B'port News reader meets Ron Paul

(Editor's note: We received this from a reader and occassional commenter named Swearengen. It described meeting Ron Paul at the local airport during his recent visit to the Petrochemical Armpit of Texas. Thanks for writin, Swearengen.)

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Hi Banjo...

I thought you might be interested in a minor happening at the Brazoria County airport yesterday. As a reporter, I sure wish you could have been there to publish your own thoughts on the matter. It was very spur of the moment though, and I didn't think to email you. Sorry 'bout that Steve.

Here is my personal experience, if you are interested.

Ron
aka Swearengen

I finally got to meet Ron and Carol!

Around noon we got an email from our meetup group that his chartered jet would be landing in our local airport at 4:30 this afternoon. So quite a few of us drove out there for a "welcome home" surprise.

His wife showed up early and thanked me for the flowers I sent them at Thanksgiving.

His jet landed about 4:35 and when he got off the plane, and after we finished cheering, he walked over to us to let us know that he saw the signs when they landed, before they turned around at the end of the runway and taxied back.

After I shook his hand and introduced myself, he autographed my sign and then I pointed to his small chartered jet and said "I always thought Airforce 1 was bigger than that" and he cracked up. Then I took my little copy of the Constitution out of my back pocket (courtesty of Congressman Ron Paul), and before I asked him to sign that also he said, "Oh, I see you have a copy of our campaign platform!" Guys, he's sharp as a tack... I tell 'ya.

I have to tell you guys, I could hardly speak.

Since I got there two hours early, I got to park my dad's Lincoln town car right next to the presidential limo. It's a Lincoln town car too, and almost the same color.

When he finally started to go towards the car with his wife, he started to open my trunk. The he looked at the license plate, then his. His says "US Congress", "DIST 14A", and walked on over to his. As I stood there with my bottle of special order Oregon Pinot Noir, his wife said to her husband, "Ron, this is the man that sent us those nice flowers at Thanksgiving". He turned and shook my hand again and said, "Oh, I wished you had put your phone number on the card because I wanted to call you. That was such a thoughtful gift." He then looked at the wine with a big gold bow on it. I told him that I'd heard through the grapevine that he liked a good quality red wine and he got the biggest grin on his face. He said simply, "My favorite". He told me that was a very sweet and thoughtful gift and he'd sure give it a try when he had the first chance to enjoy it.

He has to leave out really quick so that he can be on Meet the Press this coming Sunday.

So he started down the road, and we all followed in a motorcade down the highway at 65 mph with our lights on and our emergency flashers flashing. The plan was to follow him all the way to his house, and then drive on past and let him have some rest and peace. I guess Carol forgot something at the store and they turned off into the local grocery store parking lot which kind of threw us for a loop. The motorcade broke up from there.