I’d been interested in going to Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic ever since I’d heard of it. It was a rally to be held in Minneapolis, MN on Tuesday, Sept. 2—just a few miles away from the Republican National Convention going on at the same time. For me, attending the Rally was as much about traveling and developing my independence as it was about supporting the libertarian movement. I’d set a goal to travel at least once a month, and this was the first trip.

Despite the barriers to the trip—financial (I would have to pay for transportation, housing, and food) and temporal (I would have to schedule it around my job at a college newspaper and improvisation practices and performances)—I found a ride on Craigslist and set my plan into action. I rode up to Minnesota with strangers, made friends and met new people, and rode back with someone I’d met only the day before. The trip was a complete success; I grew more independent and I had the time of my life celebrating freedom with some of the biggest celebrities in the movement.

On the trip up, I met Brad Spangler, the system administrator for agorism.info. Agorism.info features the New Libertarian Manifesto, a book that presents a possible solution for disolving the State and achieving anarchy through counter-establishment economics, and I recommend it to anyone interested in libertarianism.

After camping out Sunday night, we drove into St. Paul Monday morning, September 1. I left my cell phone in the SUV of the people who I rode up with, so I spent the first few hours wandering throughout the city, trying to find them. While walking through the city, I saw the Xcel Energy Center, the site where the Republican National Convention would be held. It was barricaded off.

I also passed a gathering of people who were rallying for housing as a human right. In my opinion, people do not have a right to housing.

If they want to build one for themselves, that’s great—government shouldn’t get in the way—but to say that other people should have to build houses for the homeless is to be out of touch with reality and incongruous with the concept of self-determination.

Then, I took public transportation to the University of Minnesota (in Minneapolis) where I met with other Ron Paul supporters to volunteer to promote Tuesday’s Rally and hand out free tickets. I was saddened to see that only about ten people showed up instead of the thousands I was expecting.

I rode back to St. Paul to pass out the wristbands (which were redeemable at the box office for tickets) to RNC protesters who might be interested in the Rally. Unfortunately, my shyness got the better of me and I only handed out three wristbands (but I did give several to some Free State Project members who offered to help distribute them.)

Without a phone or a place to sleep that night, I didn’t feel very good. I sat down at a street corner with my Ron Paul sign. Luckily, I met some fellow RP supporters and they invited me to come with them to a bar where other supporters where gathering. There, I met a firefighter who had driven up from Kansas City. He let me check my email on his laptop and allowed me to share a campsite with him that night. He also ended up giving me a ride home.

After hanging out with some really cool libertarians at the bar, we all drove to the Ron Paul Nation celebration where we listened to music and watched Ron Paul speak. The next day was the day of the Rally. I was able to stand directly in front of the podium for most of the Rally. I felt neither hunger nor tiredness; the adrenalin kept me going. I loved watching Aimee Allen’s live performance of the Ron Paul anthem. I high-fived her twice on separate occasions when she was high-fiving the audiences like performers often do.

Of course, my favorite part was Ron Paul’s epic speech.

It was the speech of a lifetime, and afterward I got to shake his hand. I had never been so close to my heroes before, and it really made me feel good to actually hold eye contact with Ron Paul (and the other speakers) for a few seconds. It felt like “I was there; I will not be forgotten,” even though that may not be the case.

The entire 3-day trip cost me $100; $55 for transportation there and back, $20 for camping, $5 for inter-city transportation and $20 for food. I gained valuable experience on my own. This is the first trip I’ve taken entirely without my parents, and it was totally worth it.