The day did not start off well. Despite my elaborate preparations, I failed to notice that my rental car did not come equipped with a compact disc player. This meant that I would be stuck with just the radio for a first-day itinerary that required more than 300 miles of driving as I tracked Todd Palin through Duluth, Grand Rapids and Bemidji. My plans for a pleasant fall drive suffered a further blow when I realized that Minnesota Public Radio is in the midst of a pledge drive, rendering it largely unlistenable. So I settled for classic rock on KQRS (FM-92.5) and right-wing talk radio to pass the two-and-a-half hour drive to the Gander Mountain store at the border of Duluth and Hermantown.

The upside of this alternative entertainment menu (besides getting to hear “Misty Mountain Hop”) was that I learned some interesting new facts. For example, I discovered (via Rush Limbaugh) that John McCain enjoyed “the best night of his political career” at last evening’s debate. Strangely I’d been under the impression that the Republican presidential nominee had come off as borderline incoherent and a tad desperate.

When I arrived at the Gander Mountain store shortly after 1 p.m. the parking lot of the outdoors emporium was already full. I parked along a side street about a quarter mile away. The crowd was several hundred deep and carrying an array of hand-scrawled signs: “3 things keep us free: God, Guns — Sarah!”, “PTA mom 4 Sarah Palin!” and “Socialism is not my American dream.” But there was no real contest for the best sign of the day:

There were also several pockets of Barack Obama supporters arrayed around the parking lot. One group carrying a banner that read “Women for Obama” was stopped by police officers as they attempted to join the main gathering. “I want to know what he has to say,” explained one of the women to a cop, speaking of Todd Palin. “I want to know if he’s smarter than his wife.” A gray-haired, ponytailed McCain supporter watching the standoff was not impressed by the Obama folks. “This is like standing in front of a zoo and watching a bunch of monkeys,” he observed.

Roben Feldhaus traveled from Hoyt Lakes for the event with her dog Angel, who was draped with McCain-Palin signs.

“Palin is right up my alley because she’s a woman who hunts,” Feldhaus said. “I love my hunting. I love my guns. And I’m not gonna give them up.” She expressed concerns about Obama’s background, including his past connections to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers and ACORN. ” I think that if people really knew what is in Obama’s background it would be a real wake-up call,” Feldhaus said. ”I’m hoping that it comes out before the election, because after the election it will be too late.” She doesn’t believe race is a major factor in the presidential campaign. “The only way race would be playing an impact is because of Obama wanting to play that card,” Feldhaus said. “McCain isn’t playing it. It’s Obama that’s bringing it up. … If they want to be American, be an American. It doesn’t mater what race you are, just be an American.”

Jerry Hilton, a retiree from Two Harbors, was carrying a placard that read “Choose ‘Life’”:

“We don’t want Obama,” Hilton said, as the crowd around him sang “God Bless America.” What doesn’t he like about Obama? “Just about everything. He’s exactly opposite of what I feel. Abortion, his taxes, his distributing of wealth — which is ridiculous. I don’t believe in anything he says.” Hilton is enthusiastic about the addition of Palin (and her husband, apparently) to the Republican ticket. “They’re commoners,” he said of the couple. ”They’re just nice people.” He believes Palin is qualified for the VP slot. “She isn’t a community organizer, but she’s a governor,” Hilton said. ”I think that says it all right there.”

By the time I finished speaking with Hilton, the GOP entourage had arrived: Todd Palin, Sen. Norm Coleman and National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre. Apparently nobody had informed the crowd that Sarah Palin was not part of the package. “We love Sarah,” they chanted. LaPierre hand out business cards and signed autographs for the gun-loving faithful.

Todd Palin gave a brief (three minutes, by my calculation) speech to the crowd. “I feel right at home here in Minnesota,” he said. “A lot of my best buds are from Minnesota.” Palin also voiced what was clearly the main theme of the event: protecting gun rights. “The Second Amendment isn’t just another right,” he said. “It’s our right to stand up for and to protect.”

Then Coleman (flanked by wife Laurie) took to the podium:

Coleman gave a hearty endorsement of the Republican VP nominee. “Any person on a national ticket who can lace up a kid’s ice skates, who can ride a snow machine and can gut a moose — she’s gonna do very well in this part of America,” he said. He also stuck to the gun-rights theme. “The Second Amendment is a symbol,” he said. “It’s part and parcel of the DNA of America.”

The program lasted all of 15 minutes. Afterward Coleman and Palin worked the crowd, shaking hands and signing autographs. The first dude seemed much more comfortable mingling with the common folks than he did at the podium.

On to Grand Rapids

I was already running late by the time I motored out of Duluth. It was 3:15 p.m. and I needed to be in Grand Rapids by 4:30 for the next T-Pal sighting. According to Google Maps, it’s a 100-minute drive. The math was not in my favor. But I learned some new information about the presidential contest during the drive west. According to Sean Hannity, the most important issue in the race is now “Joe the Plumber.” This notorious gentleman from Dayton, Ohio, as anyone who watched the most recent presidential debate (during which he was inexplicably mentioned 26 times) knows, is convinced that Obama’s tax plans will destroy his dream of becoming a small-business owner.

Unfortunately for Joe (and McCain and Hannity), I then switched over to National Public Radio. What did I learn? Joe the Plumber would actually be better off under Obama’s tax proposal, he doesn’t actually have a deal to buy the plumbing business where he toils, and he’s a tax deadbeat to the tune of $1,200. Sounds like just the blue-collar role model that the McCain camp has been searching for to upend the race.

I arrived at the Timberlake Lodge Inn in Grand Rapids at 4:45 p.m. This vehicle nicely summed up the target demographic:

By the time I made it to the packed ballroom where Palin was slated to speak, he was just taking the microphone. Stranded at the back of the room I couldn’t see a thing. Lacking any GOP starpower to share the spotlight, Palin spoke a bit longer at this stop (roughly seven minutes). He discussed his wife’s entry into public life. “When she asked to run for PTA, I should have asked a few more questions,” Palin quipped.

Apparently I was not alone in struggling to catch a glimpse of the Iron Dog champion. “Stand on a chair!” someone in the audience yelled. Palin complied. I then managed to take a series of extraordinarily blurry photos of him by holding the camera way over my head and firing away. Here’s one of of his mug (with the VP nominee towering over him):

Following the brief stump show, Palin again mingled with the crowd:

Ron Hetteen, a Grand Rapids resident who described himself as “semi-retired,” wasn’t put off by the brief stopover. “I think it was great,” he said. “He maybe can’t stay that long, but it’s nice to get in touch with small communities. A lot of the bigger ones don’t have time always to come to a smaller place. I think it was real nice of him to be able to make the trip.” Hetteen described himself as an independent, but seems unlikely to voting Democratic any time soon. “I’m a firm believer in the fact that children shouldn’t be killed in abortion,” he said. “Until I personally find a Democrat who is against abortion I find it very hard to vote for that party.”

Bemidji or bust

A quick confession: I stopped at the Arby’s along state Highway 194 for a roast beef sandwich and curly fries before proceeding to Bemidji. This likely killed my chances of making it to the next stop on the T-Pal caravan on time, but I was hungry. A steady diet of Cliff bars and bottled water since morning hadn’t quite done the trick.

I might have still managed to cover the 68-mile drive in sufficient time if I hadn’t missed the turnoff to Bemidji Woolen Mills. But that miscue cost me another 10 minutes and by the time I walked into the packed wool factory Palin was just wrapping up his speech. He may have just endorsed Obama, or called for a ban on all handguns, or confessed to steroid use during the last Iron Dog competition — unfortunately I can’t say for sure.

But I did manage to speak with some of the folks in attendance. The most interesting was Charles Evenwoll, a farmer and owner of an air-filtration company outside Bemidji:

He’s motivated to support McCain primarily because of opposition to the Democratic presidential nominee. ”Obama’s a very smooth talker,” Evenwoll said. ”He frightens me. … He doesn’t understand. It’s kind of like a turtle on a post. He don’t know how he got up there. He don’t know who put him up there. He don’t know how to get down.”

Evenwoll acknowledged that similar arguments could be made about Palin, but he’s not so worried about her as a potential VP. “She seems to have a grassroots knack for understanding problems and solving them,” he said. “I think if you put her in there she would react.”

Evenwoll doesn’t believe that race will be a major factor in the presidential contest for residents of the Bemidji area. “I think we’re all racists, but I never play that card,” he said. “In this area we can’t be racists. Our friends are Native Americans. We talk like we’re racist, but we’re not.”

And finally, some protesters outside the Bemidji wool factory:

Friday’s destinations: Thief River Falls and Moorehead.

Earlier in “Todd and Me”:
First Dude and absent Sarah upstage Norm at Duluth Sportsmen for Coleman rally
Todd (Palin) and me: Tracking the First Dude through the wilds of Minnesota