Crowd of 1,000+ turns out for Palin's Wasilla picnic

Dwarfing the numbers that traditionally show up for the governor's annual picnic in Wasilla, Alaska, more than a thousand people turned out Friday for Gov. Sarah Palin's last such event that she will host as governor in her hometown.

Some in the crowd came from as far away from Wasilla as Louisiana and Texas. Adrienne Ross, media director, New York State organizer and an executive board member of the 2012 Draft Sarah Committee was there, and she posted an after action report with lots of photos on her blog Motivation Truth here.

Alaskan Tammy Swofford was also there, and she blogged it (also with photos) here. Another Alaskan, June, who blogs at Sunhusky's Alaska, blogged with photos here. Ben Wargo, yet another Alaska transplant, blogged it here.

As for the legacy media, KTUU's story and video is here. KTVA's story is here. The AP story is here. Raw AP video of the governor signing autographs, serving hot dogs and mingling with the crowd is here. A video of her speech to the crowd is here.

After the picnic, the governor tweeted:

"Great 3rd(& final) Governor's Picnic in hometown tonite;loved the focus: honoring military&Blue Star families;no politickin' just patriotism"

Looking ahead to the Saturday and Sunday picnics, Gov. Palin sent this message:

"Tomrrw host Anch Gov's Picnic; LtGov Parnell/I love these events- literally getting to serve you!Then Sunday Frbnks Picnic/Transition speech"

- JP