Thursday of last week, our office got a fax that about a tour and news conference scheduled for the next day (Friday) in Shenandoah National Park -- about 15 minutes from our town. The Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Gale Norton, and the director of the National Park Service, Fran Mainella -- along with a few other VIPs -- were going to be showcasing a maintenance project in the park.
I was in the middle of writing an article on volunteers doing trail maintenance in the park, so I decided I'd check it out. Turned out, I was one of five journalists to show up. At first, there was only two of us. So we met the Secretary, the director, et al. The others arrived and we toured a restored building, then had a news conference.
(At the beginning, I found my pen had exploded, probably because of the higher altitude. Thankfully, I had my backup pen handy. And no ink on my clothes!)
Two of the five journalists left after the news conference, as did the Secretary. But the rest of us toured another project that's under way with the park's superintendent and Ms. Mainella. To get to the second location, we all rode in a 15-passenger van. One of the other reporters asked Ms. Mainella a few questions, but the other guy was silent. (He was late, so he didn't even know he was riding next to the director of the NPS.)
I've had the good fortune to visit national parks across the U.S., so I carried on a well-informed conversation with Ms. Mainella. I was also able to get some quotations from her for my story!
The whole experience was profitable -- and it's not everyday that you meet a member of the President's cabinet!