From Columbia, South Carolina -
When you are shivering in Iowa or frozen in New Hampshire, there are three words that keep reporters going in the race for the White House: "South Carolina" and "Florida."
It wasn't really that cold in either the Hawkeye or Granite State this year, but it sure was nice to have my laptop sitting on the hood of my rental car while I stood there enjoying the afternoon sun on Tuesday afternoon after covering another campaign event.
This is the sixth time that I have covered the South Carolina Primary; the first was back in 1992 - and just like in New Hampshire and Iowa, it is an opportunity to see familiar campaign scenes and run into old friends, some of whom I only see on the campaign trail.
One prime example is my long time friend Phil LeCroy, who is a cameraman for Fox News.
When I walked to my gate at the airport, there was Phil, who for years called me "Diamond" after a Grateful Dead song called "Dupree's Diamond Blues."
Phil and I have known each other for more than 25 years, and so even though I really needed some sleep, we chatted the whole way to South Carolina, reviewing many of the old characters in our ranks on Capitol Hill.
After we landed, Phil went to baggage claim to get his huge load of TV equipment, while I jumped in my rental car and went flying up I-26 towards Columbia, trying to get to a Newt Gingrich event.
On the way, I heard Neal Boortz refer to me on air as, "ole what's his name," which I guess is better than "that jerk" or something like that.
I made it to the Gingrich event at the State Farmer's Market in West Columbia about an hour early, which gave me time to get all my stuff set up - and inside I ran into another colleague from DC, C-SPAN cameraman Garney Gary.
Garney and I work out of the same building and run around in the same news circles on Capitol Hill - but it seems like I only see him in person every four years on the campaign trail.
One time was two weeks ago in Iowa; now in South Carolina, Garney was happy to be back in his home state with a chance to see his family and we had a good chuckle about whether we brought our golf clubs to the Palmetto State.
Not only was it a day to run into my friends from back in Washington, but it was also a day to meet some of my listeners.
Before the Gingrich event started, one South Carolina voter came up asked me, "Are you Jamie Dupree?"
Joe from Columbia had heard me earlier in the day on the Neal Boortz Show, which is carried by WIS-AM in Columbia; we had a nice chat and talked about how he knew former Gov. Mark Sanford well before he decided to walk the Appalachian Trail.
After the Gingrich event was over, I was over in the back corner of the room with a group of other reporters, younger guys who might not have been born yet when I was first a Page in the U.S. House.
Suddenly, a middle-aged woman stepped into our midst and asked a burning question:
"Which one of you is Jamie Dupree?"
Ann from Columbia had also heard me on WIS-AM talking about the Gingrich event, and so she hustled over to see the former Speaker - and to see if she could find me.
The younger reporters in the crowd were a bit surprised that some random South Carolina woman was asking for one of us - I think they like being somewhat anonymous.
After my nice chat, I filed some stories from the parking lot (while standing in the sun) and then made my way to downtown Columbia to hear from Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum at a forum for state business leaders and legislators.
In the Marriot hotel there were lots of familiar faces from the Washington, D.C. Press corps and elsewhere, like two of my radio colleagues from the Capitol, Gerry Bodlander of AP Radio and Vic Ratner of ABC Radio.
Around another corner was Jim O'Toole of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; I met him back in 1999 and have run into him on the trail in 2000, 2004, 2008 and now 2012, along with a lot of the GOP debates of the last six months.
Going to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida is almost as much fun as going downtown to cover a news conference in Washington, D.C. - you just never know who you will see from back home.
Back in 2004, it was my father who appeared one day in Columbia, as he came through to get a quick taste of the Campaign Trail.
He arrived just as I needed to track down John Edwards, who was campaigning not far away, and so we sped off to a local high school and threw the rental car up on the grass and ran inside.
A few minutes later, Edwards and his wife walked out to their campaign bus and then appeared in the bus window with their kids.
The cameras rushed to get what was a fantastic photograph of a happy family as my father and I stood there and watched the scene unfold.
Four years ago, I caught up with Edwards near Anderson, South Carolina, as he addressed a group with a bullhorn while standing on a rickety chair in a parking lot across from a fire station.
Little did we know what was going on behind the scenes.
That's why I keep making these trips. You never know who - or what - you're going to find in the Palmetto State.
Except usually, it's warmer than Iowa or New Hampshire.
And hopefully it will be even nicer in Florida next week.
