Crawford Texas Home of George and Laura Bush! and at least 10,000 Secret Service Agents.
Town Hall and on the right ( grey door) the Crawford Sheriff's Department. The Sheriff's office was closed as was the City Hall on Friday when we arrived but the police car was parked across the street at the one and only bank in town.
The Jail was open but had on prisoners as yet . We found the City Park ( RV park) which had been taken over by the City and in need of some repairs, Thank goodness Renee's Husband Randal was with us as the water line was broken, and the breaker switch in the electric hook up was burned out. Randal spent a few minutes working on the hookups and got us both water and electric in a little while. ( Not without a lot of (#)@((@$&@()! Helicopters flew in and out all day once we were set up on Saturday in front of City Hall. Several times we were buzzed but were not bothered. We did get one shot of Bush's chopper coming in for a landing right over the RV.
Nasty weather, rainy, chilly and grey. We met several of the Secret Service men as they checked out the RV and read and photoed the signs on the Vehicle. One agent had spent an hour talking with us ( he said he worked with Compac computer co.) about everything from NAIS to illegal aliens. At one point Karen said something about wondering how long it would be before we got questioned by the Secret Service and the guy said you have already been questioned... by ME ! He told us he was an agent and of course my big mouth went into gear and wanted to see some ID. He whipped it right out. Sure enough he was one. We already knew Cindy Sheehan had a permit to protest on Sunday but he made mention of it and verified she would be marching against the war. I personally don't like the war either but, also know it is probably necessary to stay safe here and I personally don't like Sheehan one little bit. So we decided to protest the protesters.
Sheehan is despised by the townsfolk. We met the Mayors Mother in Law, driving a bright yellow Thunderbird special edition, convertible. She is 70 yrs old and driving around with a ciggerette in her mouth. Wonderful woman, she drove right up and wanted to know exactly what we were up to and we told her. She read the signs, loved the one that says "Cindy Sheehan a ugly Jane Fonda" She told us in no uncertain terms that we could park in her front yard if the cops tossed us out of the parking spaces we were in.
The sign above was her special favorite as she also has relatives that have died in the service. We have had a good stay in Crawford and look forward to returning in the future. We handed out over 300 flyers and talked to most of the residents there. |
As you can see we are in the heart of Crawford, a bustling town of 700 citizens. I think they are all related also as everyone knew everyone. They ( townspeople ) hate the Sheehan group. They laugh about her being scammed into paying $250,000 for a 5 acre parcel which floods every year. She sneaked around and had someone buy it for her so the city wouldn't know it was her until it was all signed sealed and delivered but they knew from the get go and gave her that opportunity of purchasing that wonderful piece of property.
We drove past the Freedom House just behind where we parked to see a scene which was like a flashback of Joan Baaz and the flower children all decked out for a peach march, with guitars, long skirts, flowered shirts and clunky sandals. ( I think I smelled something burning other than ciggerettes too) Lots of the old Peace signs on all the Volkswagons. Really not just saying this.
We talked with the Secret Service guys again on Sunday and they watched some of the DVD's we had and actually took them to study and go over with their captains and then place them in the hands of the Presidents Staff. Now if they really do that it will mean the Republicans know there is serious opposition to the NAIS program. It is a start. We got signatures on the petition and found not any of the people there were in favor of the program once they knew what it is. As usual most had never even heard of it. We were informed that the peace protestors were on their way to the presidents Ranch so we chased after them at the suggestion of some of the Service agents but by the time we got there the Secret Service had sent them packing . But we did get to wave at them.
You cannot go past this baracade. It is about 5 miles from the Presidents Ranch. We heard a loud speaker from our rear saying" do not stop the RV, keep moving, Do not stop" So we did as we were told and for our good behavior were escorted back to town. All in all it was a good trip, we got an interview with the Waco TV station which turned out pretty good : Renee' Moore one of the Texans that was featured on 20/20 special on the Expose' of the SPCA was with us as a new Granny and really added to our group. She has no fear.
Of course Karen couldn't stay out of trouble:
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