Well this year, I didn't have to work late for POTUS's annual State of the Union speech (SOTU for short). So I had the privilege of watching it on my couch. I had the advanced text so I followed along and took note of what lines garnered applause, etc. But the second it was over, I had to hit the hay because we left early the next day for a five-state, three day tour.
Actually it turned into a four-state, three-day tour for us. Only POTUS and the travel pool made it to the fifth state. Which was fine by me.
We started by heading to Phoenix, Arizona where we would be in place and work from while POTUS stopped in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Nothing against Iowa at all but I can't say that I missed being there too badly because it was 75 degrees in Phoenix and just lovely.
We were at the Intel plant in Chandler, Arizona and POTUS spoke in front of some construction of something hi-tech. Forgive me for not remembering and/or understanding exactly what that was.
All I know is that it was big and we worked out of a tent in a parking lot for about eight hours. And so there were no restrooms, just portapotties. I hate portapotties. I only use them in cases of emergency. But eight hours is a long time. This might be in the category of too much information but I was successful in avoiding having to use them!
So POTUS came and spoke but the only story anyone was talking about was his meeting on the tarmac with the governor of Arizona. I was asked to write a short wire story about it and next thing I knew, it was the top story on my network's website.We scooted off for Vegas for the night. I had been up since about 2a so by the time we got checked into our hotel close to midnight and my colleagues wanted to go out, I promptly turned them down. I think I'm too old for that any more! Not that it was ever my scene to begin with! Anyway, after a lovely short night's sleep in a nice hotel, we got up and went to the UPS facility in Las Vegas so POTUS could make some more remarks. While he was talking about his SOTU themes, I was trying to figure out if I had any packages at the facility that I could just pick up while I was there!
From there we headed to Denver, Colorado where POTUS visited Edwards AFB. He spoke to several hundred airmen about more SOTU stuff. I think he was tired by this point. I know I was! We were only on the ground in Colorado for about three hours total. If I had been there longer, I would have tried to go visit my former youth minister and his family. But alas, there was no time!
After his speech there, we hustled off to Detroit to spend the night. Once again, we got there about 1am and some of my colleagues wanted to go out. Again, I said no and went to sleep. I had to be on a bus at 6a the next morning!!Our final stop was actually in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan's football practice facility. I was so tired by this point that it actually took me a couple of hours to realize where I was! I realized that I don't actually like Michigan because we played them in this year's Sugar Bowl and should have won that game but didn't due to a terrible call by the refs. It was a bit crushing to hear POTUS congratulate them for their victory. But instead of causing a scene, I decided to keep my mouth shut and thus not getting in trouble and loosing my press credentials. :)
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