I had my little voice recorder with me to take notes at the rally … unfortunately, I left it in the car as I went to the gymnasium. (Oops.)
However, I did keep a tally of yard signs that I saw along the way. I didn’t start until I left my neighborhood, so I didn’t count my Huckabee sign (the only sign in my neighborhood — unless you count the house about half a mile away which has two Huckabee yard signs and a banner on the garage).
I will say that I wish I’d done the same thing on the way back. When I went through Concord, I saw a lot more signs. But since I’d put the recorder away, I didn’t even try to count. In Concord, though, I saw a great many Duncan Hunter and Mike Huckabee signs, as well as some terrible John Edwards signs with red writing that you can’t read unless you’re stopped beside them (”The fight for the middle class is on,” I think they said.). I also saw a stretch of about half a mile that had alternating Duncan Hunter and Mike Huckabee signs. Apparently someone was very committed, but wasn’t sure to whom.
I also saw a Bill Richardson sign in Concord, which might be the first one I’ve seen yet.
However, everything above is unofficial. I don’t have numbers.
This is what I saw driving from Farmington to Henniker, in NH:
Along Route 11, in order, traveling northbound. Most of these were on the right (north-bound) side of the road. The trees are closer to the southbound side, so there’s less room to put signs, and the hill on the northbound side protects them from plows. Nothing on the southbound side would survive even one plowing. I think that there were some signs on the southbound side, but we won’t know for sure until about April, I think — (all are lawn signs, unless otherwise noted)
One Kucinich sign with an almost-completely-buried red sign beside it (Which I think was protesting the sale of Verizon’s lines, but I’m not sure)
One Obama
One larger, wood-framed Gravel
Four Kucinich, spaced about 1/8 mile apart
Almost completely buried, there was another large Gravel sign beside a Huckabee lawn sign
At the Alton traffic circle, there used to be a lot of signs, but they are probably buried under snow at this point. Visible yesterday were:
one Clinton
one Medium Gravel
one Dodd
one Ron Paul
a very large, wood-framed McCain
Nearing my turn-off from the circle, there was another medium Gravel, Huckabee, two Romneys
Along Route 28, there was a row of 14 Huckabee signs on the right side of the road and 5 Huckabees on the left.
A large Clinton sign, but almost completey buried.
A very large “NH Supports F” sign that I’m pretty sure is for Fred Thompson, but it was buried in snow.
3 Tancredos
5 Romneys
A row of Romney signs — 6 on right, 7 on left
2 Romneys, 1 Kucinich
1 Dodd
3 Romneys
Huckabee
2 Tancredos
A large Huckabee
3 Romneys
Huckabee
Medium Obama
Huckabee, almost buried
Gravel
3 buried Tancredos
Huckabee
At the next traffic circle, I only tangented the circle, I didn’t go around it as I did in Alton:
Coming on, there were 3 Huckabees, an Obama, and 2 Ron Pauls
Going off, there was a Ron Paul, medium Gravel
Moving on, there was a very large Ron Paul in front of a trucking company
Gravel
I then pulled onto I-393, from which I went to I-93 and I-89. There weren’t a lot of signs here, because you’d have to be a lot more committed and less intelligent than the average supporter to stop along these particular roads to put up signs.
On 393, though, I did find myself behind a minivan with a Romney bumper sticker. I admit that I couldn’t resist the temptation … I passed it and let my Huckabee window sticker have the day. Childish, I know.
Along 89, I did see one Ron Paul, but it was knocked over and mostly buried.
There was a large Huckabee banner over 89, hanging on an overpass.
At my exit, there was one Huckabee sign on each side of the road.
4 signs for DividedWeFall.org, which seems not to be a real web site.
11 more DWF signs and a small Huckabee
Very small Paul sign stuck to a phone poll and a Huckabee
At my exit for 114, there were three DWF’s and a Huckabee
7 DWF’s
Coming onto 114:
5 DWF’s, 2 Huckabees, one Paul
On Maple Street, 1 Edwards, 3 Huckabee, 1 DWF
I was then too near the event to consider anything particularly relevant. If you want to know, I think there were about 100 Huckabee signs and probably half that many DWF’s and a few score “Stop Global Warming” signs.
So, making no real adjustments, the tally is:
Kucinich – 6
Obama – 3
Huckabee – 40
Gravel – 7
Paul -8
Thompson -1
Clinton -2
Dodd – 2
McCain – 1
Romney – 28
Tancredo – 8
Edwards – 1
I do know of many places, on different routes, that would have brought very different numbers. Take this for what it’s worth, which might not be much. Still, there it is.
