We Rode To The Rally

Mas and I are both having sinus issues this week, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go see Obama speak yesterday. We busted out our bikes, knowing that we wouldn't have to worry about parking (or paying for parking) if we could get our slightly ill selves the four miles to Reunion Arena. Except for the cold air in my lungs, it was a great ride. Riding in that direction is generally pretty nice. You don't get a lot of honkers or people yelling at you to get off the road. It's mostly downhill going toward downtown and the weather was great.



We left at a 9 and arrived at the arena at about 9:20. We knew that there would be a line, but we had no idea it would be as insane as it was. The line wrapped all the way around the building, through half of the parking garage and snaked around to the back of the garage. We estimated that there were probably 8,000 people in front of us. I tried to get a photo that would give an idea of how long it was, but I couldn't get enough of it into one shot.



There were probably at least 10,000 people in line behind us by the time the line started moving toward the entrance. It wasn't very well organized, but (after a bit of trampling) we finally made it inside. In all, we waited in line for about three hours, but nobody seemed to mind at all.



Almost every seat in the arena was full. I've heard that they started turning people away when he began speaking at around 1:00. His speech was incredible and the crowd was the loudest I've ever heard.



I've also never seen a crowd as diverse as this one. There were old white women, young black men, Muslims, Latinos, tons of the 18-24 crowd of all races--and everyone was chatting, getting along and really excited about the day. It was amazing and really makes you think that without the press spinning things to make us all afraid of each other, this country would be capable of so much more.