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I get a real kick out of the bus thing. When abner and I went down to Massachusetts Ave, we were in a LeBaron Convertible, not a bus. Parking was difficult that day, not because of busses, I never saw one, but individual cars. These weren't extra Embassy cars, this was a weekend. These were private citizens, parking half a mile or more down and walking, bringing hand made signs, scrawled out that morning or the night before. How do I know? I asked them.

As we came up Massachusetts Avenue, a place I had never been, we approached a bend in the road and there were the supporters of Bush/Cheney, 150-200 yards of them. We got there fairly early, around 10 or so and saw no busses coming up the road. I did see Clinton in a prison outfit, does that count?

We also made signs in a sign shop and traded people shiny new signs for the hand made ones. One of the guys from the Norweigen Embassy begged us for a Sore/Loserman one for his office. He wasn't bussed either. Emphatic, excited, but not bussed.

We were there till almost sundown. During the day, my friend held the Cheaties sign for every foriegn camera you can imagine. No, not US. French, German, Japanese. I know because they would introduce themselves to him. He stood the corner the entire day, still no busses dropping off people.

I wandered through the crowd, talking to everybody I could. The kind of small talk that brings people together, since they didn't meet on a bus. "Hi, What brought you here?", "Is this what you expected?", that type of thing. People came from VA, MD, DE, PA. Nobody by bus, all independent singles, couples and families with kids. Is a Voyager or Astro Van a bus?

Here's the reply that really stuck with me. I asked why this one couple came out. They said, of course this is paraphrased "We feel so helpless. We have been watching the fiasco on TV and just don't know what else to do. Nobody hears how we really feel. The news reports the opinion as they think it is, and it isn't ours. We felt so helpless last night, we couldn't take it anymore and then heard about this going on. So we made signs, got in our car at 4:30 this morning (guess busses don't run that early), left PITTSBURG, and here we are. Now we feel like we are at least being heard and we are not alone." THAT'S RIGHT, PITTSBURG!! They told me they had never done anything like this, they were just so frustrated.

Oh, by the way, my friend with the Cheaties sign. He always laughed at abner and what she does. That was his same feeling that same night before and had to come with us, not in a bus.

About 3:30 pm, CNN reported from the news tent on the opposite corner (so they had a really good view) that the masses on both sides of the road were the same, about 50 people. Somebody went over to the press tent and complained. A guy from CNN said, "Sorry". I don't think he was. Gore supporters did number about 30 people, a four fold increase from the morning. The Bush side had now extended to about 400 yards down the road, took a right at the intersection and 50 yards down the side street. Not in single file fashion. The depth at the corner was at points 7-8 people deep. In all fairness, our side only doubled in size to around 400 plus people from when we arrived. So,percentage wise, the Gore side creamed us! And, in fairness, I never saw a bus for the Gore, either. Again, no busses!

As we left, with the sun setting, we put the top down to our non-bus and waved goodbye to the other side for a job well done. They flipped us off. I read later a group of supporters on that same corner assaulted a young boy, like twelve or thirteen years old, walking through the group with his family when he expressed his feelings. You know, it's about the children.....

As we drove away, we passed no busses.