"I'll be back" Ohio---maybe

So I know in the past I have not had many good things to say about Ohio. But this past weekend I went out to Columbus to volunteer on Obama’s campaign and was pleasantly surprised.

As we were driving out to Ohio we started calling hotels to find a room for the weekend. The normal thinking would be – it’s Ohio, what else could be going on, we should have no problems. Well we call multiple places and every place is booked and finally we ask what is happening in town?? Apparently the Arnold Classic was happening in downtown Columbus. That’s right a bodybuilding show. Columbus is where Arnold Schwarzenegger won his title so he brings the show back there every year. After several laughs about the whole event we did find a room for the weekend, we just had to switch hotels every night.

When we arrived on Friday, after a long trip due to the snow, we immediately got a packet and were sent out to German Village in Columbus. The neighborhood had great architecture, cobble stone streets and great shops and restaurants. It was fun walking around and looking at all the houses, and the people were nice but not many were home. Saturday morning again we were sent out to German Village. While it was quite cold, we could see neighborhood better because of the daylight.

As we were walking down this narrow cobblestone alleyway a line of black SUVS passes by and one of the women said Arnold was in the SUV. I didn’t believe her at first but then someone else said they saw him too. Not that I am a huge Arnold fan (or one at all really) but I thought it was pretty cool. Our day of canvassing in the cold continued and in the afternoon we were sent to the High Street area also called the Short North. This part of Columbus I had been to a couple of times after the 2006 elections but it was only to go to the bars. I didn’t realize how cool and trendy the whole area was and again had some really nice places to live. We decided to get stop by Starbucks later in the afternoon to warm up and as we are walking up to it we see all these people around. Someone tells us, “You can’t go in Starbucks, Arnolds in there.” So we decide to hang out and watch him come out. After a few minutes he comes out, shakes a few hands (not mine, but one of the other volunteers), and gets into his SUV. Security drives him away as he smokes a cigar.

I have to say he looked pretty stuff as he walked around and he was shorter than I expected. The guy that was with us was 5’11 and he said Arnold was a couple of inches shorter than him. But either way it was fun and something you wouldn’t expect to happen in Ohio.

The rest of the weekend after the Arnold sightings went just fine. We did a lot of canvassing and met some interesting people. Sunday was warmer thankfully. We went to Bob Evans for breakfast Sunday and they gave us so much food I really thought I was going to throw up. We ate breakfast at 10am, canvassed all day and didn’t need to eat again till around 7 for dinner. We went out to an Italian place for dinner for my birthday and it was good times.

Overall I was impressed by Ohio this weekend, of course my opinion only had one way to go really. If I ever had to move back to Ohio (although I would really hope that never happens), I would pick one of those neighborhoods in Columbus to live in.

Now all that’s left to do is sit here anxiously awaiting tonight’s results...