FOILED! How I missed Obama's motorcade

Gregg D. Merksamer

PCS Life Member / PCS Publicity Chairman / PCS Ele
Just returned from three-day round trip to Pittsburgh for the 2011 "tailgate" convention of the International Station Wagon Club, which was founded by Renfrew, PA PCS Member Chuck Snyder (I urge you all to check out his website at www.iswc.us if you're interested). While driving down there on westbound US 22 from Altoona, I learned from the radio about Obama's speech at Carnegie Mellon University that same morning. :893USA-Smilie-thumb Given my long-standing interest in White House limousines, I got REAL excited at the prospect of seeing his motorcade return to Pittsburgh's International Airport, which is right across the road from the Embassy Suites hotel where the wagon show was being hosted.

Having stopped for almost nothing in a hundred miles but the restroom :657:, I made it through Pittsburgh's downtown "Golden Triangle" before he finished his speech, judging from the fact that EVERY on-ramp and overpass heading west to the airport WITHOUT EXCEPTION had a PA State Police car stationed on it; I even noticed a hilltop PNC Bank parking lot with a PERFECT camera view of the highway I SHOULD HAVE gotten off and gone for. This is the part I keep playing over and over and again in the should have/would have lobe of my brain! :smiley_w_ballbat:

My luck officially ran out at the ring road that surrounds Pittsburgh's airport, where I had to decide if the motorcade was going to take the south fork to the main passenger terminal, or the north fork to the Air Force Reserve Base. I picked the latter and realized I'd guessed wrong just as soon as I noticed there were no more cop cars at the first overpasses I encountered. Though I got myself turned around within two miles it was already too late, and I wound up stuck in a PA State Police traffic stoppage that left me far away from any vantage point where I could hear or see anything.

Once were we were allowed to move - and it must have been less than a minute since the President's motorcade had opted for the airport's south expressway - I did find my way to a twisty, narrow road that follows the east perimeter of Military Air Refueling Wing that occupies the east end of the airport property but was not marked formally on the map I had, and at least got a hilltop glimpse of the top hump and flag-decorated tail of Air Force One. :893USA-Smilie-thumb Beyond the main gate where I spotted a Secret Service Chevrolet Suburban and perhaps a dozen local police motorcycles, this road climbed to a hilltop cemetery I found out later offered a nifty panoramic view of the airbase, but its entrance was blocked off by police cars while the President's plane was there.

Though they were further out on the other side of the highway, I also learned later that some of the ISWC wagon convention attendees could see Air Force One from their rooms at the hilltop Embassy Suites, and that Chuck Snyder II even managed to get a photo of his 1973 Ford Country Squire with Air Force One in the distant background. Despite of my own Obamacade-related disappointment, it goes without saying I look forward to seeing this image in the meet issue of THE TALEGATE!
 
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