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Politics : I Will Continue to Continue, to Pretend.... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	8/30/2010 1:11:38 AM
From: Sully-	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 35834

I have a lot of pics to go through before I will post more on my trip to the Restoring Honor rally. I will say that for me & my good friend it was our Woodstock, except ours has much more meaning in the whole scheme of things. And there were a lot more people at the Restoring Honor rally by a factor of at least 4 IMVHO.

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	8/31/2010 9:46:22 AM
From: Sully-	1 Recommendation Respond to of 35834

Restoring Honor - View from the grass in front of the Washington Monument.... ... looking toward the WWII Memorial with the Reflecting Pool beyond, then the Lincoln Memorial in the background [where the speakers were] photo taken @ 12:34 PM, 8/28/10

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	8/31/2010 10:01:35 AM
From: Sully-	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 35834

And.... before I continue I would like to thank my great friend Dave who came along in the trip. Dave gladly pushed me 6-8 miles in a wheelchair on Saturday. That doesn't include our incredible experience trying to take the Metro from Shady Grove [1st stop on the Red Line] into the Smithsonian with me in a wheelchair. Needless to say it was rough trying to get around in a huge crowd on the Mall. We strolled the Mall grounds until almost 7 PM. Long story short, I was very sore & exhausted when we finally got back to the hotel. I can imagine how beat Dave was. I never could have gone without Dave's selfless act.

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	8/31/2010 10:39:37 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

This pic was taken at 12:11 PM [the rally started at 10:00 AM]. This was taken from 15th Street looking at the Washington Memorial Lodge. Thousands of folks were continuing to stream in to the Restoring Honor rally. They are at least 400-500 yards from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where the speakers were. .

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	8/31/2010 11:02:24 AM
From: Sully-	1 Recommendation Respond to of 35834

Please note that many thousands of people were streaming OUT from the rally while many thousands continued to stream in at 12:28 PM [rally began at 10 AM]. The foreground shows where 10's of thousands of people sat. In front of them is the WWII Memorial which was packed. Next is the Reflecting Pool, then the Lincoln Memorial where the Restoring Honor speakers are. Photo taken @ 12:28 PM, August 28, 2010

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	8/31/2010 11:13:55 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

The foreground shows where 10's of thousands of people sat. They are on the grounds of the Washington Memorial. In front of them is the WWII Memorial which was packed. Next is the Reflecting Pool, then the Lincoln Memorial where the Restoring Honor speakers are. Please note that many thousands of people were streaming OUT from the rally while many thousands continued to stream in at 12:28 PM [rally began at 10 AM].

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	8/31/2010 6:10:33 PM
From: Sully-	1 Recommendation Respond to of 35834

Restoring Honor At least 750,000 people attend Foreground shows where 10's of thousands of people sat on the grounds of the Washington Memorial. In front of them is the WWII Memorial which was packed. Next is the Reflecting Pool, then the Lincoln Memorial where the Restoring Honor speakers are. Photo taken @ 12:34 PM, August 28, 2010

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	8/31/2010 6:20:29 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 35834

Aerial Photos won't show these people Tens of thousands in the shade Yes it was packed like this everywhere .

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	8/31/2010 6:34:36 PM
From: Sully-	1 Recommendation Respond to of 35834

Pic taken @ 12:29 PM [rally began at 10 AM]. Please note that many thousands of people were streaming OUT from the rally while many thousands continued to stream in. The foreground is the grounds of the Washington Memorial where many 10's of thousands of people sat. Beyond that is the WWII Memorial which was packed with thousands more. Next is the Reflecting Pool, then the Lincoln Memorial where the Restoring Honor speakers are. As you can see it is packed solid up there. .

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	9/2/2010 6:29:37 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Here's one story regarding the Restoring Honor rally I haven't seen or read online yet. One you've read this & added it to the photos & other stories you've heard, there is little doubt this rally had serious numbers of people who attended, quite possibly unprecedented numbers for this type of event. Dave & I anticipated that 250,000 people would attend; 350,000 at most. Our plan was to arrive at the Shady Grove Metro station before they opened Saturday morning @ 7:00 AM. Shady Grove is on the end of the Red Line. Our thinking was the odds favored us getting an empty or near empty train & we'd make it to the Lincoln Memorial long before the rally began @ 10:00 AM. I've taken this train many dozens of times in the past. It normally takes about 40-45 minutes during peak hours to go from Shady Grove to the Smithsonian stop [which includes one transfer at the Metro Center station]. So we felt we had built in plenty of cushion for unexpected delays. WRONG! It was 6:50 AM when we parked at Shady Grove Park & Ride. We were in Lot 1. There are two lots at this station. There was a huge line of people already formed. I'd guess it was a couple thousand people in that line. We quickly surmised the line was people who had to purchase a Metro ticket before boarding, so we took our place in line MEMO: Buy your ticket ahead of time!]. It's hard to tell how many folks arrived with Metro tickets in hand as thousands of folks walked past us, but a lot of them came back to get in our queue. As time passed the line grew dramatically, yet we only creped forward slowly. It took about an hour to move about 100 yards [we were queued up 6-8 abreast]. By then the line had grown to many thousands of people. Some folks went to the upper floors of the parking lot to take pictures of the lines. A security guard & Metro employee we talked to while in line confirmed what several locals had already said; they had never seen so many people line up like this at any Metro stop before. At about 8:30 AM, we finally made it almost to the entrance into the station. It took us another 15 minutes or so to queue up in the lines to buy tickets. I waited by the booth where the turnstiles are while Dave stood in line to get tickets. That's when I noticed that people from Lot 2 were entering the station form the other side. We later learned that line also had many, many thousands of people queued up there as well. While we were separated the Metro staff opened the gates & announced that there was an empty train on the platform. They said to go ahead & board it without tickets. Once the train was full they closed the gates so only ticketed people could go to the platform. Unfortunately, the crowd was so packed in the station that it was difficult to hear the announcement so Dave remained in line to get tickets. Before Dave came to get me they had filled 2 more empty trains & had just opened up the gates for another one which we boarded. They kept the train there until it was packed to the gills. When we boarded it was 9:21 AM. We had been in line for 2 hours & 29 minutes. When we arrived at the next stop they announced to folks on the platform this train was full but that there was an empty train following right behind us. On the way in it seemed that most Metro stops were busy but nothing like the end of the line @ Shady Grove. The transfer station at Metro Center was extremely busy. Anyone who is familiar with that station knows it is a huge station that's nearly empty on normal weekends. The Smithsonian station was a complete mad house. We were directed by Metro Police to the exit away from the Mall to facilitate quicker evacuation of the trains as they pulled in. It took us about 1 3/4 hours from the time we boarded the train in Shady Grove to make it to the Smithsonian Metro stop. The crowd was so thick that that it took us about an hour to make it from the Smithsonian [we did have a long wait for the elevator up to street level] to the Washington Monument [more on this in the next post]. As the day wore on & we talked to people we learned that our experience was not an exception. Several other Metro stations at the end of their respective lines were also under siege by many, many thousands of patriots. They too said they had never seen anything like this before. More to follow.....

To: Sully- who wrote (35168)	9/2/2010 8:10:45 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Restoring Honor rally cont'd; One thing we quickly noticed as we worked our way from the Smithsonian Metro stop to the rally was how many people were headed the opposite way. It was around 11:30 AM, so the rally wasn't even only half over. At first there was about 10x more people headed to the rally than going the other way. The closer we got to the Washington Monument there were only about 2x or 3x more people headed to the rally than leaving it. We just couldn't figure out why they were literally streaming out by the thousands [see pics linked below]. Message 26789417 Message 26789464 At about 12:30 PM, we approached the end of the Wash Memorial grounds facing the Lincoln Memorial. The crowd was already packed in solid from here all the way in. And I mean everywhere you could place a body within ear shot of the many monitors & speaker towers there was wall to wall people. The crowd spilled well beyond the Reflecting Pool & the trees lining it on both sides. They packed the open overflow area from the Korean War Memorial all the way back to 17th street [by the Washington Monument grounds]. Then they spilled over into the trees behind the Korean War Memorial all the way to 17th street. On the other side they spilled over into the trees from the Vietnam Women's Memorial all the way back to 17th street. We eventually got a spot in a shady area under the trees a little past the WWII memorial & just marveled at it all. There really wasn't a place to sit or stand anywhere. There were many tens of thousands of folks under the trees that won't show up in any aerial photos. In here there were about as many people streaming out as headed in. We were about 40 away from the mobile Police Tower positioned near the far end of the Reflecting Pool. It was about 12:45 PM. From then until the rally ended the foot traffic in both directions on the sidewalk was as heavy as it was when we queued up [see pics at link below]. Message 26789104 Message 26789584 Message 26790789 Message 26789417 After watching this awesome spectacle & talking to folks, this is what I think happened; I figured that once every possible spot within ear shot of the monitors & speaker towers was filled, folks tried to locate a spot closer in so they too could hear Palin, Beck, etc. speak. At some point many, many tens of thousands of people who had arrived long before the rally began most likely decided they had been in the sun for hours & got tired of being packed in so tight for so long they began to leave. For every spot that opened up there were several people ready to fill it by the folks who arrived later. Soooooo, what's my point here? This was an historic gathering no matter how you spin it. Look at any aerial photos of the grounds near the Lincoln Memorial. Under those trees discussed above, folks were packed in like sardines. The grounds along the Reflecting Pool were at max capacity. The overflow field was packed to the gills. The area in & around the WWII Monument was packed solid. A large section of the Washington Monument grounds was packed with patriots. And many many tens of thousands of people who arrived early left early while an equal or greater number were still arriving. I'm no expert, but I think that between 750,000 & 1,000,000 folks saw all or part of the Restoring Honor rally, maybe more.