Chris Learn, a 19-year-old student at Penn State Altoona, told that he ran into Clinton at a Pilot gas station. He said she greeted him and asked him questions. He also said she was traveling with a group of people in a small caravan.
“I knew it was her immediately,” Learn said. “I just saw her and I was like, there’s no way that’s her!”
He added: “She didn’t really say why she was there, but I was guessing it was for presidential stuff.”
Clinton is riding in a van, which she has nicknamed “Scooby,” an aide said, because it reminds her of the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine from the classic television cartoon. Asked whether she was behind the wheel, an aide said Clinton is riding and the Secret Service is driving.
“Everyday Americans need a champion. And I want to be that champion,” Mrs. Clinton said. “So I’m hitting the road to earn your vote — because it’s your time. And I hope you’ll join me on this journey.”
She will embark on her latest — and perhaps last — bid for the White House with nearly universal name recognition and a strong base of support, particularly among women. But in a campaign that will inevitably be about the future, Mrs. Clinton, 67, enters as a quintessential baby boomer, associated with the 1990s and with the drama of the Bill Clinton years.
She is scheduled to have her first campaign appearance on Tuesday in the small eastern Iowa town of Monticello, about 1,000 miles from New York.
She did not have any public stops planned on Monday, but now will be chugging through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois before arriving in Iowa. It’s the first sign she intends to campaign differently than during her first bid for the White House.
