Hangin' with the Veep

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being in the with national pool of media that followed Vice President Joe Biden during his visit to Fort Myers. I've never been in the pool for a visit of the VP or President before, so it was pretty cool. I got to ride in one of the press vans that is a part of the official motorcade. We got a police escort through town - that's right, no red-light stops for us.

I was in a van with a reporter from the LA Times and a photographer from the NY Times. pretty cool. And I saved the NY Times photog's day by lending him my card reader after he lost his so he could transmit photos back to his editor.

We stopped at Mel's Diner on our way to where Joe Biden was set to speak. At Mel's, we were quickly escorted in a side entrance and in position when he came into the restaurant. He spoke to several groups of people, even sitting down with a couple of tables to chat. He was really down-to-earth even with the many secret service agents and photographers and reporters following him through the restaurant. The people that chose to go to Mel's Diner yesterday likely had a breakfast they will never forget.

Then we quickly got back into the vans and headed to the Wa-Ke Hatchee Park Recreation Center near Fort Myers Beach for his speech. Again, we made it in record time, since we didn't have to stop for any stoplights. Here's shot by our other photographer Sarah Coward of me down front taking some video footage.

And a few of my pics.....

Here's my video from the event. It's a little shaky, since I didn't have my tripod during his speech.



Check out the photo gallery if you want to check out all the shots from the event.