Saturday afternoon/evening

I'm going to do this backwards and post Sat afternoon first, and tomorrow I'll share about Sat morning. For this post we're traveling to the NC State Fairgrounds...

First you had the lines: It started at the Jim Graham building, went up beside the Dorton Arena, curved down the midway and toward the little round building (as seen above), turned and went back up and around the Dorton Arena (as seen to the left), looped back down to the Mid-Way and was still growing as the doors opened.

Once inside, we were treated to good 'ol bluegrass music. Every single Republican fundraiser or rally I've attended in NC has had either bluegrass or country music played by local musicians.

Inside the Jim Graham building, there were no seats except for three small sections of bleachers, and everyone stood for nearly two hours waiting for the lines to pass security and the lady of the hour to show up.

John McCain's nice saying that plays up his military background, but one that also makes me feel like Daniel in Babylon. As I used to tell my Chinese friends, I'm a Christian first, and an American second.

Cary's "Joe the Plumber" (actually named Mike) spoke about why he was supporting McCain.

My favorite sign of the night.

The unhappy press corp who kept their arms folded in front of them most of the time.

Gov. Sarah Palin with husband Todd

And as they exit the building (you can barely see her hairdo in the far left of the pic) people are still passing caps and t-shirts forward for her to sign. Her husband did a lot of signing too, though whether he was putting her name or his I don't know.