Mitt Romney and his campaign entourage cruised through the Philly suburbs over the weekend.  On Saturday, their tour bus was scheduled to stop at a local Wawa, a popular convenience store chain in our area, where Mitt would be on tap to order a sandwich and give a short speech.  Well, laying in wait for the Romney team were the not so wily Democrats, led by Mister Ed Rendell, who thought they would get their big chance to disrupt the Republicans’ ride through this so-called Blue State of ours.  But things didn’t quite turn out the way Fast Eddie and his Democrat pals thought they would.

Meatball Hoagie with Pickles and Sweet Peppers

The Romney team figured out the Dem’s demolition plan and simply shifted gears by driving to another Wawa store four miles away, much to the chagrin of Rendell and his Democrat lap dogs.

That left hundreds of people and dozens of protesters — including former Gov. Ed Rendell and former Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy — standing in vain at a Wawa off the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Quakertown exit, waiting for a bus that was actually four miles away.

Asked why the change in venue, Romney quipped,  “I understand I had a surrogate over there already, so we decided to pick a different place.  My surrogate is former Gov. Rendell, who said we could win Pennsylvania.”  The Morning Call

Ah shucks, foiled again!

Wawa is a great example of entrepreneurial success and that’s exactly why it was chosen for a campaign stop by the Romney team.  The Wawa corporate enterprise started out as a dairy farm outside of Philadelphia in Delaware County.  The company began delivering milk to people’s doorsteps back in the 1920s and when the milk home delivery business started to fall off in the 1960s, the company again reinvented itself by moving into the convenience store market in direct competition with the 7-eleven conglomerate.

Over the years, the company has truly prospered, developing into a major chain of successful markets/gas stations across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia.  Wawa is now the third largest food retailer in the Philadelphia metro area and they have blown 7-eleven out of the water.  The name of the company comes from the small town where the firm’s first milk processing facility was located which is currently the site of Wawa’s headquarters.  Wawa, by the way, is an Indian name for the Canadian goose.

Oh, I forgot to mention….although Wawa is a family-owned business, their employees own a big chunk of the company stock.  And they make the best cup of coffee anywhere—good old-fashioned diner coffee.  Mmmm, I can smell that full roasted aroma now.  Guess where I’m headed this morning?

P.S.: A hoagie is what you foreigners to these Philadelphia parts would probably refer to as a sub, a submarine, or a hero.  It’s not just cheese steaks we’re noted for.