Scenes From Bush's Sleepy Vacation
C R A W F O R D, Texas, Aug. 7 -- There's only one traffic light in Crawford — and it only blinks. Trains roll through, but they don't stop. The only restaurant is at a gas station.
Not very exciting — except when President Bush comes to his 1,600-acre ranch near here.
"When he comes to town, it's a whole 'nother ball game," says Kirk Baird, owner of The Coffee Station, the town's restaurant/gas station. "It's really been a great joy to have all these people around. You get to meet people from all around the world — Germany, Russia, Great Britain, all those places."
All coming to see the sleepy town Bush calls home. Even folks who live nearby come to Crawford more often these days.
"I've been here real often since he started living here — hoping one of these days we might even see him in person," says Larue Pafford, who lives 30 miles away. Whenever she comes, she says, she drops a joking note to her son in Ohio: "Went over and had a burger with the prez today."
Whatever excitement there is, though, is purely anticipatory. Folks here rarely see the president. He rarely strays from his ranch — save for an "inaugural ball" in February, Easter services in April and, this morning, a round of golf in Waco, about 30 miles away.
It's not much different for the reporters covering the president. Briefings, daily in Washington, are twice weekly. The "news" is about what the president is doing on the ranch (meeting with aides, running and fishing daily, clearing a trail) and what he's reading (In The Heart of the Sea and John Adams).
The reporters work in a school gymnasium. It's not air conditioned but cooled — as much as possible — by portable cooling units and ceiling fans.
Texas Pride
There's nothing even resembling a hotel in Crawford, so reporters stay in Waco, where city fathers are doing their best to make them feel at home. Passes for such attractions as the Texas Ranger Museum and Hall of Fame (honoring the lawmen, not the baseball team) flow freely. (Waco also is home to the Dr. Pepper Museum and the plant were Skittles, Starburst and Snickers are made).
