AAR: PICTURES FROM REAGAN LIBRARY 6/7/04
Bob J's camera | 6/8/04 | Diotima
Posted on 06/08/2004 9:17:26 AM PDT by diotima
Reagan Library Pictures 6/7/2004
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Freepers (L to R) Dio, Doug from Upland, DoughtyToo,
DoughtyOne, NerdGirl, sordo
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To: diotima
This is my report from the trenches last night.I am absolutely blown away by the showing for President Reagan.
Because I have two small children that needed to get to bed (a baby and a 7-year-old who had his school picnic today so couldn't take off school), I could only leave after their bedtime and leave Daddy in charge. My 12-year-old son accompanied me. We set off on our hour's drive toward Moorpark at 10 p.m.
We got stuck behind an accident on the 405 near the airport so we didn't get up to the 23 at the Collins exit until about 11:30. We took the 23 instead of the more common 118 from L.A. because of a FReeper's tip. They say you shave off an hour of wait that way. There was a temporary freeway sign posted that the wait ahead would be 3 hours. Then we saw it: the other 2 lanes of the freeway were empty, but there was nothing but a sea of red taillights as far as the eye could see in the right lane.
Just up ahead was an exit and some people were going off there. I decided to follow them. I had no idea where we were in relation to the college so I was relying on the cars in front of me. Well, after a few turns where they all went the same way, they basically petered out in all directions and I didn't know what to do. Sam was asking me to please make a U-turn. We had traveled what I thought was far from the freeway at that point and the road seemed a little desolate.
Then suddenly we came to a freeway onramp for the 118. We had a choice of E or W, but I had no earthly idea which way Moorpark College was from there. I crept up and peeked up the E and there was a long line of cars on the freeway. Obviously that was the right way. We went up and got into line. Behind us were probably 2 or more miles of cars, single file. We had accidentally taken a HUGE "legal" short cut!
We congratulated ourselves for a while. On the radio on KFI was a guy who was broadcasting live from the Reagan Library, which kept us company. It took 10 minutes to move a few yards. We were looking at bushes on the side of the road and clocking how long it took to get to each one.
Unfortunately, the talk show host was interviewing people who had come from Reagan's viewing, and they had been waiting for 5 hours before they got to the rotunda. We started to get worried. In half an hour, moving slower than a snail with crutches, we reached the exit offramp. We could see curving ahead of us nothing but a sea of red snaking up the overpass and around a bend. Below us in either direction on the freeway as far as the eye could see were "diamond necklaces," white lights of the cars in single file waiting to exit the freeway from both the east and the west.
An hour later, we were finally off the offramp, at the first signal on the overpass. The radio announced that it would probably take all night just to get to the parking lot from the freeway, and several hours of line-waiting around and around Moorpark College, until you got on the shuttle buses to drive the 5 miles to the Reagan Library, where no doubt there would still be lines, and then waiting to get back.
It was 1 a.m. We did not have all night, if we wanted to stay up all night. We could not afford to be stuck up at the Ranch all night when my husband needed to leave to work by 6 a.m. but wouldn't be able to because of the little boys.
We turned around.
We were so frustrated that we did not get to pay our respects.
However, as we left on the 118 E, we were completely SHOCKED. In the opposite direction (which was the main direction to the Reagan Library from all of L.A. and the Interstate 5 and most other directions) as we literally sped along on an empty highway at 80 mph, we were still passing an all-lane STANDSTILL several minutes later. There had to be about 5 miles of packed cars. The freeway was stopped dead. In the midst were some trucks, simply stuck in the middle of the people en route to see Reagan. I have never seen anything like it in my life nor will I ever, I believe. The outpouring of sympathy for the Reagans is absolutely without precedent. It brought tears to my eyes.
About 10 miles later, we stopped to use a restroom. We did not stop at one of the offramps near Moorpark. We did not pull into the first gas station we saw there. And yet in this little gas station, at 1 a.m., there was a line in the MiniMart to use the restroom, populated only by well-dressed turnarounds from the Reagan viewing! We were all so disappointed. We spoke only of the greatness of Reagan and how sad we were that we were not able to pay tribute tonight. I think the turbaned, bearded manager was astounded at our conversations. I can only imagine the cameraderie amongst the actual line waiters at the College.
This morning I find that our turnaround was for the best for our situation: the wait overnight had grown to 10 hours. And yes, the freeway standstill is for a full 5 miles.
Tired but proud of my fellow Americans,
Yaelle --
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