Posted by Kelly McPherson:  It took some hustle to get out to New Hampshire for the first Presidential Primary 2008---but it was worth it!

Kelly's Photo Slideshow From New Hampshire

We didn't get the go-ahead for the trip until Monday afternoon, but photographer Joe Picciotto and I were ready for the challenge. We made it to a Massachusetts hotel to grab a few hours sleep.  (There are so many people staying in New Hampshire that all of the hotels were booked!)  The excitement kicked off at 4am on Tuesday as we drove north to Manchester.  We met the CNN Satellite truck in the dark, iced-over parking lot of WMUR.  Our first livehit aired at 6:30am during The Morning News.  We had results from the midnight votes.  The real story, though, was still to be found.

With some much needed coffee in our system, Joe and I started riding around town.  Neither of us has been in Manchester before.  The streets were filled with signs of media: Good Morning America transformed a town square near City Hall, satellites dominated the skyline, large network lights made early morning look very bright.  It looked like a Rupert Murdoch invasion.  Placards filled in the landscape so the entire area was decorated a la Primary Day.

As a local news station, we had a different mission than network news: find out what it's really like here on one of the most important days in the Presidential races.  Who knows about this?  Voters.  We looked up polling places to see all of the hustle-bustle.  We stumbled across Mitt Romney, John Edwards, Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich.  Candidates were on practically every corner.  (Personal note: I also saw my former roommate from my days as a reporter with our sister station in Binghamton.  Jaclyn Cashman now reports for 22 News in Springfield, Mass.  It was a nice treat to see a good friend.)

We gathered a lot of video filled with chants, interesting characters and candidates desperate to make a good impression.  You'll see from our 6pm piece that we watched as the spirit of the Primaries poured into the streets all day long.  The energy never stopped.  

We went to the Southern NH University for a noon livehit.  One difficulty on working on the road is finding a place to watch tape and edit.  Somehow it works out to find an outlet and a chair in just about any place.

After the hit, it was time to head south where our assignment editor, Roger, had set us up with a different satellite truck.  We met the folks from WTNH at the South Nashua HS.  This ended up being a great location because Barak Obama will be in to make his post-primary speech in the auditorium.  

The next few hours were critical to put all of our new material on the air.  One obstacle: security sweeps.  Our equipment was set up and ready to go inside the press file room when, we had to break down and leave for 90 minutes to allow dogs to sweep the room.  One of the pictures I captured shows Joe editing on boxes in between all of the live trucks.  There was no other option.  As he edited, I leaned on a tall garbage can to write the next story.

Now, it's about 9:30pm.  We're watching the big screens to get updated numbers for the 11pm.  Thankfully we have this laptop with internet access to stay in touch with the newsroom and online information.  Each time Obama gets more votes, the supporters in the auditorium scream.  In the last two hours a huge crowd has filed into the school.  Obama has not shown up, yet.  I wonder if we'll hear from him before the 11 o'clock news starts...