Pulling up the Caboose

More dispatches from the road... Today Obama stopped in Miami to speak at a huge luncheon with the Cuban American National Foundation. I focused most of my energy on working the crowd and gathering audio. And in turn, I don't really like anything I shot of the crowd, haven't listened to the audio yet, and in the edit, seemed to be drawn to more than enough photos of the man himself. Funny how that works.

One more event and I'm done. Right now we're heading north to Sunrise, for a rally this evening. It should be great... like the Tampa one... full of energy and electricity... Sadly, the train stops here for me... the rest of the press corps flies to Puerto Rico tonight. I'm getting off in Fort Lauderdale, spending the night at the Ritchie house, and am flying home in the morning.

I'm tired. Exhausted actually. And I've been fighting a nasty strain of the flu since I started this journey. My fever broke during the second event Wednesday -- my body was so warm that it left me completely soaking wet and steam was literally rising out from underneath my collar. Yesterday I felt OK. Thought I'd kicked this silly bug's ass. Then today, when my alarm went off, I could barely lift my head from my pillow.

I'm not complaining though. Riding in the official motorcade is one of the coolest things I've gotten the privilege of doing in a while. Cops are driving with m-16s in their laps and between them and secret service, cars are being run off the road to make way for us. Pretty freaking rad -- and this is definitely the way to travel through Miami during rush hour. And being about a foot away from Obama while photographing him is a highlight as well. That's one part I love about this job -- access. Whenever I have a bad day at the office, I remind myself of times like these, when I have the opportunity to go where most don't and see what most can't.

I now have a favorite secret service guy, who I bonded with when after photographing him working, he asked me if I could send him photos because he's trying to put together a scrap book for his kids to see where he's been. Speaking of secret service... They have such a serious, gruff exterior and a cold, steely stare while working an event. It's their job to. They have super high stress assignments and always have to be on. But after hours, to see them in normal clothes, with huge smiles on their faces, joking around -- you're reminded that they're human, and actually really cool guys at that. And after getting to know them, they've made my life so much easier while working, that this is a special thank you to them.

This trip has been great in so many ways that it's been worth fighting through a dripping nose, hacking cough and fever.

Here's a few snaps from today's first function: