(Cross-posted at Pajamas Media.)

...and boy, do I regret it.

He got a lot of fist bumps from the passing crowd — but no tickets. Would you give up your ticket to the Second Coming?

I tried to find the beginning of the line — a line which seemed to have no beginning or end. I made the mistake at first of trying to go toward the entrance. Foolish me. Notice how the line seems to emerge from the stadium. I was told this was actually the middle of the line. So I tried my best to work my way backwards.

Back, back I went, for a quarter mile, a half a mile...and even after all that it kept winding and looping back upon itself over and over.

In each parking area, the line zigzagged in labyrinthine meanders, intended to handle to most amount of people in the space available.

It just kept going, and going...

...and going and going. The term “Kafka-esque” is overused, but boy, was it ever appropriate here.

Finally, I found myself back out on the city streets on the other side of the stadium, where it stretched for block after block...and here, I finally found the end of the line. A policemen keeping watch told me that the expected wait time at that point was over two and a half hours.

I heard a slight flurry of activity in the distance and went to investigate. Turns out a rumor was flying that they had opened an additional entrance on a lesser-used side of Invesco Field. People were pointing, but hesitated — should they give up their precious place in line on the basis of a rumor?

But when a very official-looking man announced that it was indeed true, everyone within earshot scrambled overland toward the new entrance at top speed, as if someone had reported finding gold nuggets in a nearby river.

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you: parking spaces in prime spots near the stadium were going for $80 apiece.

It was not a fluke. There were several signs like this, and some for $60 a little further out.

Were there protesters? Yes — a tiny few. Some communists tried to convert stalwart Democrats in one portion of the line, with little success.

World Can’t Wait joined in, acting like cult members as usual.

As I reported earlier, I saw the members of the crazy Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps church walking by across the street at one point, but I was unable to follow them at that moment, and when I searched for them frantically later, I could find neither hide nor hair of them. Strange.

These two people were the only independent protesters I saw.

This security guard gave me a free bottle of water, and then murmured, “Are you for McCain?” I gave a noncommittal “possibly” sort of shrug, but that was enough to inspire him to open his vest.

Around the other back side of the stadium, I discovered what I think must have been the “VIP entrance” where all the politicos arrived.

As I was leaving to come file this report, my bus passed several heavily guarded convoys like this one headed back up toward that secret entrance: the bus barely visible on the left of the photo appeared to be filled with congressmen or some other high-status guests.

And that’s what the view was like outside Invesco Field on the night of Obama’s acceptance speech.