by With apologies to the Mamas and the Papas.
Monday, Monday
So good to me
Monday mornin’
It was all I hoped it would be
The Complementary Spouse and I got up early and headed to Whittier, North Carolina. That was where the final stop on the NRA Gun Bus Battle Field Tour would be in North Carolina. The bus was there and set up when we arrived a bit before 10am. We took a few minutes to tour Outpost Mountain Outfitters. I hadn’t been in the store for a number of years but it was as I remembered it.
My friend Steve from Grass Roots North Carolina arrived a bit after us. We chatted for a while with Andrew Brown and the rest of the NRA staff. People started to drift in because they saw the Gun Bus. Then a group of Republican leaders from Haywood County arrived. We had a good time chatting about politics in Waynesville and the rest of the county. I had lived in Waynesville for 30 plus years before moving to Buncombe County.
Then the star of the day arrived – State Rep. Jennifer Balkcom who is the Republican nominee for Congress in the 11th District of NC.
I have to say that Jennifer is one of those rare politicians with whom you can have an honest conversation and you don’t feel like you are just being fed a line. Having met her in person, I am convinced she would be better for Western North Carolina than her opponent or even our existing Congressman. She is just as down to earth in person as she appears on TV.
Jennifer encouraged State Rep. Anna Ferguson (R-Jackson, Swain, & Transylvania) to drop by. She was appointed to fill the seat of the late Rep. Mike Clampitt and is now running for election to it. She has the distinction of being the first member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to hold a seat in the State House. While she comes across as a strong supporter of gun rights, she made the rookie mistake of ignoring both the NRA and the GRNC surveys. I think she is working to rectify those mistakes.
Later, Skye Riggleman, myself, and Jennifer Balkcom recorded a short video for upload to the Instagram page for the NRA Gun Bus.
We headed back over the mountains as they prepared to move the Gun Bus to Georgia for their next event. However, my day of doing NRA work was not over.
I had volunteered to help out with the grassroots peer-to-peer texting. I think I must have clicked on over 7,000 texts that were sent to voters in Georgia, Virginia, and Nebraska. Today I did a few more to New Mexico. Given I got where I could send 30 texts in 10 seconds or less, it wasn’t hard to complete a small district in a few minutes.
We ended the day watching Monday night football. We cheered for Buffalo because the Rams had left St. Louis high and dry when they relocated back to Los Angeles. It must have helped as the Bills won it in overtime.
