Rondog, out of the goodness of his heart, paid a lot of money out of his own pocket to rent the dump truck. Sadly, it had to be returned right after the freep.
Apparently dump truck rental is pricey, both by the day and through additional mileage charges. Driving it is also a royal pain; this thing is apparently no SL600. If you've ever had your car towed and ridden in the towtruck cab, you'll get the idea.
But it made a great prop, and I got some awesome crowd shots. The crowd was tremendous and really pumped up!
I visited the Oxnard Gray Davis event, and there was a tepid group of supporters in front. When Gray Davis left, the supporters went in a campaign van right behind him, so it looks like I have photo proof that they were paid Davis stooges. More about my first personal freep later; I have to get the video done. Preliminary working title:
Gray & Me
(Same plot as Roger & Me - This was my first attempt to meet Gray Davis. You'll have to watch it to see how it came out!).
Let me just say here that the Davis supporters who showed up were pretty tepid. Even his hired stooges couldn't make much of a showing - they showed up, signs in hand and just stood there. No chanting, no nothing.
Intriguingly enough, the signs his stooges were holding did not refer to Gray Davis, but simply expressed the hope that things would get better. I was a little confused by this; I thought the point of the event was to pump Gray. But the Spanish language signs didn't mention him at all.
And the event's audience was doing about the same thing - just waiting all too patiently for the Great Man. Sadly, I couldn't get in the event because I had my Simon shirt on. Oops.
D