#41 George H.W. Bush

So I guess George HW Bush was a fan of playing horseshoes and even taught Queen Elizabeth II how to do it at the White House. This sculpture was done by James Oliphant who is actually a famous Presidential caricaturist. It is located at the Smithsonian Portrait gallery along with several others including Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Benjamin Harrison. I chose to use this one primarily because I liked it the most and I think it really captures his essence. However, it also means that I have captured all the Texas Presidents without having to go to Texas. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

#33 Harry S. Truman

Despite protests to the contrary, busts do count out of necessity. The only Full size statues of Truman I could find are located near the Presidential Library in Lamar & Independence Missouri. With all due respect to the good people of Lamar, that's a long way to travel for nothing but a single shot with Mr. Truman. Instead, we only had to go to the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria VA for this shot so I included the spectacular Madame Tussaud's Truman for posterity. I have noticed during this project that Presidents have the most interesting and unusual middle names. Among them are: Milhous, Baines, Delano, Walker, Herbert Walker, Birchard, Knox, Gamaliel, and Hussein. All are great; however, none is more interesting to me than Harry's middle name which is just "S" and honors both of Harry's grandfathers. The "S" stands for nothing and Harry signed his name in the White House with and without a period at the end of it. Imagine my surprise to find out that the S. in Ulysses S. Grant's name stands for the same thing. Apparantly, this practice is quite common among the Scots-Irish.

#43 George W. Bush

We took this picture at a souvenir shop while walking through Old Town Alexandria. Score an extra point for a chance encounter and an extra $40 in my pocket since I was prepared to buy this piece of junk for the sake of the project. My favorite part is how you can clearly see the "No Pictures" label on Dubya. Fear not POTUS fans, I did some smooth talking and got the OK from the shopkeeper before taking the picture. Believe it or not, I actually did meet Mr. Bush after one of his speeches at the Economic Club of Chicago in 2003. All I can really say about it is he has really soft hands and a memorable handshake. I still had a decent amount of hair back then and someone actually told me that I resembled the President. I think I look more like Vin Diesel now ... I know, it's hard to tell with my shirt on.

#4 James Madison

Madison's Montpelier is not as impressive as Jefferson's Monticello but the steeplechase made up for that. We took these last weekend in Orange VA right after Monroe's house and that should keep us out of Charlottesville for a while. Dolley makes FLOTUS #4 which reminds me to recognize my own first lady for supporting me on this crusade. I couldn't even think about finishing this project without her support since this is literally the first POTUS PIC she did not take. She also fields all the trash talking text messages from my future BIL who I believe is becoming increasingly nervous about falling behind in the POTUS race.

#5 James Monroe

1 quick 2 hour drive south from DC near Charlottesville, VA will yield 3 Presidential Homes in very close proximity.4 of the first 5 Presidents of the United States were actually from Virginia.  Monroe's 6 room house at Ash-Lawn Highland was nice but also very humble for a POTUS. We learned today he was the founding father of the most modest means and died with about 70,000 in debt. Virginia claims a total of 8 Presidents born in the State which is not bad for the 10th state admitted into the Union. Oops, I'll have to use my deloreon to travel back to 2009 when doing POTUS stuff was cool.