There are many ways to cover an early presidential contest like the Iowa Caucuses or the New Hampshire Primary. You can pretty much camp out in Des Moines or Manchester and catch the candidates, without really breaking a sweat.

But that's not how I like to do my work when I'm on the road. For me, covering a lot of ground is worth it. You see more of the state and more of the campaign itself.

My plan worked out very well Wednesday, as I rolled up 400 miles on the roads of Iowa, hitting four different events with Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and John McCain. If I'd really been sadistic, I could have added a few more.

The day started in Indianola, Iowa, a town of 13,000 to the southeast of Des Moines. There, Clinton packed a church with over two hundred people (that according to the fire marshal, who said he wasn't voting for Hillary.)

As usual, the reporters were stuffed way in the back, with most of us barely able to see what was going on. That was okay, because we had a mini-reunion of sorts, as four of us who also report from the U.S. Capitol all turned up at the same event.

After Hillary was finished, I recorded some stories along with my colleague from AP Radio Gerry Bodlander. The Clinton people shut down the wireless internet before we were finished, so we walked across the street to the Indianola library, where the nice librarians helped us connect to the net so we could file our reports via email.

By now it was past 11 am and it was time to start driving towards Cedar Rapids, where I wanted to catch Mitt Romney at the Eastern Iowa Aiport, 132 miles away.

I chuckled when I saw that the rest areas along I-80 offered wireless internet, good to know in case I needed to file again later in the day.

After a quick food stop, I made it to the Romney event about a half hour early. He met the press in a large hangar with some planes behind him and former US House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Romney also made no news in short remarks to maybe 75 supporters. It was one of those events that makes you wonder - what's up with this? The whole thing just sort of lacked any real "zip."

The lack of zip was really evident when I drove about 20 minutes away to a Barack Obama rally in downtown Cedar Rapids. It took me more time to find a parking spot and when I got inside, it was easy to see why. There were hundreds upon hundreds of people there.

The crowd was fired up before Obama entered the hall and when he emerged, the place exploded. It's easy to see why people find Obama to be an attractive candidate. He has a cadence in his public speaking that brings people along and grabs them.

The big question though is what about all those young people at his events who have never gone to a caucus before - will they really turnout in droves tonight?

One colleague of mine said she talked to several voters at one Obama rally who said they were just there to see him and weren't voting for him. We'll know tonight whether that was more the rule than the exception.

After Obama was finished, it was already 5pm and I needed to hustle back to the suburbs of Des Moines for a John McCain rally, another 140 miles away.

McCain's return to Iowa was a surprise. One of his campaign advisers fully admitted to me that "We do not have high expectations for Iowa."

But there was McCain, arriving to applause from dozens of people standing outside in the 9 degree temperatures for more than an hour to greet him at his main headquarters.

They would have been inside, but it was so crowded with backers, that no one else could squeeze in. I couldn't even get to the audio box inside, so I ended up standing in the cold as well, getting my feed from the speaker that was placed outside.

After things wrapped up, I started to pack all my gear to walk back to the car. That's when I noticed something weird - my audio cables had started to freeze solid!

So what did I learn from my day on the road? As I like to say, I "trust my gut." That leaves me wondering whether Mitt Romney's lackluster turnout indicates something bigger...and whether Barack Obama is on the verge of actually getting the Youth Vote to the caucuses.

John Edwards also had a big rally last night in Des Moines, which has some wondering about a three-way race that doesn't settle anything on the Democratic side.

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