Shuffling Off to Buffalo (& NYC too!)

Yes, it's your lucky day. Two blog posts in one day!! Count your lucky stars! :)

I don't know the words to that song but this week when I told people I was going to Buffalo for the day, I heard more than one person sing parts of this song to me. Apparently it has to do with going to Buffalo for your honeymoon or something like that. I never actually googled the words. But apparently Buffalo is known for this song and their famous wings and I got to venture to this fine city with POTUS on Thursday!

I was in travel pool on Thursday so as those of you who have been long-time readers of my blog (my mom), you'll know that means that I was on Air Force One and in the motorcade and pretty much inches away from POTUS for many parts of the day. I have been in travel pool dozens and dozens of times in my nearly 5 years of doing this job but I have to say that this trip on Thursday might have been one of my all-time favorites!

Stick with me here. This might be a long post. It was a really long day. Also, you'll notice that I was using my personal camera which, as we all know, really sucks sometimes. But you'll get the idea.

We left Andrews AFB mid-morning and headed to Buffalo. On the way, of course there was food. This time it was some Asian-spiced shrimp and rice. I couldn't figure out if there was anything orange-related in the spices. And then given the recent little issue of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, I was just slightly unsure. There is no room in my job, especially in travel pool, to get ill. The rodeo doesn't stop because of a migraine and there's no one to fill in for you. But when the food came, it looked so pretty!! I tried it and it was pretty good but the highlight was the coconut ice cream in a coconut shell. By the way, the shell was somehow glued or stuck to the plate. Interesting. Anyway, at the very end of the flight, we did our off-camera briefing (gaggle) by the press secretary. He was still talking as we were landing. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to listen to someone talk, take notes, hold a recorder, and type on your Blackberry as a plane lands but it's not easy. Clearly they don't enforce the seat-belt rule on AF1!

We immediately ran to the vans in the motorcade and drove a few hundred feet and then stopped so that POTUS could get out and meet with some families who had lost loved ones in a plane crash in Buffalo last year. I was still typing up my notes from the gaggle while the motorcade took off, presumably to the factory where he was going to give a speech. All of a sudden the motorcade stops and the doors to the van pop open. Which means one thing. RUN!
We had stopped at Duff's Famous Wings. Presumably these wings are the reason that the entire world calls them "Buffalo wings". Of course, I was the last one out of my van and bringing up the rear of the running press corps (I was running and typing on my blackberry at the same time and trying not to trip.) All of a sudden, I hear a voice right behind me of someone I recognize. It was POTUS himself!! Usually, we end up going in a different door than him or there is some sort of buffer. But not this time. He was literally on my heels!! He went to the counter and ordered some wings and some fries. The waitress who took his order was so calm and composed! It was such a crazy scene! While he waited for his order, he took pictures with those in the restaurant. He held some babies and shook a lot of hands. At one point, a woman told POTUS "I think you are a hottie with a smokin' little body." Seriously. I've been stalking the POTUS (43 and 44) for several years now and I have never heard anything close to this. I was only a couple of feet away at this point and I wanted to go over to see if this lady was for real. Her one encounter with the leader of the free world and this is what she's says. It made me laugh until I realized that my camera guy wasn't able to get it on tape. Then I cried! :)
We then ran back to the motorcade and took off for the factory where the event was being held. When we first arrived there, we ran (of course) to get in position for POTUS to start his tour of the factory floor. I wish I could tell you what type of factory we were touring. Something about small management projects. POTUS looked at several different types of big machines and talked to the workers. I don't think he knew what he was looking at either. Then we all went into another room for the next part of the tour. Again, I have no idea what I was looking at. There were several women working on sewing machines. He looked at a light board of some sort. And then one of the funniest moments with POTUS happened. He gets to this table that has a red circle mat with what looks like a leaf blower attached. He says it's a hoover board type thing and wants a volunteer from the press corps to try it out. A couple of the still photographers volunteered me to do it but thankfully POTUS didn't know my name and couldn't call on me. So he called on the reporter from the NYT. It was pretty funny. Since words don't really describe it, I'll let you watch the video.


We were literally only a couple of feet away from him for a lot of the tour. That never happens. It's usually all very well-staged and we are kept rather far away from POTUS. I was amazed how close we were and for how long! Once we got to the town-hall, it was a bit anti-climatic. I'm sure it was great and all but after going to hundreds of those, it takes a lot for one to stand out. Before I knew it, it was over and we were running back to the motorcade to leave for the airport. Along the way, we were able to eat some wings that POTUS bought for us (or someone in the WH bought). The wings were okay. I'm just not a fan of eating something that causes that much of a mess only for two or three bites. Anyway, I digress.

We then headed from Buffalo to New York City. (BTW, we were served calzones for meal #2.) As you know, I had been there a few weeks ago but whenever you are inside the security bubble in travel pool, it's a totally different experience. First of all, NYC means getting to go into the city on a helicopter. It's seriously one of my favorite things I've ever done. And I've done it several times and it never gets old. We chopper from JFK airport to the Wall Street Landing Zone (LZ). And it's an incredible ride!! But they do enforce the seat belt thing so I tried my best to lean behind me and take pictures through the window. That exact moment is when I wished that everyone else on the planet could be there. I totally realized I was super blessed to being seeing such a view!!

Once we landed at the LZ, we ran over to watch POTUS's Marine One land on the same LZ. I have yet to figure out how they do that. He left before us and landed after us. One day, I'll solve the mystery. Anyway, soon after POTUS landed, we ran to the motorcade and by this point, it was rush hour. And they closed down a lot of main roads for POTUS. I'm sure there were plenty of people who were not pleased. We made a quick stop at the NYPD Headquarters to thank the officers for dealing with the recent Times Square car bombing incident. That involved running for about five minutes and all cramming into a small elevator and running down another hall. We found ourselves in the communications hub with the officers and POTUS had a few words. And then we retraced our steps and ran back to the vans. (Are you seeing a trend? We run a lot.)

Finally we were headed to the St. Regis Hotel for POTUS to speak to a fundraiser. It's amazing how many streets were shut down and how many people were lining the streets to catch a glimpse of the motorcade. It's a pretty cool experience to be driving down cleared out streets all through New York City. Usually my experience has been sitting in a cab in traffic! When we got to the hotel, we waited for a few minutes in a room before we went to the room where the event was. I did run into Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick! I guess they could afford the price tag for the tickets- $30,400!!

Once POTUS was done giving his speech, we ran back to the motorcade (BTW they had box meals for us as meal #3.) Then we raced back to the LZ and then got to take the helicopters back to the airport. This time it was dusk and an absolute incredible view. Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the helicopter to get a good picture but trust me, it's awesome.

By the time we got back to AF1, it felt like we had been running around for days. It had only been about 11 hours! I was sooo happy to be going home but also feeling extremely blessed for having such an unique experience. We had three flights on AF1, two unannounced stops, some up-close time with POTUS, a cool motorcade through the streets of NYC, And of course two awesome helicopter flights!! And BTW, we had more wings on AF1 for meal #4!