Trip to NH

So I haven't posted in awhile, but I wanted to document my campaign journal!

Yesterday I left my house at 8am to take a trip to Manchester NH to campaign. Those of you who know me will know for whom I'm campaigning.... I don't want to get the campaign in trouble, so I will leave it at that!

In any case, I boarded the first leg of my trip to Philly. I arrived and grabbed a slice of pizza, and then headed to the gate for the Manchester flight. Upon arriving I saw that it was "Cancelled." Due to heavy snow, the Manchester airport was closed. Snow had been predicted for that evening, but arrived early. I've found in my time in New York that snow never quite behaves the way the forecasters expect it to.

Great. So with a bunch of New Hampshirites, I got in line to re-book. A few started asking me why I was going to New Hampshire, and I told them to campaign for my candidate! This elicited a few eye rolls, but for the most part they were true to the stereotype of New Hampshire voters - grumpy but engaged. One woman started talking about the factory in her town that recently closed. Another thought that we should spend more money in the US than abroad. A third joked he was going to put a big sign on his barn, which is off of I-93 with my candidate's name - and an "X" through it.

I managed to get another flight, this one to Laguardia. After a few hours of layover, I finally boarded a cold flight for Manchester. We touched down in a snow covered airport, and I made the hairy drive up to the Lakes Region.

I arrived in the Laconia office and immediately started doing data entry. Most of the people in the office are the age of my students. or a little older... but fun. They told me that "this is the best office - the nicest people!" It's certainly better than Dover, where I was four years ago for another presidential campaign. Apparently the vistas while out canvassing are quite lovely.

At about 10:30pm, after doing a ton of data entry, I headed on the snowy and dark roads to my "supporter housing," a beautiful red and green house on one of the lakes up here. I had a cup of tea, chatted for awhile with the woman hosting me, took a shower, and then fell fast asleep.

When I woke up, it was sunny and bright - no longer the blizzard that canceled my flight yesterday. The leftover snow, however, did prevent me from getting my car up the steep driveway. I started smelling burning, and I decided to stop at that point. It was either dig out, wait for the plow.... which meant missing the morning meeting and canvassing.

So a couple of interns came to pick me up. They're both college students, and one was pissed about yesterday's canvassing experience. They were out until 8pm (which I will be today, once we get going!), and the roads and long driveways of the Lakes Region were pretty treacherous. The young man (God, I'm getting old) launched into a lengthy description, peppered with curses, about his day. "I'm not getting paid for this sh** - and I wasn't going to risk my life driving down these driveways. F'ing black ice..."

And so on.

We arrived 45 minutes late for the morning staff meeting - 9:30am. The staff meeting began with an org chart - ah, the org chart - presented by some consultants from a grass roots firm. Morning individual meetings took place, and Joey, my canvass buddy, and I watched Bill Clinton's campaign video to inspire us.

Now it's 11:05am, and I'm here, hanging out, waiting to go canvas.

More updates from the campaign trail - my own personal one, through the snow and ice, to individual voters.