Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I'm not against getting up early. In fact, after I force myself out of my nice warm bed, I'm usually glad I got up to enjoy the freshness of the morning - the start of a new day.

However, this morning I had to get up about 15 'til the buttcrack of dawn. As I mentioned earlier, I had to reschedule my flight from Washington and reroute the flight to Tulsa. To do so on American Airlines it was going to cost $1,600. So, I just didn't show up for that flight out of Reagan this morning, and instead, flew Southwest out of Baltimore, Maryland - a 40 minute drive from the Hill. I got up at 4 am EST, hailed a cab at 5 am EST, and got on a plane bound for St. Louis, then Tulsa at 7:20 am EST. I landed in T-Town at 10 am CST.

Fortunately, the traffic from DC to Baltimore wasn't bad at that terribly early hour. My philosophy is any hour before 6 am only comes once in my day. I had a friendly, and rather over-jolly cab driver for the journey north, and the rate was not the expected $100 as many had predicted.

So, what this boils down to is I had to get up at 3 am CST. That's dumb, but it was necessary. It was nice to get into Tulsa at an early hour.

The thought that a mere 15 hours ago I was in Maryland seems funny to me. But, here I am in Prairie Grove for the weekend until the rest of my traveling continues on to Austin, then San Antonio.

My pace changed in 24 hours from visits to legislators on Capitol Hill to driving a truck and trailer while hay was being loaded on it. This very thought makes me think, yet again, God bless America.

It's good to be home again. Now, I shall sleep. More pictures coming up. I'm just too lazy to load this tonight.

Wine and Dine

My last evening in DC has been a good one. After an NCGA reception here at the Washington Court that officially wrapped up Corn Congress, our group proceeded to the Capitol Grill, an upscale dining establishment on Pennsylvania and 6th with a perfect view of the steps of Capitol Hill. The sight at night is breathtaking.

We had a round of appetizers with the traditional DC crab cakes, and I sampled oysters for the first time this evening. The jury is still out on those.

One of our board members has an excellent taste in wines and chose a nice red Oregon Pino Noir. For dinner, I had lobster and filet, and we followed up the main course with a round of desserts, including a rich chocolate and aged port wine - a taste combination that is a heavenly experience you should all try if you are not familiar with it. The practice of eating chocolate and drinking port was introduced to me on this job, and is a taste explosion unlike any I have ever experienced.

Apparently, Batman stores his wine here in the Capitol Grill cask.

I will be getting up in less than five hours to take a cab to Baltimore to catch a flight to Tulsa, and then it's on to the Natural State. I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay in DC, but I'm ready to sleep in my own bed in Arkansas and drive down to Sonic to get a Diet Dr. Pepper. Who really needs fine wines and dining anyway?

It's always a nice treat to have finely grilled aged filets and 20-year-old port wines, but it's all relative - I'm pretty sure my dad can grill a steak or hamburger on his John Deere grill and my mom can whip up a dish from her Paula Deen cookbook that is just as good as any of the things I enjoyed tonight.

This trip started a week ago Saturday with a drive to San Angelo, then a flight to our nation's capitol. Now, it's on to Arkansas for a weekend break, then I will head south back to Texas for a trip to the state's capitol and the city's leading newspaper for an editorial board visit. Hopefully, we can convince them that ethanol policy is a necessary thing for this country's economy and its efforts for less dependency on foreign oil.

But right now, I'm just full and tired. See you down the road.

"Peach"ment

Today's Hill visits were a little different today in that we didn't visit Texas congressional delegates. Over the past few years, our state has made "alliances" with other southern corn states, such as Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina, to address issues that are unique to southern corn producing states that don't necessarily apply to the "I" states that are prominent corn producers in the Midwest. One colleague we have gotten to know is from Georgia, so today, we made visits to the Peach state's congressmen who are on the House Agriculture Committee.

We were three for three in our visits in that every office we went to we were able to meet and speak with the congressman. This is not easily achieved when busy congressmen are summoned to the House floor for votes, or visiting with other constituents. However, today we got lucky.


We met with Rep. Bishop, known as the "Peanut Congressmen", Rep. Tim Marshall and Rep. John Barrow, all from Georgia. An interesting event taking place tonight that was diverting a lot of the congressmens' attention was the annual Congressional Baseball game - Democrats vs. Republicans. Surprisingly, many of the House members were former college baseball players. All that we met with were excited about tonight's match up at the field where the Washington Nationals play.


I spent a few hours in Corn Congress after lunch, then came to the room to work on some other things that needed attention, such as our upcoming consumer education campaign. Stay tuned, I will address that more later.

Tomorrow morning I will fly from Baltimore, Maryland to Tulsa for a weekend at home, then it's off to Austin and San Antonio. I'm not really sure when I'm make it back to Lubbock! I'm still living out of the same suitcase! Oh, I should mention that my flight from Baltimore at 7:30 am...Baltimore is a 45 minute cab ride from Washington. So, I will be getting up at 4 am or earlier, which is 3 am your time. I may be slightly worn when I arrive in Arkansas.

Disclaimer and an Excuse

Ok, for those of you who actually read this thing, I want to post a disclaimer: I was up really late last night when I posted my last post...and remember, I'm an hour ahead of you guys, too. I kept finding little errors in my posting, so after I posted it, I would go back, make corrections and repost it. I missed a couple. Did I mention it was late? Excuses, excuses, I know.

Anyway, thanks to an observant reader that I'm related to and is close to my age, other errors were brought to my attention. I should also mention that for those of you who receive this blog via email rather than actually visiting the site, I think you get the first posting with all the errors. So, don't read your email post, come to the Web site and read it. It will be clean, fresh and free of errors that haunt my dreams.

It's http://lindsaymariewest.blogspot.com .

So, thanks for reading, forgive me for my imperfections, and don't be afraid to leave a comment. I'd rather you leave a comment on the site than reply to the email you get. Just throwin' that out there.

Now, I'm off to more Corn Congress. We spent the morning with our Georgia colleague, visiting members of the Georgia congressional delegation. In each office we went to we actually were able to meet the congressman. Three for three. That's pretty good. Must be a southern thing. I'll post pictures later.

Shaking Hands

After spending a day in a meeting with state communicators, I joined up with my board and loaded up in a cab bound for Georgetown. Our group from Texas joined several corn folks from Minnesota, all with lovely northerner accents. We were also joined by Tom Sell and Jeff Harrison of the Southwest Council of Agribusiness - an organization representing many agricultural organizations, businesses and individuals in West Texas. The SWCA is headed by a lobbying group called Combest, Sell & Associates, which is stationed out of Lubbock and DC. Larry Combest was a major player in the last farm bill and was the chairman of the House Ag Committee during that time. Obviously, a good friend of West Texas agriculture. So, anyway, we had reservations for our group of about 40 people at a French restaurant in Georgetown. This was my first ever French eating experience, and I must say it was wonderful. (I wish I could've said something to comment about the place in French, but I don't know any French.)

We dined with French wine, escargot, chilean sea bass and apple tarts for dessert. I had a lovely conversation with a gentlemen who is a trade lawyer. His wife, coincidentally, is from Harrison, Ark. He was a major Auburn Tiger fan so we educated those at the table, including many Minnesota dudes, about the intensity and passion for SEC football in the South. For some reason, announcing I'm from Arkansas usually presents an opportunity to tell cool family Civil War stories that are always a crowd pleaser.

Another attendee of the French dinner, was a prominent writer for a daily Hill newspaper that describes what will be discussed that day on the Senate and House floors. He stood up, and because of the SWCA's association with Lubbock, made comments on the town and his desire to visit the Buddy Holly museum. It was at that time, he pulled out his very own Buddy Holly style sunglasses. Suddenly, even in Washington, connections to Lubbock, Texas seemed to had their benefits.

He also extended great interest in knowing the voting plans of each person in the room. Let me remind you that the people in this room consisted of Texas and Minnesota corn farmers. So, with a little discomfort, each person in the room voiced their choice for the 2008 presidential election. I bet over half said either "undecided" or "I will not vote this year because I don't like either candidate." Luckily, for some reason, no one asked me.

Now, since this is my very own blog, I feel like I can voice my opinions without feeling a journalistic responsibility to be fair and unbiased. However, there's still a slight sense of that journalistic responsibility that has been instilled in me that will prohibit me from being completely revealing in my political beliefs...mainly because I'm not even sure if I've figured them out just yet.

Senator McCain has openly voiced (probably more so than just about anyone in recent history) that he is against farm programs and openly declared he would veto a farm bill in the future. His distaste for agriculture should scare the pants off of all of you. If you want to continue living in a country that promotes a safe, abundant food supply, then you would be crazy to vote for this man. His views on agriculture should be a slap in the face to anyone who wakes up every morning and feeds cattle, plants corn, harvests wheat, or anything that has to do with the American family farm. I really don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat. That is not the issue.

Then on the other hand, although Obama has openly pronounced support for alternative energy programs, such as the ethanol mandates that I go to battle for every day, his religious background scares the pants off of me.

So, what do we as rural, hard-working American's do? I can't vote for McCain because of his views on agriculture. They're poisonous to all of us. I don't really care what his views on gun control or yada yada are. Without agricultural support, we as a nation will lose all of our ag markets to foreign countries...humm, sound familiar? How is that $4 gas treating you right now?

OK, sorry. I got off on a political rant. Blame it on the city I am in. It comes with the territory. I just really can't stand it when people rave about a certain political party without knowing a flippin' reason why they have those views. Perhaps it's because grandpa told that to them once, and they've always been too lazy to figure it out on their own? Dang it! There I go again...

So, anyway, this morning (Wednesday) Corn Congress officially began and so did visits to the the congressional delegation of each corn state.

During Corn Congress, delegates from each state voted on amendments to NCGA policy, elected new board members, and some other stuff that I missed because I was calling the gas company in Arkansas about a leak. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio spoke while I was solving my gas woes back home, however, I did coincidentally run into him on the stairs. I was headed back into Corn Congress, and he noted my nametag, saying, "Oh, Lubbock, Texas! I ate breakfast with some gentlemen from Lubbock, Texas this morning."

And you want to know what my response was? I actually had gum in my mouth like some high school teeny bopper. I never chew gum, but my lack of breakfast was killing me, so I had to occupy myself with something. I noticed the sudden, unexpected attention from the senator who was making his way up the stairs, and tried to hide the gum in the corner of my mouth like it wasn't there. Remember, I NEVER chew gum. Oh, the irony.

I responded, "Yeah, we're everywhere."

Good one. At least his staffers laughed.

We then had our luncheon, and today's speaker was Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who has been a very outspoken advocate of ethanol. Sen. Grassley has also been instrumental in helping our campaign in denouncing all myths about ethanol being responsible for rising food prices. The facts tell us otherwise folks. It's just wrong and it's just what the oil dudes want you to believe.


After lunch, I went along with three of our board members to the Hill to do some visits with our Texas congressional delegation. The neat thing about these guys is they are just like you and me - they're farmers. Yet, these guys are so well-versed in farm policy and how it affects not only their operations, but the operations of corn, and other commodity growers in Texas. It just reiterates my thoughts on, "Don't gripe about something until you know both sides, understand the issue, and can form a well-educated opinion about it, and then take action."

We visited with Congressmen John Carter, a staffer of the House Ag Committee, and the new ag legislative assistant (LA) for Congressman Randy Neugebauer of the 19th district of Texas (aka, the congressmen representing the Lubbock area and a large part of West Texas). A House vote was taking place at this time, but we happened to meet the Congressmen in the tunnel beneath Capitol Hill on his way to the House floor. He greeted his active corn constituents and hurried along to his civic duty.

We also met with the ag LA for Congressmen Henry Cuellar, a staffer for Congressmen Chet Edwards, and Congressmen Mike Conaway himself.

The cool thing about seeing Conaway was that we actually toured beneath the bowels of the United States Capitol (thanks to his chief scheduler, Faith, who led us through security to the door outside of the House floor) to meet with the representative. Suddenly, we were right where things happen - in the Capitol, on the House side, amongst U.S. congressmen who, like Conaway, were meeting with constituents who had traveled to DC to voice their concerns about public policy.

Of all the congressmen that we spoke with today (and likely any that I have ever met) he is perhaps the most personable of all of them. He greeted all of us as if he was seeing faces from home, and spoke with my board members with a genuine concern for their issues. I'd like to post the whole picture of the congressmen and our board members, but I like my job, and I'd rather not.

While I can't obviously point out every senator or congressman by sight, you can pick them out in a crowd by their member lapel pin. Just being in the presence of so many members of congress is a really cool experience. I know I sound like a tourist with a fanny pack, but seriously folks, this is neat stuff.

After meeting with the congressman, we retreated to the Capitol Hill Club outside of the House side of the Hill. Conaway's staffer graciously led us through the winding tunnels beneath Capitol Hill to a point that put us right where we needed to come up to surface. We went inside, thanks to the membership of one of our corn board members who makes frequent visits to DC and who was a former NCGA president. This club is just outside of the House buildings and is a hot spot for congressmen and staff. In fact, we ran into one of our congressmen from our district who we were not able to meet with. He knelt next to my chair, visited with us, thanked us for our visit, then returned to his staffers, as I finished my Makers Mark and Diet Coke.

Our next stop for the day was a reception on the top floor of the Hart Senate building. Since I was hot and sweaty from a day of touring the Hill's men in my suit, I decided to go back to the hotel and meet up with my party after refreshing. I had worn blisters on my little toes from all the walking in my dress shoes. They were even flats...I know, all the cool girls on Capitol Hill wear heels, but I'm not tough enough. So, I had to stop and get some BandAids.

I took a cab back to Hart, met up with my crew, who was leaving this reception for another reception held for the House Ag Committee at the Longworth House building.

So, we went to that one. The House Ag Committee Chair, Colin Peterson, was there...and was playing lead vocals for his band the "Second Amendments".

Not only were we in the presence of some of our nation's most powerful agricultural decision makers, but were also in the House Ag Committee meeting room in the only balcony-equipped room on the House side.



The view was amazing, and the room was packed with corn folks, soybean folks, Farm Bureau folks and twenty-somethings. From the balcony was a view of the Capitol, while above you was an expansive ceiling with architecture you would compare to Rome. In fact, I ran into a guy I went to college with at the U of A. Small world.

And, yes, that is the same dress I wore to the wedding in San Angelo. Hello, people...I had to pack for almost two weeks! So, back off!

The place was rather crowded, and they ran out of "refreshments" so we left for the Dubliner, which was near our hotel.

The mere idea of shaking hands and being in the presence of these people today almost gave me the DC bug. I see how easy it can be to get caught up in the excitement and thrill of this city. I'm not talking about the touristy, 0h-let's-go-visit-the-monuments kind of experience, I'm talking about the "getting involved in your nation's policy" experience. Being someone. Knowing the right people. Obviously, the only reason I was in this position was because I was with people who knew how to play the game, and who had connections with the people on the Hill. Even though I was just the person keeping the guys on track as far as where the next place to go and who were were meeting with, and taking their picture once we got there...I was still there. And it was enough to almost infect me.

But, even in all of the DC mania, the rolling hills, flowing waters and sweet smell of Bermuda grass hay will still always be my Mecca. I guess that's what is cool about this whole process. The very gentlemen I was with today represent that very desire - while today they wore suits, ties and cuff lings, and voiced concerns about American agriculture to their congressional delegation - once they return to Texas, they will be wearing jeans, a John Deere cap and dusty boots as they board their tractors and harvesters. These men are may be what many would classify as simple-minded farmers, but I promise you they know more about agricultural policy and how this country's government is ran than you or I will ever know...that is unless we take the initiative as they have to learn the system and take and active interest in it, rather than complaining about how it doesn't work.

God bless America.

Capitol Steps

I'm usually an afternoon runner, but for some reason I've experienced an unusual inspiration to run in the morning here in DC. There's like 50 million runners who run around the Capitol and Mall. They're everywhere. And, this morning I joined the madness.

It was a beautiful morning to run. Not too hot. The sun was starting to rise. Oh, and there's a huge national icon in plain sight everywhere you go.


I ran down to the Washington National Monument and back to the hotel. I had to adjust to stopping at all the stoplights, but that wasn't too bad because I could catch my breath that was evading my lungs. I still have a hard time adjusting to humidity in places after living in West Texas.


As I mentioned, there were runners everywhere. In fact, I saw a whole running group of about 30 runners who were stretching. That's so over rated. As I was waiting on the crosswalk light to change, some dude (a runner) asked a girl (another runner) if she was doing any races any time soon. I don't even think he knew her. I really think he just wanted a chance to show off, because he said, "I just finished my 23rd marathon the other day."

I was really tempted to say, "Oh yeah, well I just finished my 24th last week," even though I've never actually ran a full marathon. But he didn't know me from Adam's house cat. He probably would've challenged me to a sprint to the top of the Capitol steps or something, and then my sarcasm would've been revealed.

My hotel is right next to this lovely classic looking firehouse. I heard a truck go out at least five times last night. Oh, actually I hear one going out right now! I hope it's not the hotel.

Capitolized

I didn't officially start my communicators' summit until 5 pm today, so I tagged along with David and another one of our board members as they made a couple visits on the Hill. We stopped by Senator Cornyn's office, as well as the Senate Minority Ag Committee office.


While strolling through the halls of the Russell Senate Building, we passed by Senate Ag Committee Chairman, Tom Harkin of Iowa. He wasn't dressed like a senator. He had an "on-a-mission" look on his face and was wearing some khakis and non-senator looking brown shoes. I wouldn't have noticed him if our board member hadn't said, "Hello, Mr. Chairman," and then told me who he was. During the creation of the new farm bill, this man was a large player.

Our communicators' summit was set up to allow all of us to come together to strategize on how to deal with the pressing issues of the corn industry. We gathered for about two and a half hours, ate, then adjourned early. Since the sun was still up outside, I decided to take a little walking tour of the vacinity.

A step out the revolving door of our hotel and you can see the U.S. Capitol building towering gallantly up New Jersey Ave. This is my third trip to DC and I'm still captivated by its majesty every time I see it.

The cool thing about the city is there is always something going on. Tonight a band comprised of Naval officers was tooting out some tunes on the Capitol steps, while at the Capitol side of the Mall, thousands of twenty-somethings were gathering to watch a movie on a gianormous screen.

After reading my previous posts, you all know the impact the setting sun has on me. Seeing the red and orange colors behind the Washington National Monument is no exception.

DC has a presence unlike any other city. I mean, obviously, it's out nation's capitol city. But, this is where things happen - where decisions are made that affect everyone. I've witnessed firsthand the BS factor of politics, but it's easy to forget all of that when you see the grandeur of the monuments, buildings and power that defines Washington.

I had loads of sweet pictures of this gloriously patriotic sight, however, I took the pictures in RAW mode with my fancy schmancy camera, and I haven't loaded that software on my laptop, so use your imagination. I'll post them when I get back.