Mid Term Stats

We're half way to our goal POTUS fans so I thought I'd take a little break from my work and share some statistics and file photos from our adventures.

Qualifying POTUS Pics taken so far: 24
Additional POTUS Pics taken that do not qualify: 10
Days since official POTUS Pic Launch: 91
States Visited: 3 (Virginia, Illinois, & Massachusetts)
Cities Visted: 6 (Washington DC, Charlottesville VA, Alexandria VA, Vienna VA, Chicago IL, Boston MA)
FLOTUS Count: 5
Chance Encounters: 5
"Live" Presidents: 2
Favorite Qualifying Pic: 4 Nixons waiting in line to go see Jon Stewart!
Favorite Wife and Loving Supporter: Carla!!!
Favorite Not Qualifying Pic from the POTUS adventure:

#2 John Adams

I truly married the most wonderful woman in the world! All doubt of her dedication to this project should be cast aside as my birthday present took us to Boston for the weekend where I have actually never been. We walked the freedom trail, dined at the "Top of the Hub", and toured Harvard Yard while scrounging for POTUS pics. Boston is truly a great city with great people, restaurants, and bars. I'm glad that we got to see this cradle of American History in the midst of the POTUS project. I'm standing there with John who is right off the "T" in Quincy which is just 30 minutes south of downtown Boston. Carla is standing with Abigail across the street for FLOTUS pic #5. **SPOILER ALERT** This small site was a POTUS bonanza and I could not wait to post the big reveal ....

#6 John Q. Adams

I'm doing a double-post today because I just could not leave all you POTUS fans with a cliffhanger of the identity of this young man. The good people of Quincy, MA honored Abigail and John Quincy with their own monument across the street from John Adams. They were honored separately because Abigail and John Quincy served their country in their own right and they spent so much time away from John when he served his country during the revolution. This wraps up both POTUS father-son teams in quick succession and also brings us to the half-way point on the entire project! Get ready for a more geographically diverse (and probably slower) second half.

#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.