The Inauguration

I decided on the 19th at about 11 in the morning that I was definitely going to go down to D.C. for the inauguration. I had mentioned it a couple times to my parents but I don't think they took me seriously. So I called my friend Amy up and convinced her to go with me. One ironic thing about Amy: We don't hang out that much. Maybe once every three weeks... maybe. But we've gone to France together, we've gone to Illinois together, we've gone to Florida together, and now D.C. I guess she's the friend that's always up to doing anything, even if it's a completely insane idea. So I go up to work and tell my mom that I'm going. She says absolutely not. But after practicing my persuasive speech abilities she says it's okay as long as Dad is fine with it. So I then call my Dad. Who I had to convince for another 20 minutes. Then I had to call Jess to see if I could stay the night at her house. Finally at about 1 o'clock everything was worked out, and I was officially embarking on my first road trip by myself. 

I picked up Amy around 7:30 that night. The GPS told us that our arrival time would be 2:46 AM, but we were determined to get it down to 2. For the first two hours everything went fine until we hit a construction area. We didn't have to worry about traffic because it was in the middle of the night, but our GPS was telling us that we had driven off the highway into the unmapped blue area. Amy, thinking the situation's completely hilarious won't stop laughing. So without any direction, and hoping I'm still on the right highway I begin navigating down a steep area of road. And because of the road construction, I seriously had less than two feet on my left before reaching the cement divider, and less than two feet on my right before reaching the metal guardrail protecting us from the steep drop off. But not to be outdone, I continued at my 80 mph (the speed the car in front of me was traveling). We made it out of the construction perfectly safe, our GPS finally corrected itself, and our time was reduced from 2:46 AM to 2:21. :)

Hours later, completely exhausted we pulled into Jess's.  I visited with the nephew a bit before crashing at around 2:15. We were back up at 6 o'clock in an attempt to escape a little of the crowd. We would have left earlier but there was no way I would have been able to operate for another full day on anything less than 3 and a half hours.

So with the OC spray in hand, Amy and I got back in the car and headed down highway 50 to the New Carrolton exit. The Metro was supposed to be about a mile and a half down the ramp. We soon discovered that the traffic leading up to the exit stretched down the highway almost a quarter mile. After waiting twenty or so minutes we were finally off 50 and inching down the ramp. 

Cars were parked all along the shoulder, so Amy and I decided we would follow suit. I didn't think that it was the best idea in the world, but under our circumstances I was very afraid that there would be no parking further down at the metro. So we parked the car on the shoulder and began walking. 

That's when the crowd started. We walked along side a black family that had come down from PA. They were so excited to be there for the inauguration. Even though race means nothing to me, I couldn't help but be happy for them.

I couldn't even see inside the station from where Amy and I were in line. We bought one day passes even though they were a couple bucks more so we wouldn't have to get in line for tickets inside.

 About an hour later as we were crammed in a mass of people thirty feet from the entrance, we heard over the loud speaker, "Any persons parked on the exit ramp will be towed if not moved." I think, "Shit, now what? If I give up my spot I'll be waiting at least another two hours, if I don't I'm looking at an expensive towing fee." I didn't even know if we were capable of leaving. Amy, again, thinks my misfortune is hilarious, but at least convinced me the smart thing to do would be to go back and get the car. So after much pushing and shoving we escape the crowd and begin to jog back to the car. A little bit down the road we decide to walk (it was like 20 degrees out. Not comfortable weather to be running in) when a lady pulls up along side of us and asks if we're going to get our car on the ramp. We tell her yes, she says we had better start running because the trucks are there now. So I give the keys to Amy, my two-time-marathon-running friend. And thankfully she got to the car before they towed us away. I didn't see any trucks, but the cops were there, and gave me a bit of a time.

So we then drove down the ramp and parked in a private parking spot. I didn't really care at this point where we parked, as long as it wasn't on the side of the road. On our way back to the metro, a lady tells us that the wait is four hours long. Sooo with it being around nine, that would place us in D.C. an hour after the inauguration. I tell Amy, "Screw it, I'm driving into D.C. I don't care where we end up as long as we find a place to park." So I pull off the highway in what seemed to be the "8th and I" area, but unfortunately nothing looked familiar. We drove around for an hour and every parking space was taken. EVERY PARKING SPACE!!!! I was about ready to give up when I see an office building with a big parking sign on the corner of Florida and 20th. We pull in and the guy tells us that the first garage is full we would have to use the second. To get into the second garage we had to pull around the building, and drive up a narrow ramp to get inside. The place was empty. Not one car. The guy in there tells me the metro's a block and a half away and that it will be $20 to park. I begrudgingly give him my money. He then tells me I have to park in the basement, orange section, and if I don't I'll be towed. So, with my second threat of being towed, I cautiously make my way to the basement. And still the whole place is practically empty. I was almost certain a gang was going to be waiting down there with machine guns to kidnap us. But no one was there. 

We safely parked the car and began walking down Connecticut Ave toward the Dupont Metro.  We finally get on the Red Line. I text Jess and ask her what's happening out there in the world, since by watching the news she knows more about what's happening than I do. She tells me a person got hit by a train on the Red Line so they shut down two stops and it's expected to be delayed an hour and a half. She tells me if I'm anywhere near the Red Line to get off and go someplace else. So we decide to leave the metro and just walk. At this point I knew I need to go south to get to the mall, and that it couldn't possibly be more than six miles away. To be safe, I figured around 20 minutes a mile, that means two hours of walking if it was six miles away, which I highly doubted. Either way we would have made it on time. I later asked a national guard guy how far it was. He said quite a way. I asked for the exact distance. He said 1.5 miles. lol He had me worrying it was going to be like 8 or something. ANYWAY, We began walking along Connecticut, and people began pouring in from the side streets. Soon enough, Connecticut was blocked from traffic, and people poured into it. 

There's nothing like walking down an empty city street, with thousands and thousands of other strangers all heading in the same direction, the only traffic being us, and the only destination being the mall. It was weird, but it was very cool. So we followed the traffic out Pennsylvannia Ave. onto the mall. 

The first thing I saw was the "Jesus People". I snapped a few pictures before they began calling out, "How can Obama, having two daughters, be for abortion? Obama's a hypocrite!" The crowd wasn't happy. They began to boo, the finger started flying around, threats were being yelled. I told Amy we had better move on before we witness a murder. 

We got caught in the mob a couple times. There were people with every single piece of Obama merchandise possible displayed on their being. One lady had a trench coat laminated with Obama newspaper clippings. I saw quite a few people with jackets completely covered with Obama Buttons. I didn't think we were going to be able to escape, but we made it eventually.

Amy had never been to D.C. so I was determined for her to see the Capital building. We pushed forward till we saw the tip of it before we retreated from the insanity to safety. We ended up watching the inauguration on a huge TV screen next to the Washington Monument. That was all I was expecting anyway.

 I stayed for Rick Warren's 'prayer', if one can even call it that, and Obama's swearing in. We started walking back to the car shortly after he started his speech. I figured I could watch it later online. I wanted to get ahead of the two million other people there. We left D.C. at 2:30, drove up to BBC to visit Sam, left BBC at 7:15, and I pulled in my driveway at 11:30. Absolutely insane...