Ride Board: Cal Bears Beat Bush Round III - Archived Entry

"Want to hear a joke?" Julia had a devious tone to her voice. "What?" I responded with hesitation. "Us, going to Reno at 4:30 in the morning on Saturday!"

After the incredible experience of traveling to Reno on the October 1st trip, we knew that we had to find a way back. Richard, our go to guy from Driving Votes, had been actively attempting to persuade us to skip our hometown football game (an unthinkable action in Piedmont) but the outlook seemed dim. Finally we got the word that Meera, our saving grace at this point, was departing on Saturday before the break of dawn.

Our group of four (Meera, Vivian, Julia, and I) was relatively enthusiastic for the bizarre hour; I attribute this to the exciting prospect of actually turning Nevada blue. After several semi conscious hours, and a pit stop for Doritos, we found ourselves amongst three hundred other volunteers just as pumped for the day ahead. I was identified as a capable young person and assigned to use Palm Pilots with team nine (GO JETS!) We initially terrified our leader Scott, but by the end of the day I think he was broken. Describing the trip to friends later felt like going over a weeks worth of activities, so much was packed into the ten or so hours in Reno that it does not seem possible. Inspired by the speeches of James and the national director ACT, coupled with the thrill of appearing on Nevada news, I entered the sublets of Reno with one thing on my mind, Get out the Vote! My fellow teammate Ricker was a phone call away, ready to bring the van to whomever wanted a ride. People showed us a great deal of support, and not once did we run into apathy.

Driving votes did an incredible job organizing and providing for the volunteers of this trip. Not only did I feel proud of the work that was getting done, I enjoyed being a part of such an inspiring and motivated group. While winning back Nevada for the Democrats, doing my part to further door to door campaigning, and remaining updated on the efforts various groups are putting in to this election are the main reasons I opted to go to Reno, the fun I had is motivation enough to do it again.

--Paula Klein, Piedmont, CA