(Originally published in my Livejournal To be editted into the State Rep story.)

Over the past couple of weeks, Zephyr Teachout has been traveling around the country, initially in an http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/001961.html >old Airstream bus before it broke down, speaking with grassroots organizers about the campaign and what they are doing in their area. She has been posting back to the blog her experiences. They are calling this Drive for Democracy, but I like to think of this as On the Road with Zephyr Teachout.

In a recent post, she wrote asking, http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/002198.html >“Who Have You Met on the Blog?. For me it is all a bit of a blur. I have met so many wonderful people from the blog and from so many other parts of the campaign.

This pasted week has been a particular blur for my wife and I, it has been Our Own Private Drive for Democracy. For those of you who read my LiveJournal, you will know that last Monday, I found out that my http://www.recorder.com/obituaries/obit1678847.htm >Aunt Barbara died.

I always remember Aunt Barbara from when she lived in an apartment in Millers Falls, MA. Perhaps the most important thing I remember from Aunt Barbara, and from all of my mother’s sisters is the proper pronunciation of ‘Aunt’. It is pronounced like the end of ‘restaurant’, not like the little bug that crawls on the ground.

It was in her kitchen that I remember hearing my aunts talk about this pronunciation. It was important. Most likely it was at one of the annual Christmas parties that the extended family had every year at Aunt Barbara’s. My mother was the youngest sister and all of my cousins on my mother’s side of the family were older than I. I remember that one year, Aunt Barbara had a different sort of Christmas Tree. Instead of the typical evergreen tree, it was a Birch tree. The leaves were all gone, but the white trunk, and the ornaments were striking, especially to a youngster learning that there were other ways of looking at the world.

Aunt Barbara played the organ for the local Congregational Church. She had a small organ in her apartment, and when we were lucky and well behaved, we sometimes got to play the organ during these family gatherings.

I remember once, I suspect I was 14 at the time, I stayed at Aunt Barbara’s when her grandson, my first cousin, once removed, was out visiting. David and I went for a walk in the woods and I stepped into a yellow jackets nest. I got lots of stings and was swelling up pretty badly. Aunt Barbara gave me benedryl and the swelling went down and I slept off the pain.

Years later, Aunt Barbara moved out to California to live with near one of her daughters there. I didn’t see her as much since then.

There was a memorial service in California on Wednesday and then they sent the body back east. My mother told me the funeral would be either Friday or Saturday.

Tuesday, I got a phone call from Michael Silberman, asking if Kim and I could be up in Burlington on Saturday. I explained the situation with my aunt, and said I would have to get back to him. I asked him how important it was, how many people would be there, and anything else he could tell me. He said that it was just a small group of people coming from all over the country and that it was fairly important. He couldn’t tell me more on Tuesday, but he said the announcements coming up over the next couple days should help make some of it clear.

I called the funeral home and found out that the funeral would be on Saturday. Should I go to the funeral and miss whatever was going to happen in Burlington? Should I go to Burlington and miss the funeral? Was there some other option?

I called my mother and found that there was going to be a private viewing, family only on Friday. My mother is frail and didn’t think she could make it to the viewing, but she was planning on going to the funeral, assuming she could get my brother to drive her.

We decided it would be best for me to go to the private viewing on Friday, spend Friday night with my mother, and for me to go to Burlington on Saturday. I called Michael back and let him know that we would be driving up.

We also had gotten an email from the New York for Dean folks about the Rally at Cooper Union. Kim and I had said we would be going down to this and we found out that we would be on stage.

Tuesday, which now seems like such a long time ago, was also election day. Kim and I got out and voted. We wore our Dean buttons and spoke a little bit with the poll standers. Kim’s car was acting up, so we left it at the garage for repairs, and Kim gave me a ride to work, and picked me up at the end of the day.

Tuesday, is also a special day for Kim and I in many different ways. Kim’s mother would have turned 61 on Tuesday. Kim’s mother died of cancer four years ago on Kim’s birthday. I never got a chance to meet Kim’s mother, we had only been dating a few weeks when her mother died. A year later, Kim and I got married on her mother’s birthday, and Tuesday was our three year wedding anniversary. Eleven months later, Fiona was born, and two years ago, Fiona was baptized on her grandmother’s birthday and her parents wedding anniversary.

With the car in the shop and so many other things going on, we had a quiet anniversary. We watched the Rock the Vote debate, and had fondue for dinner. My two elder daughters, from my previous marriage were with us for the debate and the evening. Fiona had been dropped off with her grandparents.

Wednesday, the older kids went off to school and Kim and I headed down into New York. At Cooper Union, we met several other people who were Meetup Hosts from the greater New York area. One person there, whom I’ve spoken with a lot on different mailing lists was Cynthia Williams. It was great to finally meet her face to face.

We also met John Hartwell and Patricia Taylor. Patricia is on the blog a lot and both of them have been doing phenomenal work on organizing things in Westport CT. We also met some great people from the IUPAT. Afterwards, we took the subway up to Grand Central Terminal. Governor Dean’s mother was on the subway, and we had a great chat.

You can see some of the pictures here:
Governor Dean and IUPAT members, and another picture.

Governor Dean and the other volunteers who were on the stage with him

Kim taking the subway home with Governor Dean's Mom

In the afternoon, we got together with Leatrice Fountain. Leatrice, with a group of others in Greenwich Connecticut are doing great work for the Dean campaign there. Our Meetups had split so she was hosting the Greenwich Meetup, while Kim and I would be going to the Stamford Meetup.

After tea and talking about the Meetup, Kim and I rushed home, had dinner with the older girls, and headed down to Meetup. Stamford, had a small Meetup. Two of the people there, Suresh Krishmomoorthy, and Alison Buckens had been at Meetups since the spring and it was great to see them again.

Thursday, we regrouped. We did follow up from the Meetup, got the car out of the shop, prepared for our coming trip, got Fiona, and had time for a parent-teacher conference. The older girls’ piano teacher commented about seeing Kim on the news, as did quite a few other people.

I took a little time out to read the New York Times. I thought their editorial, Dr. Dean and the Pickup Truck was quite good. Yet I thought there was more that could be said, so I sent the editor a letter. In the afternoon, I got an email back, saying they were going to publish it. I was pretty psyched. Friday morning, I picked up the Times to see my letter along with four others in Dean's Gaffe: What Did We Learn? (5 Letters)

Friday, we drove to my cousin’s house in Greenfield Mass. One of the first things my cousin said when we got there was about seeing Kim on the News. We talked about the campaign and my letter to the editor. The family viewing was small and quiet. We shared memories of my Aunt Barbara and talked about how everyone else in the family was doing and about desires of getting the family together.

We then drove to my mother’s house in Williamstown. The Mohawk Trail is a beautiful road, especially on a clear autumn day. Yet after the sun sets, it is dark and twisty and more of a chore to drive.

My eldest brother had come up from New York, and we spent the evening with my mother; having dinner, looking at pictures, and talking about the family.

We got up early Saturday morning to drive from Williamstown to Burlington. The car had been acting okay, but when we stopped to get gas, it had problems getting going again. We briefly worried about if we would make it to Burlington on time. Yet it was a short aberration, and the car was fine for the rest of the trip up.

When Governor Dean officially announced his candidacy for the presidency back in June, Kim and I drove up with Fiona to be at the announcement. We had stopped at the Burlington Headquarters there, so we knew, approximately, where we were going. We had met Michael Silberman then, and subsequently at the Sleepless Summer Tour in New York City.

The drive went well, and we got to Burlington around ten. Michael wasn’t around. Nor was Zack Rosen, whom I’ve worked with a bit on DeanSpace. I had told Zack we would be up on Saturday and I was hoping that he would be around. However, he had been up late Friday night dealing with the voting. I heard that he did some really great work on that part of the technology.

We were standing around, still with no idea exactly what they wanted us to do. Someone came along and herded everyone who was gathering into the lobby into the large conference room. Everyone started introducing themselves. There was getting to be quite a crowd, and they were all from Vermont, with the exception of one or two that were from New York, just across the lake.

This was neither a small group, nor a group of people from all over the country. I wondered, were we in the right place? Had plans changed in someway? Was this a mistake, and should I have gone to my aunt’s funeral?

Michael showed up and directed Kim and I to a different conference room. We had been in the room with the people from Vermont that have been doing such great work and were invited to be in the audience. We went into a smaller room with the other ‘signers’. None of us, I believe, yet knew exactly what was going to go on. There was a PC Tablet there that we could all practice electronically signing on. Each of us signed our names, and finally the whole explanation came out.

We would be signing our Declaration of Independence from the special interest groups that have been destroying American Politics. We got our briefings. Joe Trippi spoke about the importance of each of us speaking in our own voice about why we were involved and why we felt that it was the right thing to do to opt out of public financing.

We then all drove over to University of Vermont at Montpelier for the announcement. More briefings. We did get a chance to speak briefly with Governor Dean. Kim asked him if he would sign the picture we had of us, with him, at a fundraiser from a few months ago.

We also asked if he would be willing to hold Fiona so we could get a picture of that. Here are those pictures:
1 ,
2 ,
3 ,
4 ,
5 ,
6 (My favorite) .

You can see the pictures that John Pettitt took in the official gallery.

Afterwards, we went back to headquarters. Fiona got a chance to feed Kasey. Twice.

Several of us sat around and talked about things that can be done to continue to move the campaign forward. As we talked, we slowly recognized each other from different online contexts.

As an example, Jerome Wiley have been sending emails back and forth about getting Latinos for Dean videos available online. Susan Hudgens is the moderator of one of the mailing lists I’m on, and Lanya Shapiro and I have been on conference calls together planning house parties.

Finally, we left headquarters, and stopped at a hotel to crash. We went out to dinner during the lunar eclipse. Fiona looked at the moon and commented on how it had changed and was red.

In the morning, we stopped at Ben and Jerry’s factory and took the tour. Fiona really enjoyed the end of the tour. Really!

From there, we drove down to meet Patty in VT. We had a wonderful lunch with her and her family, and then we head off for the rest of our ride home.

On the way home, the car started acting strangely again. We did make it home safely, but this morning, I could not get the car into reverse.