I just came back from the Washington State Caucus's, as has been my last two days experience, finding parking wasn't easy! I was one of the thousands on Friday that wound up listening to Obama's speech on the radio. I somewhat went to that event with expectations of a modest turnout, being it was Friday, doors open at 11:00 A.M.! My first clue to my error in judgement was, the backup for close to a mile, to the exit, for the event. I then drove round and round trying to find parking, watching the hordes of people, all ages, all ethnicities, streaming towards the Key Arena. The Key Arena holds 17,000 people, it was estimated that another 3,000 showed up, but couldn't get in, not to count those that got stuck in traffic, or like me, couldn't find a parking space. I decided instead of driving around, to save my gas, in order to find my caucus location today, better to support Obama today, in order to party tomorrow!
Today's caucus was much of the same as yesterday, more people then was expected, caucus's are a place where you can get to know your neighbor, well, we were all very cozy, once again, all ages, all ethnicities, the oldest being 94, the youngest, 18! Considering that 31 precincts were crammed into an elementary school gym, it went alot smoother than one would have expected. Democracy isn't necissarily always such a smooth and easy process, which is what is exciting about it, the coming together of such divergent groups of people. Our little mountain of support went towards Obama, 58 to 15.
So from my experience in the last two days, don't wait till the last minute, share a ride, I brought my 76 year old mother. Parking is going to be harder to find, when more people start to believe, there's a change in the air, an excitement about what we can do, who we are and where we are going!