Thanks to everyone who is writing about the Tea Party Express III National Tour. We really want to push the news out there about what’s going on inside the wire, because the media is hyping this as a confrontational movement. They’re driving the meme forward that Sarah Palin is inciting violence by “innocently” asking the question — O’Reilly tonight for example… “Is Sarah Palin inciting violence across America?”
Marathon Pundit wrote a post about the Tea Party TV — Terresa Monroe Hamilton at Noisy Room.net published and linked to Dave’s post at ThirdWaveDave. We hope you will write about the national tour and tell your friends about it. And come out to meet us when we roll through your town!
Last Saturday night we did a 30 minute show in which we interviewed many of the people on this tour. You can listen to it as a download… we’ve decided because of the schedule — which I’ll tell you about in a minute — that 30 minutes is probably all I’ll be able to manage throughout the tour. That and the fact that cellphone coverage is spotty — in fact, I might have a phone connection drop out during the shows — I hope not! But we’re traveling through some mountainous terrain… So you can consider it an insider’s view of what it’s like to be tea partying all along…
Horns blowing from passing motorists along the way give us cheer and remind us that Americans everywhere are with our rolling effort.
There’s so much that goes into putting a show like this together.
We have a road crew who trucks all the sound equipment, the staging, the merchandise (CDs, books, and the TPX III Journal, among other items).
We are three buses — the Gold Bus carries the entertainers — Lloyd Marcus, Diana Nagy, The Rivoli Review, Debbie Lee, Politik, and a few other support crew like our photographer Mary Pearson.
The Red Bus carries media and staff: Mark Williams, tour coordinator, planners and political strategists Joe Wierzbicki and Sal Russo, communications and media coordinator Levi Russell, national grassroots coordinator Amy Kremer, Joe’s assistant and right arm Tiffany Ruegner.
And tonight we have joining us Daryl Peveto with Luceo Images, a photographer who is freelancing with TIME Magazine to shoot photos of the Tea Party… he’ll be with us for the entire tour. Mark Halperin did an article about the Tea Party and looking at the state of the Republican party, and used one of Daryl’s photo to illustrate the piece.
Aerial shots from helicopters showed the Searchlight crowd was huge, and the highway that snaked off into the distance for miles showed cars bumper to bumper in a kind of “Field of Dreams” scenario. Build it and they will come. And they did. By the thousands.
On Monday, we are seeing some phenomenal vistas along the northern ridge of the Grand Canyon on our way from Flagstaff, AZ to Utah. I wish I had words to describe how utterly awesome the view is. But I’ll let the pictures tell the story.
We’re climbing higher and higher into the mountains as we make our way into Utah. We’ve got the bus windows open to enjoy the fresh mountain air, and hillsides are still spotted with blankets of snow.
William Owens, speaker, author and videographer, is videotaping clips of some the of the more stupendous views, saying that this is the America we love, and we want to share it with everyone who can’t be with us. We’re bringing it to you. He’s trying to get some shots of the Gold Bus ahead of us as it rounds the curves, giving us a have a nice view of the side wrapped in the Tea Party logo. I feel like I’m living in a Sunday morning episode of Charles Kuralt’s “On The Road” episode!
Looking out the window again, I see the entire hillside covered in snow. Spring is only now just arriving at these ear-popping altitudes. We rounded a curve that gave us a breathtaking view of a vast valley below.
Typical mountain road, the roadway was narrow and there were no guard rails. Driver Ray had his hands firmly on the wheel, as Mellie Reid clipped a lav mic on his collar for an interview William had done with him earlier as we passed through a portion of the Navajo Reservation, and now he wanted to get Ray’s impression of this part of the ride. You can hear what Ray said at our website Tea Party Express.tv
Ray said we weren’t far from Las Vegas, which was visible to our left front as a range of snow covered mountains in the distance. We had looped all the way around to go from Vegas to Phoenix and Flagstaff.
The breeze coming through the window is refreshing, and I feel deeply blessed to have been included on this tour. I’m seeing this part of our glorious country for the first time, and it truly is awesome.
Earlier this morning at breakfast (all you can eat!) I did a minute-long video bite with William about the tour and today’s upcoming rally in St. George, Utah. I just watched it. Not bad for a former TV journalist who hasn’t been in front of a video camera for quite a while…
When I mentioned I had prior television experience, his wheels began turning. It didn’t take long to find out what was on his mind because later on the bus, he told me about his plans for the Tea Party Express III TV website. He and his partner/wife Selena and their team are taking the Tea Party experience to the next level, bringing it to our fellow Americans and the rest of the world thru live stream on the Internet. Would I help him produce the live shots, get interviews from folks who attend the tea party rallies, and set up crew interactive “sit and chats” with streaming audio and live chat capability, to answer questions posed by internet participants? Well, sure.
Come see us on Live stream and Archive TV! Join the TPXIII national tour!
And you can hear tonight’s radio program here. That’s right. We did a 30-minute show from The Blue Bus tonight, and if you didn’t catch it, you listen to it here.
Here’s our schedule for the next few days, beginning with tonight (Monday):
11:30 PM – Arrive in Provo, UT
*Overnight in Provo UT*
Day 4: Tuesday, March 30, 2010
10:00 AM – Provo, UT Rally
Location pending
12:00 Noon – Depart Provo UT
2:00 PM Salt Lake City, UT Rally
Rally: Location
Utah State Capitol
350 N Maine Street
Salt Lake City, UT
4:00 PM – Depart Salt Lake City
9:00 PM Grand Junction, CO Hotel
*Overnight in Grand Junction, CO*
Day 5: Wednesday, March 31, 2010
10:00 AM – Grand Junction Rally
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