President's father makes quick journey to Pasco

ZEPHYRHILLS - Not even his son, the governor, got a visit.

On a whirlwind stop, former President George Herbert Walker Bush touched down at Zephyrhills Municipal Airport late Tuesday afternoon for a quick presentation at Saddlebrook Resort.

He was to depart Tuesday evening, with nary a moment to meet with his son, Gov. Jeb Bush, said Tom Frechette, the senior Bush's aide and spokesman.

"It's just a short visit," Frechette said by cell phone while accompanying Bush. "He's returning home to Houston later this evening."

Frechette said Bush traveled with his wife, Barbara Bush. But Frechette would not confirm the nature or destination of the trip.

A Bush spokeswoman at his office in Houston said he was speaking at the 2003 leadership meeting of Steris Corp., a provider of sterile processing systems in the health care industry.

Zephyrhills City Manager Steve Spina said airport staffers called him about a week ago to inform him about the former president's visit to Saddlebrook. Then he got a call from Secret Service agents asking for help in tapping the lines at the airport to avoid prank calls.

Deputies from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office and officers from Zephyrhills Police Department were on hand to help with security and the motorcade that whisked Bush away soon after he landed about 4:50 p.m. in a Hawker 700 private jet.

The stop caught businesses by surprise.

"We didn't know anything until we saw 47,000 cop cars," said Ron Schell, co-owner of Airport Auto Care. The police presence caused quite the buzz among a handful of business owners based at the airport. But they never got a glimpse of Bush or the motorcade.

"It would have been nice if he had come out," Schell said.

The visit comes a year after former British Prime Minister John Major slipped into town at the airport for an appearance at Saddlebrook.

But for a small town like Zephyrhills, Major's stop was no comparison to a former president and father of the current one, Spina said.

"It doesn't get much bigger than the president," he said.

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