Trip report?
Sorry, fell asleep at my desk. Yeah, we had a great time. Stayed up late last night, then got up early and left for the rally with no breakfast. Lucked into a great parking spot on the street just outside the entrance to the convention center. Stopped at the first street vendor’s table on the way in and purchased “Make America Great Again” hats.
We followed the crowd and eventually found the end of the long line snaking back and around the complex. An hour or so later after being searched and checked out by metal detectors and bomb sniffing dogs, we were directed up an elevator and to the handicap seating area in the rear balcony section. They were good seats with a great view of the entire arena, but not close-in so no way did we have a chance to meet Trump. Didn’t see any other FReepers there either.
Trump gave a rousing speech and had the place rocking. Opened with a talk about our Valley federal water problems and promised that if he were elected, the water would be turned back on. To hell with the job-killing, farmer-hating environmentalists! That brought the cheering Fresno crowd to their feet. It was LOUD!
He talked for about an hour bringing out all his America-first positions and kept the crowd roaring all the way through. We were interrupted by protesters a couple times who got escorted out for their troubles. The police made short work of it and there was no violence.
Trump worked the crowd up into a loud crescendo at the end of his speech talking about all the ways we will be winning for a change after he’s elected.
After the speech Trump came down and mingled with the surging crowd for awhile. There was a huge crowd on the floor and no way could we get close, so we waited and watched for a bit and then worked our way to the elevator.
When we got to the lower level, there was a wall of police, security people and secret service who were guiding and shunting the crowd out the back doors and eventually to the street where we were parked. We saw helicopters and heard bullhorns and crowd noises but couldn’t see what was going on. Apparently, there was a raucous protest going on on the other side of the complex. I don’t think it quite make it to the riot stage, but there were a couple arrests.
We got back into the freepermobile and the traffic cops efficiently directed us away from the area and back to the freeway. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant for lunch where the proprietor came to our table for a bit to discuss the rally. Sounded like he was all in favor of securing the borders.
Sorry, don’t have any pictures to post, but Syncro took some and a video or two which he will post later. Don’t know how big the crowd was but it was in the thousands. Maybe 10,000 to 15,000 or more?