It is 7.30 in the morning at the fire station in the New Hampshire hamlet of Gilford when Senator John McCain arrives for his first meeting of what will be a long day on the hustings.
The 63-year-old Vietnam War hero has just got good news from the latest opinion poll which shows him leading his Republican rival, Governor George Bush of Texas, by 42 per cent to 33 per cent two weeks before the New Hampshire primary, the first in this year's presidential election.
McCain, a stocky man with thinning white hair, skips up on the platform between two fire engines and faces the audience of several hundred.
He thanks them for coming out on what has been the coldest day of the year, with a wind chill factor of minus 30 Fahrenheit.
In addition it is the Martin Luther King national holiday, so it is a tribute to McCain's drawing power that he can get people out of their beds to face sub-zero conditions.
The senator, who has come from temperatures in the 70s in Arizona, tells the crowd that this is his 93rd town meeting in his New Hampshire campaign, during which his poll ratings have soared from 3 per cent to 42 per cent. He badly needs to win New Hampshire if he is to have any chance of stopping the Bush juggernaut backed by a $60 million war chest.
McCain flaunts his conservative views using Cold War imagery when he raises the burning issue of the fate of Elian Gonzalez, the six-year-old Cuban refugee whose mother was drowned smuggling him to Florida. For McCain it is unthinkable that the boy should be sent back to his father in communist Cuba where "the car of choice is a 1957 Chevrolet".
But his main message is a pledge to reform government in Washington by cutting taxes, eliminating wasteful spending and bringing in campaign finance reform. As an example of how his fellow politicians throw money at pet projects, he cites a $2 million grant to study how flatulence in cows can damage the ozone layer. The rural folk have a good laugh at this.
McCain grins with pleasure when a young woman tells him that what impresses her most is not his policies but his readiness to admit he does not know all the answers.
An hour later it is back on the campaign bus called the "Straight Talk Express". Unlike other candidates, McCain invites reporters on to his bus to talk and joke with him between stops. Rivals grouse that he has become a "media darling".
At 10.30 he stops at a local radio station and does a brisk interview after a German TV crew tries to coax a few words of German out of him. He answers questions about foreign policy, education, cost of medicines, pollution and racism.
He is asked for his "weak spots" and recites a list as if he were in the confessional. "I'm a flawed person, I have hurt others, I am impatient, I don't suffer fools gladly. Is that enough?"
Next is a stop at Calef's County Store with a welcome hot stove and shelves packed with every kind of food. CNN grabs a quick interview, asking him if he ever smoked marijuana and about his attitude to gays in the military.
At the next stop at the Governor's Inn in Rochester where he is to address the Rotary Club, I ask him about his views on Northern Ireland. When he hears it is The Irish Times, McCain, who has Scottish ancestry, says his wife, Cindy, heiress to the Hensley brewing company, is of Irish stock as the family name was originally Hennessy.
He gives President Clinton and George Mitchell "great credit" for their efforts over Northern Ireland but it is the people of Ireland who deserve "the greatest credit because of their commitment to peace".
He had criticised President Clinton several years ago for allowing Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, into the White House. Has he changed his mind on this?
"No. I don't feel that terrorists should come to the White House under my regime."
But he would now admit Mr Adams to the White House. "I think that Mr Adams has now played a contributory role to the peace process. I cannot think that he did in the past, especially when bombs were going off killing innocent people. He is obviously contributing to the peace process. I recognise that and I appreciate it."
As he passed in to the lunch, he hissed: "When I am in the White House, I'll decide who's on the guest list."
Another reporter who overheard said: "Don't forget McCain has a temper."
Back on the bus, McCain held court for 15 reporters squeezed into his compartment who heard themselves called "communists, Trotskyites, Mensheviks and fascists". He was enjoying himself and also teased his political consultant, Mike Murphy, whose family, he thinks, came from Co Clare.
Becoming serious, he talked at length about foreign policy and named Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and Helmut Kohl as leaders he admired. Blair was a surprising choice for a politician who prides himself on his conservatism.
Next stop was in the spacious home of a supporter where about 50 people were gathered to hear the McCain message and get copies of his book, Faith of My Fathers, about his naval forbears and his own career, including a harrowing account of his captivity in the "Hanoi Hilton".
The last public engagement was at 7 p.m. in the crowded town hall of Kingston in southeast New Hampshire. McCain told the usual jokes and answered questions for over an hour.
Then it was back on the bus for another hour's drive through the freezing night to the hotel.
The next day it begins all over again. No wonder McCain calls the campaign "the hardest grind of my life" except for his prison experience. But he is loving the campaign and, "even if I don't win, I will be a better person as a result".