For obscure reasons, the Silly Season brought Sanders, Trump, and Clinton fille to the City of Poughkeepsie within the span of eight days. We know enough to stay far away from such events, but one of the contestants came to us!
A siren heralded flashing lights off to the left, coming up the hill from the bridge over the Mighty Wappingers Creek:
The police car jammed to a stop in the middle of the Red Oaks Mill intersection, directly in front of the cars (and bikes) that had just begun moving after the light turned green:
During the next minute, the officer managed to clear most of the traffic from the left-turn storage lanes perpendicular to us, after which two motorcycle officers led the procession:
Two ordinary SUVs with flashing light bars followed:
Two stretched SUVs with side window and marker flashers:
One blatantly inconspicuous black sedan running dark:
Two black patrol cars and a white patrol car, all with flashing lights:
The officer jumped into his car and rejoined the procession at the end:
According to my back-of-the-envelope, the motorcade moved through the intersection at a steady 20 mph.
Given where all the folks who merit such an escort were supposed to be at the time, I don’t know why they brought The Personage through the Red Oaks Mill intersection in that direction; the City of Poughkeepsie is to our rear, due north of Red Oaks Mill. Perhaps they’re following a randomly chosen route to confuse the unprepared, even though it’s longer and requires more traffic control?
Rumors from a Reliable Source indicate that not all trains travel on steel rails.
I suppose you eventually get used to having a couple of quiet people standing in every room with you.
One benefit of the inevitable news coverage: a few more people now know how to pronounce “Poughkeepsie”.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
5 responses to “Candidate Caravan”
Just in time! It’s notoriety from “The French Connection” has just about run out ;)
You take what you can get …
Indian names can be wonderfully mispronounced. There’s a good sized village nearby, and when it comes up in the “local” news (west of the Cascades), it’s 50-50 that it’ll be mutilated. When we set up our phone connection, the Louisiana operator stopped cold at the name.
On the other hand, there are some French names in the Chicago area that are unrecognizable to the Francophone.
Des Plaines / d ᵻ s ˈ p l eɪ n z / drives my wife crazy. [grin]
You got off easy. In my neighborhood when an Important Elected Official (alright… not a mere candidate) blows thru town, the police shut down I40 (a major commuting route that jams up on the best days) for half an hour! Often this seems to happen during rush hour. The resulting traffic woes are enough to get anybody voted out of office.
From what I read, they locked down most of Center City Po for the day, including the Westbound Arterial. Probably chivvied the panhandlers further out Main, too, but we weren’t about to ride there to explore.