I woke up before 4:00 a.m. to start the 100+ mile drive, and I arrived at the country club where the event was being held right around 6:00. The event was so early because Trump was holding a town hall meeting live on "Today", with Matt Lauer. Before the town hall meeting was a ticketed public event, which is what I attended. The doors were scheduled to open at 6:30 a.m. for the 7:00 a.m. event, however when I got there, they were open, and the place was PACKED.
I went to look for a good spot, and even with the large crowd I was somehow lucky enough to find an aisle seat right next to where he would be walking out. My spot was as perfect as it could have been. This picture doesn't show the crowd in front of the stage, but it was gigantic, especially for before 7 a.m..
After a while of sitting around waiting, it was time:
I was pretty confident that I would be able to get the 'graph and maybe a picture on his way off of the stage, especially with me being right next to the rail.
The speech went on, and despite really not being a fan of Trump's views at all, it wasn't too bad of a speech. I was actually surprised with how even-keel it was. He mostly talked about how he was winning every state(which was true until this morning).
I did however find this tweet that shows me "face-palming" during part of the event, which I thought was pretty awesome. If you want to see, simply zoom to the bottom left, and I'm in a black hat.
In Atkinson, Trump says that 30% of the press are good, but "50% are the worst people I've ever met." #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/np6mjk73eg
— Kailani Koenig (@kailanikm) October 26, 2015
When the speech ended and Donald was walking off the stage I stood up and got ready. He got to me, saw my "Forbes" magazine, asked me how the article was, held it up to the crowd, got an applause, and signed it with a HUGE signature. I was happy that my drive up was rewarded. As much as I disagree with the way he carries himself politically, I was a devoted fan of his show, "The Apprentice", so it was really cool to meet him. I tried to take a photo with him, but he was just rushing too much and I couldn't get a good one taken.
There were a number of supporters out near his vehicle along the railing, but I found a good spot. A few of the others were live-streaming the show, so I was able to know exactly when it ended. Just a few minutes later, he came out, and started interacting with the crowd. Almost immediately, I was being pushed hard against the railing, but Donald came right over to me after signing a book for a woman. As soon as he got to me, I felt the crowd pushing even harder but I wasn't really thinking about it. Trump grabbed my photo, once again held it up to the crowd, and signed it really big like the last time. This made the trip even more worth it, and I was pretty happy.
I think this was actually the farthest I have ever gone for a non-guaranteed interaction with someone, and I'm glad that it paid off. I'm excited to see which other candidates I can meet before next November.
