Democracy in action

So I get a call from my father right before the new year wanting to know where my friend from Iowa lives. I tell him she lives outside of Des Moines. He wants me to call her to see if we can come to observe the caucus'. I call her, and she makes a call and before you know it we are on our way to Iowa. My stepsister Andrea went with us. We left Thursday morning and came back Friday. My friend lives on a pig/cow/corn farm and helped to enlighten us on the ins and outs of running a "family farm". They actually work with a corporation that helps them with a lot of their stuff. It helped my appreciate why prices are what they are.
She offered her home for us to stay in and fixed us supper and breakfast that was Bed and Breakfast quality.
We went to a Democratic caucus that was run by someone that Linda (my friend) knows. We were allowed to sign in as observers. I was encouraged about the youth and politics because one the observers was a 13 yr old girl who was sitting there writing what she was observing. I asked if she was writing a report for school. She said no, it was for her own benfit. Her parents are Republican and she has been there lots of times and wanted to see a Democratic one.
After we left there, we drove to Des Moines, about 25 min away. Linda had given us the name of hotel that the candidates had stayed in back in October. We finally found the hotel, but only Hillary was there. We got to go up to where the party was going on. She and Bill were there, but we really couldn't see them. There were too many people. Andrea picked us up offical guest tags off the floor, so we could prove we were there. It was definitly an experience.
The road trip was great too. We had some deep conversations on many topics..
Now my father wants to go to New Hampshire. He's on his own for that one.