Days 33 & 34 -Des Moines to Iola, Kansas (301 Miles, 5711 Total)

2 more days tick by to the election and the race hots up. Certain right wing groups are investing heavily in anti- Obama ads and you get the feeling that whoever gets in, somewhere something will kick off. Below is an example of an ad. None of these are paid for by McCain. It seems he'd getting his right wing cronies to do the dirty on his behalf.




As for us we had a nice day off in Des Moines. We took in the state Capitol and of course the statue of the lady with her boobs out



We ambled through the east village shops, including a nice visit to a shop of second hand goods where the owner plied us with M&Ms and wassail! Yup, with Halloween out of the way the Christmas drive has begun, we even heard our first Christmas song in Walmart today, as well as seeing our first tree. As we left the second hand store the owner said "keep your fingers crossed for a good election", she didn't say who she was supporting, and to be honest she didn't need to. If only crossing fingers were enough, it has to be said that as time goes on and the McCain campaign gets more desperate and slings more mud, the more worried I get for the outcome. The prospect of a McCain victory is frightening and, at the moment, just not worth thinking about. Later on that day we passed an early voting centre that had queues forming around the block. Its difficult to believe that in a such a proud democratic nation it requires a 4 hour wait in a line to even have a chance of casting a vote.


Even then the republican efforts to suppress the vote continue, its a bona fide tactic that they hope will get their guy in. I daresay if its close we could have another 2000 situation as republicans attempt to get legitimate ballots discounted as false, or spoiled. Some democracy. By the people and for the people as long as the people do what we want.

The rest of our day took us to an "English" pub where we whiled away a few hours getting homesick and studying the English tat on the wall, one piece of which was a picture of Petergate Fisheries in York, a picture Anna insisted on posing next to in a shameless attempt to get mentioned in the Blog.


When she quizzed the barman it transpired the 7 owners had gone on a recky to England when researching the bar and assembled their tat from that.

Today we've gone South to Iola, Kansas. Certainly the most remote point we've been to we're here a mere day before eventually heading east to North Carolina and something more like a civilisation than deepest darkest Kansas. By the time we get there America will have a new president. We'll be taking in the results from a motel on the road, probably in Kentucky. I'll be blogging frequently through the night for anyone that cares, but before then 2 shows and a few hundred miles.

Be good

Alan

State lines crossed 2 (21 Total)
Time Zones crossed 0 (2 Total)
Oil Changes 0 (1 Total)

2 Days to Election

Bumper sticker/ Yard sign/ Anything else advertising a candidate count:
Obama 143
McCain 75