) but immediately I knew that my day had just become destined to be insane. And it wasn't a letdown. Our next leg of the trip was from Peoria to Springfield. Now forgive me for not being more familiar with my Illinois geography but I kind of thought we would probably chopper there but we were scheduled to get back on Air Force One for a 15 minute flight. But after about 10 minutes I looked out the window and saw that we were really high up if we were supposed to be landing in 5 minutes and the AF guys were offering chips and queso and drinks for a snack. I knew that wasn't a good sign. So we spent the next hour or so circling over Springfield, Illinois. I thought that since we were with the leader of the free world, we could land whenever and wherever we wanted. But apparently not. Something about how we couldn't get to the event early because not everyone had gone through the magnetometers. Then right before we landed, Gibbs came back once again and gaggled about the Gregg situation, again as we were landing.
And if that wasn't crazy enough, when we landed, we got off the plane to wait for POTUS to exit, like we always do. Except this time, one of the WH staffers comes running to me saying, "get back on the plane, POTUS is going to talk." Of course I immediately run back up to my seat on the plane. But I quickly realized I didn't have my camera crew with me. So I went up to the Press Secretary and begged him to make POTUS wait until I got back on the plane with our camera crew. So I run down the steps again and try to get my crew's attention over the roar of the jet engines from AF1 and to no avail. I think I screamed my heart out and they finally saw me screaming and ran upstairs bypassing the AF security guy checking our names off the list. We pushed our way to get into position and literally five seconds later, the leader of the free world shows up to make some comments about Gregg. I quickly realized that I didn't have a tape recorder or even a pen to take notes and I couldn't reach my bag through the twenty people standing on top of me. So again, I thanked the good Lord for my awesome blackberry skills and hoped that my notes would be somewhat intelligible. While POTUS was talking, I was literally less than foot from him. I don't think you can see my blond head in the photos or video because people behind me kept tapping me on the shoulder telling me I was too tall. I've never had anyone tell me that before. It was kind of stunning. I wish, oh I wish, that I had had a moment to take a picture of it but I was too busy typing like mad on my crackberry. So while I didn't officially meet the man, I did get up close and personal for a few moments.
Then in Springfield, IL we went to a dinner for Abraham Lincoln's birthday. My network seemed to be obsessed with the comparisons between Obama and Lincoln and so there was quite a bit of interest in this event. By this point in the night, I was done. I had put out about 50 fires and was exhausted. I sort of listened to 44 talk about 16 but I'm not going to lie to you, I was tuning much of it out. Sorry Abe!!
We left Springfield and arrived back at Andrews by about 11pm. Thankfully I just got to sit in my seat and watch a movie, oh and eat dinner. It wouldn't be a blog post about AF1 without mention of food! (For lunch it was cheese tortellini and strawberry tiramisu. For dinner it was sweet and sour beef tips and rice and cheesecake!) Don't worry, in all the hustle and bustle, of course I took the time to eat!! That's definitely not changed in the new administration!
And if that wasn't crazy enough, when we landed, we got off the plane to wait for POTUS to exit, like we always do. Except this time, one of the WH staffers comes running to me saying, "get back on the plane, POTUS is going to talk." Of course I immediately run back up to my seat on the plane. But I quickly realized I didn't have my camera crew with me. So I went up to the Press Secretary and begged him to make POTUS wait until I got back on the plane with our camera crew. So I run down the steps again and try to get my crew's attention over the roar of the jet engines from AF1 and to no avail. I think I screamed my heart out and they finally saw me screaming and ran upstairs bypassing the AF security guy checking our names off the list. We pushed our way to get into position and literally five seconds later, the leader of the free world shows up to make some comments about Gregg. I quickly realized that I didn't have a tape recorder or even a pen to take notes and I couldn't reach my bag through the twenty people standing on top of me. So again, I thanked the good Lord for my awesome blackberry skills and hoped that my notes would be somewhat intelligible. While POTUS was talking, I was literally less than foot from him. I don't think you can see my blond head in the photos or video because people behind me kept tapping me on the shoulder telling me I was too tall. I've never had anyone tell me that before. It was kind of stunning. I wish, oh I wish, that I had had a moment to take a picture of it but I was too busy typing like mad on my crackberry. So while I didn't officially meet the man, I did get up close and personal for a few moments.
Then in Springfield, IL we went to a dinner for Abraham Lincoln's birthday. My network seemed to be obsessed with the comparisons between Obama and Lincoln and so there was quite a bit of interest in this event. By this point in the night, I was done. I had put out about 50 fires and was exhausted. I sort of listened to 44 talk about 16 but I'm not going to lie to you, I was tuning much of it out. Sorry Abe!!
We left Springfield and arrived back at Andrews by about 11pm. Thankfully I just got to sit in my seat and watch a movie, oh and eat dinner. It wouldn't be a blog post about AF1 without mention of food! (For lunch it was cheese tortellini and strawberry tiramisu. For dinner it was sweet and sour beef tips and rice and cheesecake!) Don't worry, in all the hustle and bustle, of course I took the time to eat!! That's definitely not changed in the new administration!
1 comment:
I saw a clip of POTUS on AF1 and tried to look for you but, alas, not a too-tall blonde to be found! ;-)
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