JAMAICA, Va. - They arrived later than planned but when the convoy of big-rig trucks, RV's and cars turned into the parking lot of Virginia Motor Speedway off U.S. 17 early Sunday afternoon, they drew cheers, whoops and hollers from several hundred people who turned out to show their support for the "Freedom Convoy" movement bound for Washington, D.C.
The truckers, in turn, blasted their horns in recognition as they rolled into two lines and stopped. The messages adorning their trucks were unmistakable: "End all mandates;" "Awake but not woke;" "My body my choice;" "I'm for constitutional correctness;" and "Think while it's still legal."
There also were dozens of American flags, and a few Canadian ones as well, as the truckers and the supporters who greeted them voiced a common theme: end COVID-19 mandates of all types, including vaccine and mask requirements. Aside from issues tied to the fading pandemic, the participants - some of whom brought their kids and dogs - said they were speaking out for good old fashioned American freedom.
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A few pro-Trump and anti-Biden banners were flying, but the event for the most part wasn't overtly political. There were no angry demonstrations and a law enforcement presence seemed nonexistent.
"We're mandating freedom," said Bill Berger, who helped coordinate Sunday's event that included a live band on a make-shift stage and food souvenir vendors. "We aren't against the vaccine. We aren't against the mask - if you want to wear them, that's your choice. We just don't want to be told we have to. And we don't ever want it to happen again - to our kids and our grandkids - because it's been a horrible two years."
Several convoy groups led by American truckers are making their way to the nation's capital, and the one that stopped at the speedway Sunday - called the American Freedom Convoy - was led by Alan Baguley of Dennard, Ark. The convoy made its way up from Lee-Hi Travel Plaza in Lexington, where it stopped Saturday night.
"This convoy started March 1 in Dallas, went up to Oklahoma and then to Little Rock, where they picked me up," Baguley said. "We're going to D.C. but we're not going on federal property. We're going to be peaceful protesters."
"We're everybody's voice out here," Baguley added. "There's a tremendous amount of support on the highways, with cars passing us all day long with thumbs up, and doing nothing but honking [in favor of the movement]. I have not seen this much patriotic response since what happened on 9-11 - Americans coming together."
News reports indicate there are several individual convoy groups heading to D.C., and they are following the lead of the Canadian "Freedom Convoy" - protesters who in late January spent three weeks demonstrating against COIVD-19 mandates, paralyzing three U.S. Border crossings and downtown Ottawa.
"We're here to support freedom and get away from these mandates, especially the vaccine mandates," said Jason Friedlan, who arrived hours before the convoy arrived at the speedway. A malfunctioning water pump on one of the trucks was apparently to blame for the delay. "Everybody I work with [took] the vaccine and they've all had COVID since they got it. I had COVID, I was sick for a day."
"We just believe people should be free to do what they want to do without the government interfering with us," he added. "What the truckers have done - up in Canada, fighting up there - and what they're doing here is really incredible."
Friedlan's friend, who declined to provide her name because she feared she'd be penalized by her employer, said she was given an ultimatum: get the vaccine or be fired. She complied, because "I wasn't in a position to fight back."
"I just feel very, very, very violated to be told you're going to be fired if you don't get jabbed," she said. "That's why I'm here. That's what this convoy is about."
Brian Tidball, a former Chesterfield County resident who now lives in Middlesex County, said he's pro-vaccine but very anti-mandate, and he showed up Sunday "because I'm supporting freedom of speech, freedom of expression."
Bill Bohannon, who drove his semi-tractor to the event apart from the convoy, said he believes the convoys represent a "wakeup" call.
"People that are here, they don't believe the government," he said. "Because the government has been lying to them for how many years. It's a constant. I just can't believe some of the [stuff] I read. It's just a bizarre time....right now to be alive. But I think it's going to reverse."
After leaving the speedway, the truckers plan to eventually arrive in the D.C. area, where representatives plan to meet with members of Congress next week, Berger said.
"We need to stay off federal property," Baguley said. "They need to come to us, because we're peaceful protestors. We need to all come together on neutral territory - come together as one people."
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