The other day El Presedente was in town. On day two of his visit I was dutifully riding the train to work. (I've been much better about riding the train lately - I haven't driven to work in a couple weeks.) As we approached the Courthouse stop Mr. Train Driver said we were going to have to wait a few minutes because of the presidential motorcade. Great. I Twittered that I'd be stuck waiting for the motorcade.
Sure enough, we waited a few minutes at Courthouse before Mr. Train Driver said we could proceed to Gallivan, but we'd have to wait there. When we got to Gallivan I considered jumping ship and walking the rest of the way, but decided against it reasoning that maybe the wait at Gallivan would be short too.
I opened up The Lappy and using Salt Lake's beautiful free Wifi jumped on the Internet. Looking at Twitter, I saw that someone had replied to my original tweet about being stuck, and said he needed to be downtown in 45 minutes and asked what parts to avoid. From that point on I Twittered where I saw traffic problems from my phone. Really, it's pretty cool that nowadays we can communicate this way. But I digress.
The train started moving again and we got as far as Temple Square and Mr. Train Driver said we weren't going any further, he was heading back to Sandy and everyone needed to get off.
As I walked toward work I came to 300 West, near KSL, and there was a cop in the street preventing anyone from passing. The motorcade was neigh.
Here are some pics I snapped with ye ol' iPhone. The camera on the iPhone is kinda crappy. Sorry.
About a dozen motorcycle cops came first. The whole motorcade was bookin' it - probably doing between 40-50 mph.
The President was in one of these limos. It was interesting to see that they weren't traveling in the same lane. Security measure I presume.
There go the limos. There were also probably about a half dozen Suburbans overall, some with crazy-looking comms equipment on their roofs.
Note the rolled-down rear windows in the Suburban in the above picture. The back tailgate window was also open and had what I believe was a sharpshooter (sniper) looking out the back. It was then and there that I was glad I had decided against mooning the motorcade.
After more cops there was an ambulance bringing up the rear with its lights on, just in case.
I admit it was pretty cool to see everything. I wonder if the President even thinks about all the measures and precautions that are taken for him, or if he's used to it now and it's just part of the job.
At long last! Rumors have flown and people have clamored for it for over a year. As one of the biggest gripes about the original iPhone, I know it kept me from purchasing one for a long time. Paying $600 for a cell phone (no subsidy) and having to sign your life away to AT&T for two years for slow data speeds, poor sound quality, dropped calls and crappy customer service were all tolerable and easily overlooked when compared to having to use a bent paperclip to get to the SIM card in the iPhone.
