Monday, November 14, 2005
Monday, and off to the races
Post by MG, freelance writer
Around noon I made my way over to the old LP site, where I would be parking my car and catching the shuttle bus to head up Baldy. Not very often would you have to catch a shuttle to go up in our neck of the woods, but today…and for the next 5 days it should be an expectation if you plan to get anywhere up there, unless of course you live in that area.
As I got there I was instructed to park my car at the back end of the lot and await the arrival of the next shuttle. They’re running about every 15 minutes or so, up and down the hill.
The shuttle showed up fairly quickly and after unloading a group, quickly filled up again. Everyone on the bus was talking about something. “Rumor has it that they’re doing the foundation now,” or, “My friend donated a bunch of tables for the food tent,” or maybe even some “I saw Michael out at Café Trinity on Sunday, we found out they were going there and we followed them around town.”
As we get up to the train tracks, looking to your right is another thing that I didn’t expect to be in Sandpoint Idaho. A cute little van, which has been transformed to a sheriff’s van. And on the side, with their insignia is “COMMAND POST.” I couldn’t help but to laugh, that we had a command post sitting on Baldy.
Up the road a ways you start seeing a huge mass of vehicles. Kinda hard to miss it and we all figured we were there. We pulled in and unloaded off the bus. We were told by a not-so-happy-looking security guy that we were to stay to the right of the porta potties and follow the road straight down.
After getting there I was surprised to find that the house was still standing, and yes we were able to have cameras... many people had them, and still others even brought their camcorders to capture this event. I made my way to the front of the not-so-large group of people who were already there and camped out to see what was going to happen.
So, there was a lot of gawking ... a lot of waiting, but surely enough we all caught sight of Michael, Paige, and of course Ty. There was a large semi truck in our way for a lot of this, so, fortunately for myself and the other short people that were present, I could see under the truck and we could spot them here and there running around doing their part.
The serious security guard (seriously good looking, and the only one in this spot) stood in front of the crowd of people and kept a straight face as those of us in the crowd told stories of rushing him ... there was only one of him and, though not a lot of us, we thought we could probably take him. Eventually as I was speaking to another onlooker about ways that we might convince Ty that we needed mouth to mouth resuscitation we got the security guard to crack a smile.
Then the bulldozers came to life. People were hollering as they picked up a cut down tree, and dropped it on to the roof of the house and the adjacent buildings. It took a few tries, but eventually it came down. Screams picked up even more as Michael and Page took a short break to come over to the crowd and sign autographs and talk to the group. Then people again went wild as Ty was seen sliding down the roof of the house on his stomach as he made his video to send to the family as they watch their house be destroyed.
Ty didn’t have a lot of time on his hands today. Word has it that he has another makeover going on in Seattle right now and had to get there. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but he didn’t make it over to us to say hi ... although he did give us a smile and a wave before disappearing in to the mess that was their house.
Another twenty minutes or so passed and not much was seen as they moved in a truck to haul away all the debris from the tear-down of the house. So I decided that I would make my way back down into town. In to the line again to wait for the bus.
I got back down and went to the volunteer tent as I had heard that they were still needing volunteers for the late night shifts. I did get a slot for Friday morning – or late Thursday depending on how you look at it ... midnight to 4 a.m. And I was told they had so many volunteers that they wouldn’t be able to use them all. They have started a book of all the people who want to help out in case they need it and so that they can show how many people want to help in this process.
So, that was the end of the trip for today.
I heard Jack Black is also in town living it up with our local nightlife ... so I might have to go out a few times this week. On the prowl.
Around noon I made my way over to the old LP site, where I would be parking my car and catching the shuttle bus to head up Baldy. Not very often would you have to catch a shuttle to go up in our neck of the woods, but today…and for the next 5 days it should be an expectation if you plan to get anywhere up there, unless of course you live in that area.
As I got there I was instructed to park my car at the back end of the lot and await the arrival of the next shuttle. They’re running about every 15 minutes or so, up and down the hill.
The shuttle showed up fairly quickly and after unloading a group, quickly filled up again. Everyone on the bus was talking about something. “Rumor has it that they’re doing the foundation now,” or, “My friend donated a bunch of tables for the food tent,” or maybe even some “I saw Michael out at Café Trinity on Sunday, we found out they were going there and we followed them around town.”
As we get up to the train tracks, looking to your right is another thing that I didn’t expect to be in Sandpoint Idaho. A cute little van, which has been transformed to a sheriff’s van. And on the side, with their insignia is “COMMAND POST.” I couldn’t help but to laugh, that we had a command post sitting on Baldy.
Up the road a ways you start seeing a huge mass of vehicles. Kinda hard to miss it and we all figured we were there. We pulled in and unloaded off the bus. We were told by a not-so-happy-looking security guy that we were to stay to the right of the porta potties and follow the road straight down.
After getting there I was surprised to find that the house was still standing, and yes we were able to have cameras... many people had them, and still others even brought their camcorders to capture this event. I made my way to the front of the not-so-large group of people who were already there and camped out to see what was going to happen.
So, there was a lot of gawking ... a lot of waiting, but surely enough we all caught sight of Michael, Paige, and of course Ty. There was a large semi truck in our way for a lot of this, so, fortunately for myself and the other short people that were present, I could see under the truck and we could spot them here and there running around doing their part.
The serious security guard (seriously good looking, and the only one in this spot) stood in front of the crowd of people and kept a straight face as those of us in the crowd told stories of rushing him ... there was only one of him and, though not a lot of us, we thought we could probably take him. Eventually as I was speaking to another onlooker about ways that we might convince Ty that we needed mouth to mouth resuscitation we got the security guard to crack a smile.
Then the bulldozers came to life. People were hollering as they picked up a cut down tree, and dropped it on to the roof of the house and the adjacent buildings. It took a few tries, but eventually it came down. Screams picked up even more as Michael and Page took a short break to come over to the crowd and sign autographs and talk to the group. Then people again went wild as Ty was seen sliding down the roof of the house on his stomach as he made his video to send to the family as they watch their house be destroyed.
Ty didn’t have a lot of time on his hands today. Word has it that he has another makeover going on in Seattle right now and had to get there. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but he didn’t make it over to us to say hi ... although he did give us a smile and a wave before disappearing in to the mess that was their house.
Another twenty minutes or so passed and not much was seen as they moved in a truck to haul away all the debris from the tear-down of the house. So I decided that I would make my way back down into town. In to the line again to wait for the bus.
I got back down and went to the volunteer tent as I had heard that they were still needing volunteers for the late night shifts. I did get a slot for Friday morning – or late Thursday depending on how you look at it ... midnight to 4 a.m. And I was told they had so many volunteers that they wouldn’t be able to use them all. They have started a book of all the people who want to help out in case they need it and so that they can show how many people want to help in this process.
So, that was the end of the trip for today.
I heard Jack Black is also in town living it up with our local nightlife ... so I might have to go out a few times this week. On the prowl.
