Inauguration Tales #1

Last week (Sunday, January 18th) Andy and I took a bus to Washington D.C. for the inaugural ceremony of President Barack H. Obama. My cousin Heather's husband Tom (is he also my cousin?) works in Capitol Building in the Office of the Parliamentarian and was able to get tickets. Our inauguration crew consisted of Tom, me, Andy, Tom's brother Jay, Tom's father Tom, and Jay's friend who goes by Kraus (last name).

It was insane. It was incredible. It was one of those events that to witness forces some kind of glorious aching in perimeter your stomach. There are many smaller stories that make up the whole. I figure Andy and I can take it piece by piece (unless Andy refuses, who knows). I'm gonna start by writing about the drive from Virginia to D.C. on the morning of the inauguration.

Driving Miss Daisy

We woke up at 5:30 in the morning for a 6:00 departure. On the news we could see that the masses had been assembling all night and that there were already huge crowds of people on the National Mall. I ate an everything bagel, brushed my teeth, put on two pairs of socks, long johns, jeans, four shirts, a hat, scarf, and gloves and we were on our way.

As the day progressed I would realize how privileged of access we had to this event, but it all started with the fact that Tom possessed a pass and credentials that would allow us to drive a car directly into D.C. (normally only buses, taxis, and limos were allowed).

Tom and Heather's house was in Virginia, about 25 miles outside of D.C., a 30 - 40 minute drive. As soon as we tried to get on the highway in Virginia we were stopped by the state troopers who examined Tom's driver's license, government ID, and highway pass. We were waved on to the highway. Immediately following this was 20 minutes of empty roads. As we neared the Capitol we began to see more and more buses, and soon our luxury cruise was halted in traffic with hundreds of buses at a standstill.

"These buses are the bane of my existence," remarked Tom, who then noticed that the left lane was completely empty. "Let's see what's going on over here." Tom entered the left lane and we discovered that all the buses were being forced to take an earlier exit. We drove on. The highway empty once again.

While approaching our exit we could see it had been completely blocked off by a series of police cars, road pylons, national guard members, and a large army humvee. Tom decided to drive to the next exit to see if it was open. It had the same set up. Not knowing what else to do Tom pulled over to ask the officers what the best course of action was. As he pulled over and started to roll down the passenger window one of the national guard members spotted the highway pass and signaled to the others who then immediately removed all the obstacles blocking the exit.

As we rounded a corner we came upon an incredibly large snow plow that was parked at an angle, but still facing us, in the middle of the road. Tom approached slowly. We couldn't tell if anyone was even in the snow plow. Tom was carefully working his way around the plow when suddenly its engine started and the plow pulled forward allowing us to pass freely.

Once we were in D.C. there was a specific route that congressional employees with driving passes were supposed to take. However, due to the outstanding number of people attending, pedestrians had taken over almost all of this route. We slowly drove through crowds of people trying not to run them down. It was like a zombie movie. Dark, thousands of people walking slowly (almost aimlessly), the main characters in a car trying to sneak through the crowd, secretly hoping that none of the pedestrians will suddenly start attacking the car. Were we whispering when we spoke? Soon pedestrian traffic was too much. It was clear that this route would not work. Tom got out and asked an officer where to go. "Sir please get back in your car."

Eventually an alternative route was planned and congressional traffic was directed on to a different street. After three more security checks that involved dogs (strangely enough one of which was an elderly yellow lab), mirrors, and ID's we arrived at the parking garage. Since no visitors were allowed in the Capitol we went to the remote location for the Office of the Parliamentarian which was in a building connected to the parking garage. There we drank coffee and made microwavable breakfast sandwiches.