By Maggie Lineback

So we are sitting in an empty parking lot trying to get the Election Link Vehicle to work. Our audio tech dubbed it the Urban Assault Vehicle but right now we are in danger of assaulting no one. We drove to this lot a couple miles away from the Farmers Market to see if maybe there was something blocking the signal—in the middle of a parking lot with no structures or trees nearby we should have no such problems.

The scene is surreal. I hear someone on a loud speaker. I figure it’s some kind of political rally. But when I look up I notice barbed wire and realize there a homeless shelter across the street. There are dozens of men listening to a preacher. We could use a little divine intervention ourselves.

This is a picture of the Election Link Vehicle in a Dallas parking lot as we try to figure out what’s wrong. Its markings were stripped off after the Phil Keating trip cross-country. We feel very stealthy. With the DC plates, we could be a Secret Service vehicle. Our photographer said yesterday someone thought we were a storm chasing vehicle. (Read more about Phil Keating’s trip, CLICK HERE!)

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By Maggie Lineback

The Farmer’s Market in Dallas has been here for years—since the forties to be exact. The city says it’s the nation’s largest centrally located working farmer’s market. When we arrive at 6:30 on Sunday morning, it’s still dark and hardly anyone is here yet. A couple farmers are unloading corn on the wholesale side of the market. Soon individual vendors start to trickle in to their stalls. The market opens at seven and one vendor tells me they expect a good day today, since the weather is supposed to be warm.

This time of year, local hucksters get most of their fruit and veggies from warehouses nearby. Much of the produce you see in the stands comes from California this time of year, but soon Texas farms will be producing more of the stuff for sale here.

These people work hard. They’re here day in and day out, all day. The market’s open seven days a week. They say in terms of politics, there’s one big issue for them—the economy. Slight shifts can make or break their business.

As for us, our first live shot was at 7:45am EST, 6:45 our time. It didn’t happen because of technical issues. The fact that we can go live at all from what’s basically a tripped out Expedition is still something I’m trying to get my head around. Usually it takes a big sat truck and at least a half hour or an hour of set up time and cable runs to get things up and running. Going into it, I figured we’d have glitches at some point or another. I guess it’s best for us to figure them out at the front end of our three-day trip. But for the poor producers in NY who were counting on these live shots for their show, they probably feel much differently.

Check out some of the pictures..

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