When my last trip ended on May 3, 2024, I spent the next 78 days standing on a shelf with the rest of my Presidential bobble head friends. Although I was mentally prepared for the twelve-day adventure to Kansas City that was slated to begin on July 25th, I was stunned when Tom stowed me away in his camera case five days early. As my photographer pulled out of the driveway with Vicki in the co-pilot’s seat at 9:30am on Saturday July 20, 2024, that’s the moment I learned the three of us were headed for Grand Rapids, Michigan. In my resin mind, I figured we were headed to the Donald Trump rally, which was scheduled to start at 3pm in the 12,000-seat Van Andel Arena. But it turned out I was wrong. Tom and Vic had been invited to a wedding ceremony that was set to begin at 4:30pm at the Leona Road wedding venue, which was an old, renovated schoolhouse situated northwest of downtown Grand Rapids. The ceremony, held on the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 astronaut’s first Moon Walk, would unite Adam Tobey and Claire DeJonge in holy matrimony. Although it was one small step for Adam, it was one giant leap for Adam and Claire as a couple.
My companions and I rolled into Grand Rapids at roughly 12:10pm following an uneventful ride across the state of Michigan. When Tom and Vicki had finished their lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, we headed to the Fairfield Inn where my two friends unpacked their belongings and then changed their clothes for the wedding. My photographer placed me next to the television set where I knew I’d spend the rest of the day and night. And that was only because I wasn’t included on the wedding invitation – which wasn’t a big deal to me. What was a disappointment, however, was the fact I was within six miles of a former President of the United States, and instead of Tom taking me to the Van Andel Arena to see Trump in person, I was alone and stuck playing grab-ass with a few cockroaches.
My photographer and his wife left the hotel for the Leona Road wedding venue at 3:25pm. It had been five years since I last saw Tom sport a nice dress shirt and necktie, and that was when he and Bob Moldenhauer took me inside the West Wing of the White House for a VIP tour in 2019. That moment inside the White House was when I first realized my COBS infested camera guy shines up like a new penny. And on this night in Grand Rapids, I thought he looked pretty spiffy in his pink shirt, black pants, and blue-tinted eyeglasses.
My two companions returned to the room at 10:15pm, and it seemed as though both Tom and Vicki had a bounce in their step. I stood next to the television set and listened as my photographer and his wife rehashed the wedding ceremony and reception. I heard snippets of the conversation that included “An amazing person”, “I’m glad we met”, “Someone I look up to”, and “Possessed an incredible personality”. At first, I wondered whether or not former President Donald Trump had dropped in at the reception for an impromptu campaign stop, but Tom’s verbiage didn’t accurately describe the 45th President.
It turned out Tom and Vic didn’t rub elbows with Trump, but instead met Ali Bastianelli, a 6′ 3″ middle blocker for her new team, the Grand Rapids Rise of the Pro Volleyball Federation. Ironically, my photographer worked at Cargill Salt with Ali’s mother, Joan, for a long time. For six months in 2021, my camera guy mentored Joan Bastianelli, who transitioned into Tom’s safety role following his retirement.
Exhausted after partying like it was 1959, my cameraman extinguished the lights in the room at 11:15pm. I stood alone in the darkness and thought about Donald J. Trump speaking to his MAGA followers just six miles from our hotel. To me, the event wasn’t just another political rally, similar to the one the three of us had attended in Washington, Michigan on April 28, 2018. Instead, I viewed it as a historic moment – the rally was the first one held after the failed assassination attempt on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania where Trump was shot and wounded in the right ear.
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The following morning, Sunday July 21, 2024, my photographer woke up at seven o’clock without an alarm because he needed to “log out”; and unfortunately, he wasn’t using his computer, either. For the next two hours, I watched Tom and Vicki as they prepared to take on the day – a day that my photographer had promised would be filled with Presidential sites. Well, maybe not filled; but Tom did have three sites he planned on taking me to see. The first was the Ford Paint & Varnish Company building once owned by Gerald Ford’s stepfather; the second was the Van Andel Arena where the Trump rally was held the previous night; and my photographer planned on ending our day in Grand Rapids at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum where I would once again pose on the 38th President’s gravesite. Since the museum didn’t open its doors until noon, Vicki suggested the three of us head to the Georgetown Little League complex, which was about 15 miles away in Jenison, to watch her brother’s granddaughter play in a softball tournament.
Luckily for me, and since it was located along the route to Jenison, Tom navigated us to our first Presidential site of the morning – which was the building that once housed the Ford Paint & Varnish Company owned by Gerald Ford, Sr. The elder Ford, along with a partner, bought the Grand Rapids Wood Finishing Company from his employer in 1929. Within a few weeks of the purchase, the country slid into the Great Depression – but with Ford’s reputation and ingenuity, the company stayed afloat and prospered with the recovery.
After Vicki parked our Jeep in one of the driveway entrances along Elizabeth Street, Tom carried me up to the building that was once part of the Ford Paint & Varnish Company. As I posed for several photos near the exterior of the building, now known as B&E Seal Coat Products, Inc., I thought about the young 16-year-old future President as he toiled alongside his brothers and other laborers. Young Jerry worked hard for his father – he pushed heavy tubs of paint over the rough floor, and he also mixed ingredients for production. But according to Ford’s younger brother Tom, Jerry had a reputation of being the sloppiest guy there.
Back in the Jeep after we were finished at the Ford Paint & Varnish Company site, Vicki drove the three of us out to Jennison where we arrived in time for the 10am softball game. To top it off, at least for my photographer’s wife, Molly McGovern was celebrating her ninth birthday; while at the same time, she helped her team win the game. Even though Tom left me in the vehicle, mainly because he didn’t want my dashing good looks to be a distraction to the young girls, Vicki had parked close enough to the field where I was able to watch bits and pieces of the game.
When the ball game was over and my companions had said their goodbyes, we were on the road and headed back into downtown Grand Rapids. During the entire 11-mile ride to our intended destination, which was the Van Andel Arena, I thought about what the scene might have been like in and around that venue the previous night. Not only did 12,000 MAGA Trump supporters cram every nook and cranny of the Van Andel on July 20th, but there were reports of thousands of others who couldn’t get inside.
Traffic was light in downtown Grand Rapids on that early Sunday afternoon. Without much trouble, Vicki found a parking spot on Ottawa Avenue, which was along the west side of the huge, multi-purpose arena. With me in hand, my photographer carried me to the front of the Van Andel where I posed for a few photos. When Tom placed me on the bronze statue dedicated to the life of Jay Van Andel, it was as though I could hear former President Donald Trump as he addressed the crowd inside.
When Trump triumphantly strolled onto the Van Andel stage at roughly 6pm on Saturday night, it was one week nearly to the minute when gun shots rang out in Butler, Pennsylvania and wounded the former President. Just five days later, on Thursday July 18th, Trump accepted the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee shortly after he announced J.D. Vance as his Vice-Presidential running mate. The rally inside the Van Andel Arena, which featured both Trump and Vance speaking, was his first campaign rally since those two historic events unfurled the previous week.
Trump began his speech as the capacity crowd shouted “USA, USA, USA”, over and over again. “This is like a Michigan football game over here. This is pretty good. I’m thrilled to be back in the great state of Michigan with thousands and thousands, and I mean lots of thousands up here – this is a hell of an arena.”
I looked up at the massive structure in front of me and I agreed with Trump, it looked like a hell of an arena. I was eager to get inside the building with the hopes of catching a glimpse of the stage where Trump spoke, but Tom’s attempts to open the doors proved to be fruitless. Instead, I was stuck on the outside, looking in – even though I wanted to make America great again by sharing my Presidential stories with anyone who might listen.
The two of us reunited with Vicki who had patiently waited for us to do our thing in front of the Van Andel Arena. Because she didn’t hang out with us in front of the arena, I thought for sure Tom’s wife would join us during our visit inside the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Musuem, but that wasn’t the case. When Vic pulled into the parking lot after making the one-mile drive from the arena, she told my photographer she planned on sitting down by the shore of the Grand River while Tom and I admired the artifacts inside the museum.
Although I had been to the site three times over the past ten years, it was during my first visit in 2014 when I was allowed to see the entire museum. Not impressed with the displays, Tom had given the Ford Museum a middle-of-the-road rating compared to all of the other Presidential museums he’s visited.
Once inside, Tom let me pose once again in the lobby of the museum where President Ford’s remains laid in repose on January 2, 2007 before the church service and burial the following day. When we finished, the two of us headed to the second level where I was taken on an amazing journey through time – from the birth of Leslie Lynch King, Jr. on July 14, 1913 to the death of Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. 93 years later on December 26, 2006. It didn’t take but a few minutes for my photographer and me to discover how much the museum had changed in the past decade – and all for the good. There were impressive displays set up for each aspect of Ford’s life, and each section included many artifacts donated by the President himself.
Then suddenly, just after Tom and I had admired Ford’s replica Oval Office, a reporter approached the two of us and said, “Have you heard the news? Joe Biden has just announced he’s dropping out of the Presidential race.” I was stunned and saddened at the same time. In my mind, the President’s mental capacity had declined to the point where he shouldn’t run for re-election. At the moment when I heard the historic news, I thought back to the time when I visited Biden’s birthplace and boyhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I stood where he played baseball and bought penny candy as a kid. I’ve also visited sites in Delaware, including where the President graduated from high school, and where his first wife, Neilia, and his 13-month-old daughter Naomi were laid to rest following their deaths on December 18, 1972. The fact of the matter was, I saw Joe Biden as a father and a grandfather who dedicated his entire life to serving our nation – and it was sad to see how his political life came to a screeching halt. I only wish the President would’ve recognized his own limitations and finished out his time in the White House under his own terms, rather than being treated like a pariah by his own party.
For nearly one hour, Tom carried me through the museum where the two of us were blown away by what we saw. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, please sit back and enjoy the images my photographer had captured inside the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.
From the moment Tom and I entered the museum, until we walked back outside an hour later, I was spellbound by the interesting relics that were displayed there. I went into the building with low expectations because of my experience in 2014, which was when the two of us had rated the museum four stars out of 10. With the renovations and updates to the facility over the past decade, the Ford Presidential Museum nearly doubled its rating with us and now ranked seven out of 10 stars. The rating may have been higher had we seen the Jerusalem Bible used when Gerald Ford was administered the Presidential Oath of Office on August 9, 1974.
When Tom and I walked past Vicki, who was seated outside of the museum and close to the bronze statue of Gerald Ford, she never looked up from her book and never saw either of us as we headed towards the burial site. My photographer walked slowly as he carried me along the sidewalk located on the east side of the museum; and it wasn’t due to his bad knees. Tom wanted to take in the moment as we were on the same path used when the military pallbearers escorted President Ford’s remains to the burial site.
It was a solemn moment for my photographer and me because the two of us have always admired the integrity and courage of President Ford – who once said after Nixon resigned, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” During that speech, Ford also mentioned our favorite President when he said, “Thomas Jefferson said the people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
That Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm, when my photographer set me down on the pathway leading up to the actual burial site, it marked my fourth visit to the Ford’s place of burial. But this visit was different from the others, as the light cloud cover had nearly eliminated the shadows on the concrete wall.
Tom placed me down near the wall where the Fords had been interred into a hillside. Even though I was standing in the footsteps of Donald Trump, who paid his respects and placed flowers at the gravesite on September 30, 2016, my thoughts were focused solely on Gerald and Betty Ford. Suddenly, just as the University of Michigan fight song ‘Hail to the Victors’ ran through my resin head, I heard my photographer as he spoke to the 38th President. I had to admit, Tom doesn’t usually talk to the Presidents during his gravesite visits, but he did on that afternoon.
My photographer began by saying, “President Ford, I admire your courage for pardoning Richard Nixon in an effort to put the Watergate scandal to rest. It cost you the election in 1976, but your sacrifice helped save our nation’s integrity. You made sure our national nightmare was over.”
But then he finished with a sterner statement, one that stunned me a bit. “I’ve always believed you to be an honest man and I held you in the highest esteem. But the Warren Commission you were involved with in 1964 was a complete sham and you should be ashamed of what transpired. Not only did that commission disgrace the legacy of President Kennedy, but it also tarnished your integrity and honor as well. President Ford, you not only degraded your own legacy, but you let down our entire nation – and that’s simply appalling in my eyes. We may never know the entire truth about JFK’s assassination, but one thing I do know as fact – your decision to not talk to all of the witnesses and dissect all of the evidence, and then let the nation believe a solitary gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald was responsible for Kennedy’s death, is something I’ll never forgive you for.” Tom snatched me off the concrete surface and we headed back towards the museum where Vicki was still waiting for us.
The three of us returned to the Jeep where I got situated for the long ride home. While my time at the Ford Presidential Museum was one of the highlights from the weekend, the cherry on top of the sundae came when Tom accessed the 50s station on his Sirius XM radio. We were still in the parking lot when ‘Chantilly Lace’ by the Big Bopper began to play. That hit song recorded by J.P. Richardson was followed by the Buddy Holly classic ‘Rave On’. It turned out a guy by the name of Tom from Sugarland, Texas had a half-hour time slot, and he dedicated his five-song theme to the Winter Dance Party from 1959. The third song of the set was ‘I Wonder Why’ by Dion and the Belmonts, which was followed by Ritchie Valens’ signature hit ‘La Bamba’. The fifth and final tune, which helped wrap up the tribute to the three singers who perished in the plane crash on February 3, 1959, was ‘American Pie’ by Don McLean. While I thoroughly enjoyed the song choices by Tom from Texas, my Tom from Michigan was very critical of the Winter Dance Party Tour facts told by the guest host of the show. Over and over, I heard my photographer complain when Tom from Texas made factual errors – including his biggest gaffe when he stated Bobby Vee played on the tour at the Surf Ballroom, which was not accurate. I sat in my camera case and thought to myself, “Let it go, Tom. Just enjoy the music by some of your favorite artists and quit being such a nitpicker.”
Our ride across the state of Michigan, from Grand Rapids to St. Clair, was once again uneventful. The clock read 5:50pm when Vicki pulled into our driveway, and a few minutes later, my companions had the Jeep unpacked. Tom placed me alongside my Presidential bobble head friends where I proudly stood as the center of attention.
There would be no rest for the weary, however, as Tom and Vicki had another trip scheduled to kick off on Thursday July 25th. That new adventure was a 12-day journey that would take the three of us as far west as Kansas City, Missouri. And since the KC area was known as ‘Truman Country’, I couldn’t wait to hit the road again where I’d give ’em Hell, Harry!
History was made while my companions and I were in Grand Rapids over the weekend. Not only was the Trump rally at the Van Andel Arena the first one since the former President was nearly assassinated on July 13th, but President Joe Biden stunned the political world by dropping out of the 2024 election as well.
Politicians in our great country are like a box of Forrest Gump chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get. I knew what I was going to get, however, before our next trip began; and that was a rendezvous with Doctor Watson on the surgical table. Several times when Tom placed me down on something in Grand Rapids, I leaned so horribly due to my damaged left leg, I nearly fell over. As a matter of fact, I felt like Joe Biden on a 24-hour drunken binge. But after some well-placed Gorilla Glue and a fresh wrap for my left leg, I was as good as new. I was ready to Make America Great Again – one Presidential site at a time.
