Milwaukee Olympic Torch Relay - January 5, 2002
At this point I thought I had all my photos, since I figured it would be pretty tough to get back outside through 8,000 - 12,000 people to capture
the cauldron lighting. However, by chance I had positioned myself near an exit door to the grounds. I discovered this right after the
final lap and then directly ran out to the cauldron area and got close enough to the stage to get a few partially
obscured-photos.
After the cauldron was lit, Bonnie spoke, then the head of the Pettit, then the Mayor, then the official coordinating the Torch
Relay. The mayor declared the day "Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Torch Relay Day" or something useless like that. Finally, the program
moved on and the announcer asked for "those people involved with the transfer of the flame to come up to the stage." At that point,
one guy walked up with a dinky lantern and stuck a little wick into the flaming cauldron. He then took the wick and transferred the flame
to the small lantern and held it above his head as if it was a major accomplishment. This was a rather anti-climatic end to the evening but I suppose they were spending a lot to keep the cauldron going through those extended speeches and needed to turn off the darned thing. If the torch is coming through your town, you might turn out to see if, but make sure you're willing to wait and willing look for parking. So folks, remember to watch the Olympics on your favorite local NBC station (Disclosure: NBC is owned by General Electric), and if you're a Nielsen family, watch it twice.
Here, the world-renowned West Allis marching band plays for the crowd
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