Protesters set up camp Monday afternoon on a grassy median under the brutal summer sun.
This was hours before their half-minute of glory, when President Bush would roll past them in his limousine and wheel left into the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay for a fundraiser.
As the afternoon wore on, their numbers grew, until nearly 300 protesters were lined up behind a guardrail along the Courtney Campbell Parkway.
They came prepared.
Some carried signs with slogans: "Bush Lies," "Honk to Impeach," "Re-Elect Al Gore."
Others wore Halloween masks of Bush and his father. One man played a full drum set in the back of a blue Volkswagen van. Several people screamed into bullhorns: "Got to stop that son-of-a-Bush!"
The group was loud but civil. They even offered water to perhaps the only man, and certainly the tallest, to show up to cheer on the president.
"I'm here to support him as commander in chief," said 38-year-old Martin Smith, dressed as Uncle Sam and standing high on stilts. "It's a tough job he's got."
To hear the protesters tell it, they didn't care about the heat or what effect they might have on Bush. It was enough that he would see them.
"It's all worth it," said 55-year-old Bob Boehm, who has an "A.C.L.U. Forever" tattoo on his arm. "As much as my back hurts, I'm speaking my mind. To get my opinion in, I'd sit out here for three days."
Al Arteaga, 81, felt much the same.
"If we sit in the house, we know we're not doing anything," he said.
Rosalyn Estrin, 73, said she felt relieved not to see any "First Amendment zones," which have been set up hundreds of yards from other Bush events in Tampa.
"At least we're not hidden away," she said.
And they weren't.
Some rush-hour commuters honked their horns and shouted in support as they passed the spectacle. Others leaned out their windows and screamed, "Get a job!"
Just before 5:30 p.m., the traffic stopped as authorities cleared the way for the presidential motorcade. The road sat empty; the protesters silent, waiting.
And then, with the first sight of police motorcycles, they erupted. They chanted, yelled, waved signs, stood on the guardrails, shouted into the bullhorns, banged the drums.
As the black limousine passed, flags waving from its hood, they could see a man looking very presidential and waving at them through the tinted glass.
It was over in an instant.
Some of them started to leave. Others stayed.
One man stood sweating and said, "Well, about an hour and a half or two hours, and he'll be back out."
