Posted on 03/08/2003 1:10:02 PM PST by prisoner6
We had a beautiful day for the PIttsburgh Rally for Freedom at point state park. Some early birds like Badray gathered on the remains of the ramparts of Fort Pitt between ten and eleven.
My son (prisoner6sson) and I were going to take the west busway. We waited for the 10AM bus but it never came. Dittos with the 10:20. It turned out the bridge that passes over the busway near my house decided to start falling apart and so there was basically no bus service. Luckily Daughter got home from dance school with the van so we jumped in and headed out. It was a little later than we had hoped and without signs but we wanted to get going as fast as we could.
Before we pulled into the gateway garage we saw lots of people heading for the rally. I honked and waved. I think that scared a few folks...LOL!
One of the neatest things though was when we pulled into our parking spot. A couple of spaces away we noticed a gal getting out of her car. We all started for the elevator and I saw she had flags and signs so I asked if she was a FReeper. Turned out it was sneakers! Cool! I think she's the one who gave us the heads up about the rally. A short time later we were joined by another young gal and her son and we allheaded to the park.
On the way there were lots of bikers pulling in. I coulnted around 200 and then gave up.
We looked around for Badray and sure enough there he was with a FReeper sign high on a pole, flags and a table with Freeper stuff! And Smokeyb was right there as well waving a rather large - and heavy looking - American Flag.
After hugs and greetings all around we milled about, talked with folks and soaked up something we haven't had too much of here in the 'burg....SUN!
I started milling around the crowd and walked around it completely a couple of times to get an estimate of the size. At the 11:30 sceduled start I figured at least 2000. A little later Jim Quinn said the count was around 2500. I don't doubtr it a bit.
As I wandered about I ran into a KDKA TV crew who was setting up for live and recorded segments. FOc-TV was also there as well as Dee Thompson from Channel Eleven.
I haven't seen anything yet but I think there was pretty good coverage. I did mention to the KD crew to say hi to one of their producers who I know very well and we talked for a few minutes about the rally. I got the impression they thought it was a pretty big deal but the turnout could have been better.
I don't know but I think 2500+ isn't too bad.
Anyway the rally became one big party. A sea of flags, speeches by military and vets, Quinn made an address. It would have bben nice to have seen a few local politicias there but I suppose since their all basically socialist here...and they knew no one in the crowd would EVER vote for them...none showed up.
We snag, said the pledge, cheered a lot and generally had a pretty good time. I didn't see any protestors but at one point someone took the microphone and siad something that got the crowd jumping ugly, but I didn't catch exactly what it was. Anyone else catch it?
That's about it except for some pics. I'm posting them here without much comment except that ...MAN! Do I need a new camera! The one I have has been pretty good for going on 4 years old but now it's blurry and poor contrast no matter what I do. I did a little tweaking but it really didn't help much. Hope someone else posts better pics.
Hope the pix are small enough to not load things up to much.
prisoner6
Badray gets interviewed.
Somkeyb waves Old Glory
Sneakers climbs to get a better view
SmokeyB doing the flag thing again with the Hilton in the background. My son (prisoner6sson) also noticed someone had hung a huge flag on the wall of the penthouse in the Gateway Towers next to the Hilton. It's coverd by SmokeyB's flag in this pic.
prisoner6sson sits next to the landmark plaque on what would be the outer ramparts of old Fort Pitt. This was as we were leaving...about 15-20 minutes before things started to wrap up.
Some of over 200 bikes. There were som many they lined both entrances to the park and out onto Stanwix, across from the Hilton. Most were HD..a few Hondas... a couple of Yamahas Including a really neat but unrestored old blue 650 that I like), Kaws and Bimmers. Didn't see ANY Urals though...
A sea of Red, White and Blue...
Lots of GREAT signs...wish I could remember this one. I think sneakers might remember.
The KDKA TV crew.
More flags.
A great crowd as seen from Sneakers perch.
prisoner6
prisoner6
Maybe a biker ping too.
BTW prisoner6sson says the sign I was trying to remember read "Send Osama ad Saddam back to Hell!" There were lots of others like never letting the french tell us what to do and it's the SECURITY Stupid.
prisoner6
I parked in the "Horne's" garage on Stanwix and walked down the Allegheny side of Point State park.
Best thing I saw was a guy who had the French flag on a stick and dragging it on the ground. Also the "screw France" sign(screw described heirogryphically as something you would find in a hardware store) was great.
BTW, don't ever park at the "Horne's" garage even on a weekend. It was $5 for less than an hour with one dollar increases for every hour and when I was on my to the South Hills I passed a parking garage on Stanwix that had a flat rate for $3.
prisoner6
Seriously, looks like a great rally!
She called the other employee who told people they could now come to the window, so we went there for change. BUT the employee who was manning the window told us we had to go back to the machine for our change because the other employee was fixing it. We went back but he said no and shuffled us back to the window.
Eventuallly we got checked out but if I hadn't been in such good spirits from the rally ...LOL!
Wonder if he had any help leaving....
prisoner6
You should've stopped in and bought something and have the cashier validate your ticket.
prisoner6
prisoner6
One thing I liked, besides the "screw France" poster, was the people who made posters with photos of their servicemen - son, nephew, etc. This isn't just an abstraction. These troops we support are real people, and they are at great risk. Prayers for a quick and decisive resolution to this conflict.
Well I can't say for sure, because (living out of state) I haven't actually parked downtown in 15~20 years.
But that's the way it USED to work for the dahntahn merchants.
Capitalism at its finest: actual PAYING customers get the parking discount!
Hope to see ya at the next one!
prisoner6
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