Day 2

So here is what I know.

There is no rest for the weary at a Republican National Convention.

The senator headed out early to hear Governor Scott Walker speak at a breakfast.

Evidently, each day is packed with speakers and special events and more speakers but yesterday, the buses taking us to and from were a tad bit tardy at one point and left our group waiting…

It happens.

So, what did my Senator do? What he usually does anytime we are in a room full of people with some time to spare? He worked the crowd! My kids would say he was running for Mayor of the hotel! I think he just likes people!

Here, he is visiting with some RNC volunteers from Cleveland. Which brings me to my next observation.

The people of Cleveland are extremely kind.

Example of this was clear yesterday. Once our bus finally arrived, our delegation attended several events.

We had lunch at an event hosted by former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating (pictured below in the hat) along with a few other politicos- former Senator Scott Brown (MA) and Congressman Rick Lazio (NY)…not pictured below.

It was held on the water and had a country western theme -hence the cowboy hat. I could have used that hat by the way. Sun has never been my friend…see below.

I am sad I wasn’t able to capture a pic of the many armed coast guard boats crossing the waters behind us. There were many and they received a loud round of applause and cheers from the crowd every time one passed our venue.

Ran into my favorite former Oklahoma First Lady! Love her.

They also had a fun photo booth at the event. As long as I have known Cliff, he n-e-v-e-r misses these opportunities. I have boxes of pictures to prove it!

Back to the kind people of Cleveland.

At one point, a member of our delegation needed to find new batteries for a hearing aid. He asked one of the local volunteers where he could go to find some, but she personally took him to several places in search of some and ended up having a friend of hers track them down and bring them to the event.

Total strangers and a random act of kindness.

Next up was a Red Dirt Roundup for the Oklahoma Delegation complete with BBQ and a country western band. Did I mention Big and Rich played at the last venue? We Okies do love our country music!

Cliff enjoys talking with our Senator Inhofe..mostly about his airplanes. The Senator is a pilot and still flies the friendly skies.

This is our Oklahoma State Party Chairman. She is a rock star and I adore her. I really got to know Pam, not from all of Cliff’s campaigns, but through a little Facebook group of women I am in where we support each other in our efforts to be healthy.

These two beauties are also in our “Superwoman” group. They are rock stars and super fun!! One on the left works in Washington DC and the one in the middle works for the Governor. I am just a fly on their wall haha.

Protesting a Convention is overrated.

After the events, it was time to board the buses and head to the Q, but this time we had a little bit of a walk to get to the pick up location.

I chose to follow these guys and nearly wound up in the protest area.

When I realized the bus was behind me and about to depart, I headed back to jump on board. I use the word “I” because Cliff had been distracted looking at t-shirts and vintage campaign buttons being sold from various vendors or running for the Mayor of Cleveland….but at this point he was waving at me to get on board the bus…now!

Our bus pulled out and then came to a standstill and this is what I saw from the window.

A group of protestors were being allowed to halt traffic up ahead. When I say ” group,” I mean around 50 max. The police appeared to let them stand in the road for what seemed like a staged media opportunity. Then, just like that, the police escorted them off of the road and down the sidewalk where we watched and the hungry media followed. I am sure the headline somewhere read ‘thousands of angry protestors blocked convention delegates,’ but it was nothing like that! There were twice as many police and more cameras than protestors. And for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what they were protesting based on their signs and chants…not sure they knew either.

The Quicken Arena is a Safe Zone

Everyone in this sea of thousands has passed through lots of security to be in this room. Lots of security. If you don’t have your proper badge on (they call it credentials), then forget about it. Entry denied.

My view from Loud City.

Until I made it down onto the floor with Cliff.

The theme was Make America Work Again just in case you couldn’t tell by the sign. There were lots of speakers, like notables Chris Cristie and Ben Carson and Paul Ryan and non notables like Natalie Gulbis, a professional golfer who talked about how she came to know and admire the nominee. Kelly Woolard, head of Trump Winery, who gave a powerful testimony about what it was like to work for Donald Trump and how he inspires everyone to be the best they can be. You get the idea.