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On the Road: Downtime with an Elf

On board the Perry bus tour through Iowa, reporters spend time with an "Elf." Photo by Ben Philpott/KUT News.
On board the Perry bus tour through Iowa, reporters spend time with an "Elf." Photo by Ben Philpott/KUT News.

The days on the Rick Perry bus tour are packed for the candidate – and for the press corps packed on the bus behind him.

After each event, reporters jump back on their bus and try to write, edit video and audio, and post updates, blogs and reports to the web. Then it’s back off the bus for another event. The cycle repeats itself about four or five times a day.

Some days it’s easier than others, particularly posting to the web on a bus touring through some less-than-wired outposts. This morning we had a little change of pace and holiday cheer. Perry press person Katherine Cesinger brought the movie Elf on the bus. She popped it into the player and we watched during our hour-long drive to the first campaign stop of the day.

The reporters continued working mostly, making notes for the day, starting to write parts of stories. But it was a nice little perk to look up every now and then to see a grown man dressed as an elf.

Ben Philpott is the Managing Editor for KUT. Got a tip? Email him at bphilpott@kut.org. Follow him on Twitter @BenPhilpottKUT.