A Walk to the Park

So, I left work an hour early yesterday, at 3:30. It took me 45 minutes to get home. . .yes, I know a lot of folks make that kind of drive, or worse!, on a regular basis. But, if I don’t have to pick up the kiddo from Day Care, and I didn’t, it should only take me 10 minutes. The traffic was so backed up on King Street and down Rt. 15, all up the Greenway, and even down Rt. 7 and Market Street. It was an amazing sight to see all of these folks heading to the same place.
When I got to my neighborhood, the streets, all of them, were lined on both sides with cars and streams of people walking toward the park. The closer I got to home, the more intense traffic, vehicular and pedestrian alike! When I did get home, I was able to pull into my driveway and got out to see that the park was already full of vehicles (thus the lining of the roads) and there were sooooo many people over there! Several of our neighbors were outside and it quickly became a party-like atmosphere. One neighbor noted to me that people began showing up at 10:00 in the morning and the park had opened at 1:00 instead of the expected 3:00 and that it was full by 2:00! Amazing. . .

After getting inside and putting a lasagna into the oven, we ultimately decided to hang at our neighbors who looks out over the park. We could just barely make out where the stage was from their deck (it was clearly visible from my driveway in the morning, but not with all of the cars and people!) and could see the lines and lines of folks waiting to get up close after going through security.

About 5:00, Mark Warner, former Virginia Governor and now running for the Senate, began speaking. . .all about Change. . .and then Tim Kaine, our current Virginia Governor spoke. . .more about change. . .and then Senator Obama came on and spoke for 40 or 45 minutes. It was all over by 6:15.

During it all, we, our neighbors and us, began to talk about these candidates and what we think. I shared my theory that McCain may have changed his mind about running and thus the choice of Palin as a running mate. Seriously, had anyone, outside of Alaska, ever heard of her??? But, then there is the whole theory/speculation about Obama’s past. . .is he connected to ACORN??? What about Joe Biden, well we all kind of agreed that he was the only one among the group that seems somewhat normal. And finally, does anyone really think there will be change with either candidate? With today’s economy in the toilet, will we truly be better off in 4 years with either of these men?

And here’s a final thought that kind of sent a shiver up my spine: When talking about the inconvenience of having so much traffic in and around Leesburg, I had several folks say, with stars in their eyes, how much they admire Obama and what a “fan” they are of him and how envious they were of where I live. . .FAN????????????????????????????? Isn’t he running for President of the United States? Are people really fans of the President? It reminded me of the Kennedy’s back in the ‘60’s. . .Scary!

This morning the news indicated that the expected 10,000 folks ended up being closer to 35,000. Wow! I knew it was crowded. The park didn’t get fully cleared out until a little after 8:00.

And, the lasagna was good, by the way. When we went to the neighbors, we went back when the timer went off and turned the oven off. . .it stayed warm and delicious until we were ready!