In case you missed it:




We're now in Denver, and last week the city was a fucking madhouse due to it being FILLED with DNC-goers. Roads were pretty much closed down, there was no parking anywhere, and the streets were filled with vendors selling plush Obamas, cashing in on all the HOPE. Or is it hype? Not that I'm bitter or anything.


Anyway, with all this stuff going on, downtown was a freakin' circus. Protesters on every corner speaking out against everything from abortion to oil to lizardmen controlling the NWA under DIA. I figured this would be an opportune moment to get some nerdy-ass friends together and stage a fake protest (or FAUX-test) that was both humorous, and supported some of our personal political views. Namely, nuclear energy.



Nuclear Energy. Proton Packs.
Get it? No? Seriously, what did you expect from us?

I posted to some propbuilder sites asking for ideas for clever protest signs on Tuesday morning from  my girlfriends house up in Fort Collins. I got few replies and had to head home to Denver, so I did that. As the day wore on, my enthusiasm for the idea waned. I was having problems with my pack, it was unlikely we'd make it downtown for rush hour, the ideal protest time, and I still hadn't come up with any really good ideas for signs.


But then the people I had asked to join me on this little project showed up and their excitement and eagerness to do the protest got me back on track. Awesome. Lea worked on a few signs while Richie fixed my pack with bungie cords, I helped Brendan put a uniform together, and we got everything arranged to head downtown. Since their were seven of us (nine if you count Logan and Beej for camera stuff), we decided to meet up at nearby Yale Station and take the Light Rail train to LoDo.


And we were off!

We got to the light rail station and bought our tickets.







When the train showed up, the driver eyeballed us intensely. The train doors didn't open, it just sat there for about five minutes, and then took off leaving us and every other person on the platform behind. I'm pretty sure it was the costumes that caused that. For the next train, we hid ourselves on the far side of the station. We dashed through a southbound trains' cars and jumped onto our northbound at the last second.
Ha!

The ride down was uneventful, just hanging out.



We arrived on 15th street and headed straight for the 16th Street Mall. Tons of pictures, lots of "who ya gonna calls," you guys all know what it's like.


Lots and lots of people cheering, and lots of people coming up to argue with us about how nuclear energy is not safe, or clean. We were called "Republicans" a few times. But it was mostly a really awesomely positive experience.


We went down 16th, then over on Larimer, then came back up 14th street and stopped at Beej's work. Beej and Logan went up 7 stories to do a high-angle shot of us protesting. While this was going on, ten or so Denver/Aurora police officers moseyed up to say, "Hello." They took pictures, asked us what was going on, shared some stories, shook hands, all that neat stuff. Quite a lot of fun.


We then headed back down 16th street, where we were interviewed by someone from WNYC of National Public Radio. We saw a police Excursion covered in riot cops blow past, with one cop overheard shouting, "Ghostbusters?" Funny.




Got into an argument with a hippy who claimed that everything downstream of a nuclear power plant was incredibly toxic and devoid of life (like San Onofre, right?) who was then told off by a former nuclear submarine technician who was happy to see us supporting our cause.




We headed toward Union Station where we were stopped by some internet news crew, a Denver Post photographer, and a good friend of John Ritch, who is head of the World Nuclear Association. There were tons of old, classic locomotives sitting outside Union Station (one of which was a Challenger, I believe), and even more people crowded around the MSNBC stage. That's where we hung out for the rest of the night, taking pictures and talking to out of towners.


No trouble from anyone, people were very receptive to the costumes and packs. Hell, a homeless guy starting singing "On our own" beautifully! I'm sure Josh and Alex had the most fun, they've been dying to get out and about in their costumes. For Richie, Lea, Laura, and I it was just another fun evening in crotch-biters.
What a fun night!