The long drive home.

After only 3 1/2 hours of sleep I hit the road. Of course I could not take the normal route back, I had to take the scenic route thru the U.P.

That turned out to be quite a chore. There is no easy way to get from Minneapolis to the U.P. It is all 2 lane black top. You go from one county road to another. I had no idea if I was going to find the U. P. or be lost in upper Wisconsin all day.

I drove thru the U.P. and stopped briefly at a road side park to admire the view of the Straights...

I stopped again for an hour and a half in Gaylord to visit my folks and some college friends.

812 miles later I arrived at home (10:30 PM and 14 1/2 hours later).

It felt good to sleep in my own bed. (and of course to see my wife!!)

And so it comes to an end...

After the great day we had on Wednesday...I knew Thursday would be a bit of a let down. As I looked over the list of speakers, I did not seen anyone who could come close to Rudi and Sarah. The list included the following:

1. Tom Ridge - The first Homeland Security Chief
2. Governor Palenty of Minnesota
3. Senator Linsey Grahm
4. Cindy McCain

The list did show two spots as TBA. I was wondering if they convinced 'the governator' to make the trip from California...but unfortunately they did not. The two surprise guests were the Gold medal winner in the decathlon (I forgot his name) and Joe Gibbs (former NFL coach and NASCAR team owner). They were ok...nothing special. Rudi had set the bar way too high.

I did spend some time earlier in the day in the Fox News Experience. You could go under their big tent and see several of their sets and their team hard at work. My friend Shannon got his picture taken with Sean Hannity. I also understand that earlier in the week Bill O'Reilly spent some time talking with the fans. It was my loss that I did now know about it earlier in the week. I did briefly speak to Carl Cameron who was on his way into the Xcel Center. He is a sharp guy and I enjoy his commentary. He is also very tall and thin, more than what he looks like on TV.

As the speeches continued on the floor, I worked my way down to a club level seat in the front row. (I used some of my usual tricks that I have used at sporting events before). It turned out to be a nice spot to see the stage and the video boards.

I will have to admit as McCain got started I was distracted by the protesters. We had one that was 3 sections away from us. On the rebroadcast they did show him briefly on The Fox News Channel. What a bunch of idiots. While I strongly defend their right to protest, during his acceptance speech is not acceptable. I was disappointed the cops did not haul the guy away sooner.

McCain's speech was not spectacular, but it did end in a flourish. I think it got projected the right message. If I were a betting man, I still say his chances are 40%...but then again, I was the guy who thought that Dick DeVos would win the governors race in 2006!

There was a lot of talk earlier in the day on what was going on in Detroit. We were all thankful that Kilpatrick is done. Its about time.

After the speech was over I worked my way down to the lower level and just soaked in the moment. I made a promise to myself that in 4 years I will run to be a delegate.

Now the 60 day sprint to the finish begins...along with my 12 hour drive back to Detroit!

Before the convention

I forgot to mention that I attended the Republican Govenors Association lunch before the convention. I arrived late and missed Mike Huckabee jaming with a band that included the lead guitarist of Alabama.

I did arrive in time to see a set by country music artist Clint Walker. He was excellent. Too bad more people did not attend. There could not have been more than 100 people in the building when he played. My Michigan group stood right in front of the dance floor...

An interesting dinner

After the speeches were finished, a group of us made a trip over to The St. Paul Hotel and had a late dinner.

If you watched the coverage on TV, you might have seen the unique National Anthem sang by Big & Rich (right after Sarah's speech). Well...at the table behind me at dinner was Big & Rich! They even came over to our table and I got a chance to meet them and talk briefly.

On the flip side...at the table next to me was Chris Mathews of MSNBC. He is probably the most biased liberal commentator on TV. Needless to say I had no interest in meeting him.

A member of our group ran into the head of the Arizona delegation. Their group is just left of the stage. This person said that Rudi ad libed at least HALF of his speech. Amazing! It was a great speech. It was even better than Sarah's speech in my opinion...

I finally get down on the floor

Many thanks to my friend Chris who 'loaned' me his floor pass so I could go down and walk around and take pictures. Our delegation all wore our hockey jerseys from the Sunday night party. Everyone loved them. I had people stop me to take pictures with me wearing my jersey.

The floor as you might imagine was chaos. It was hard to move around. I passed Frank Luntz the pollster, Andrea Mitchell of NBC and Senator Trent Lott doing an interview. It absolutely made my day!

As you can see, I did get up close to the stage during Carly Fiorina's speech (formerly the CEO of HP) and Meg Whitman's speech (former CEO of EBAY). In fact, after the event was over I ran into Meg in the hallway and congratulated her on her speech.

A wild day...

I was able to capture a few pictures of protesters today. I have been looking for them, but the major protests have been well before our convention starts in the evening. Here are a few pictures you might enjoy.

There was one group of what I would call 'counter protesters' at the MSNBC set. I love their signs! At one point during the convention one of the speakers referred to the 'main stream media bias' and the floor went up with a chant of "NBC...NBC...NBC " It was fabulous!

Lieberman and Thompson kick things off !

There were some members of our delegation that were concerned about what we would get from Fred Thompson. He spoke at our policy conference on Mackinac Island last fall and it was not well received. Fortunately I think he did very well. I loved his line that referenced Obama's comment that the decision about when life begins "is above my pay grade". It got a roar from the crowd. Lets just call it 'fresh meat' for the faithful.

I was amazed that the headliner for the night was the 2000 VP Pick for the Democratic Party Joeseph Liberman. He stayed away from the areas that would not go over well with the Republican attendees and focused on John McCain and his qualifications. I will admit to being a little uncomfortable with one refernce to Bill Clinton and items that were accomplished during his administration.

I will also note that there is a buzz in the convention for Wednesday night and Sarah Palin's speech. I can't wait!