Yesterday, US President George W. Bush visited Rochester, New York. As it happens, I wheeled into town with a load of scrap at about the time he was getting ready to leave.
There was considerable discussion on the CB radio (channel 19, the trucker's frequency) for a variety of reasons-- such as routing around the highway closure for the president's motorcade to reach the airport, actually seeing the motorcade, political matters, and so on.
I was parked and waiting at the metal recycling facility, which is a couple of miles from route 390, so I naturally assumed that I wouldn't be able to see anything cool, despite hearing the play-by-play relayed by fellow drivers. Someone mentioned a helicopter following the motorcade... shortly before said helicopter came into view. Well, I thought, at least I sort of saw something.
Several minutes later, I had repositioned the truck to face south for my attack run on the unloading area (and, indeed, had just entered the cab after determining that I couldn't back in to unload yet), when a comment came on the radio that sounded a lot like, "That's a big son of a bitch, isn't it?"
Air Force One then appeared over the treetops straight ahead, climbing pretty much right toward me, before turning east (by then directly away), and then finally south. I was worried that the prevalent clouds would deny a good view of the fantastically spiffy airplane, but that was only a problem for a few seconds while the plane was low and close enough to see much of, anyway.
So, I didn't even get to see the President leave*, but he sure does have a neat flying machine.
* Well, yes, I suppose I did see him leave, but I didn't actually see the President. I blame this poor use of language on being tired and shagged out after a prolonged period of being awake. Anyway, the most important people that I have actually seen are David Weber and 'Weird Al' Yankovic. Of course, they're quite arguably more important than any politician ever built, but hey...