This series of postings will describe my journey to the Democratic National Convention in Boston with media credentials and a seat in the press area of the Fleet Center. Past postings are here:
Day 0 Posting 1 - Blogging: Journalism or Activism or Both?
Getting to Boston seemed somewhat challenging, in terms of the many hoops I had to go through to apply for media credentials (samples of the newspaper, writing samples, criminal record checks, urine sample sent to Boston - just kidding). But, I had no idea how difficult it would be to fly here. In the spirit of Kate O'Connor's campaign trail classic
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/001832.html
here's my tale:
Midway through what was supposed to be leg one of a two-leg cross-country plane trip to Boston, we encountered some serious turbulence and the pilot headed to a somewhat calmer air location over the Four Corners where we were in a holding pattern for an hour waiting for unexpectedly large thunderstorms to leave Denver. Our relatively small jet (seats 30) banked and banked and saw gorgeous salmon-colored Southwestern gorges. The flight attendant looked somewhat panicked as she announced every 15 minutes or so that the pilot was trying to find a place we could land before we ran out of fuel. Eventually the pilot announced that we were going to try to make it to Grand Junction, Colorado through some more turbulence and he thought we could make it on the remaining fuel. Note the word "try."
At this point, I started wondering once again just why I had left my two young kids for this journey and whether this was all worth it. Indeed, we did make it to Grand Junction and had a beautiful, though bumpy, descent among golden-colored buttes. The pilot met with us as we sat on the small airstrip and explained that we were going to refuel for forty minutes and then figure out if we could safely fly to Denver. He added that Denver was currently closed to all incoming planes and we probably wouldn't be missing our connecting flights because there were no departures either. Meanwhile, security required us to stay on the very hot plane.
Although there wasn't much in Grand Junction besides buttes, about one-fourth of the passengers inquired of the pilot if they could leave now and rent a car instead of fly into Denver. I considered this plan myself, but figured it would be a really long drive to Boston. I also considered turning back home, but decided that if national politicians, professional athletes, management consultants, and rock stars could fly every day, I could fly to Denver in inclement weather and hopefully fly to Boston too.
About an hour later, we took off for Denver and the plane jumped around a lot; the flight attendant announced, "Obviously, I will not be able to get out of my seat on this flight. If you have an emergency and need me, I'll get to you." Note the word "emergency."
We landed in Denver and I was glad I had not missed the flight to Boston, though I was reluctant to get on a plane a third time, given how pleasant the first two flights of the day had been. The flight was delayed another hour, which meant I would be arriving in Boston after midnight.
I was seated on the plane next to a disgruntled couple who were flying from their home in Colorado to a wedding in New Hampshire; they were really annoyed that the bridal party had scheduled the wedding the same weekend as the Democratic National Convention. They told me their conspiracy theory: that the airport claimed flights were delayed out of Denver due to weather when really it was due to all the private jets heading to Boston getting priority over us.
The plane was then held to the side of the runway for about 40 minutes as they fixed an air valve problem -- "See," the man next to me said. "There's really no air valve problem."
During take-off the pilot apologized for the multiple delays and said they were a result of both the early thunderstorms in Denver and also the very saturated airspace along our route. So, my seat-neighbor was at least partially correct... there were a LOT of planes full of dignitaries, elected officials, delegates, press people, and other special guests heading to Boston on Friday evening.
I've heard that the stage of the Convention will be surrounded by a large number of plasma screens with live images of Americans from around the country in an effort to bring more of America to the Convention. I figure I'm bringing images of Western, Southwestern, and Rocky Mountain topography with me.
After landing in Logan Airport (where red, white, and blue fabric was wrapped around poles in the baggage claim area including over the Boston-requisite Dunkin Donuts stand -- perhaps special decoration for this week?), I grabbed a cab with another Boston-bound traveler. He was Alex De Ocampo, President of California Young Democrats and a Kerry delegate.
I asked Alex when he first started supporting Kerry, and he thought it was about a month before the Delegate Caucus (where delegates are elected by local supporters) in February. I thought about the people I knew in California who were elected as Dean delegates after a year of hard work, but aren't coming to Boston because Dean suspended his candidacy before the California Primary. Anyway, Alex is a nice guy who has obviously done a lot of work for the Dem Party, and we enjoyed chatting in the cab so much that we didn't notice that we were touring Cambridge and parts of Boston for no particular reason (flat fee from the airport, so it was just wasting our time, but not money). Our first stop: Mass Gen Hospital.
No, we didn't get into a car crash. My Boston host is an emergency physician and she had left a housekey for me at the front desk of the emergency department. Alex and I both found this to be an odd location to start our time in Boston, but I was glad the key was actually there and I could soon find a bed.
I awoke to heavy rain -- the air is now saturated with water as well as jets. In the spirit of participatory democracy, let's hope the votes rain down as hard in November.
My host left me a raincoat and umbrella before she departed for her shift in the emergency room. I'm off to see what's happening -- I'll report more later...