The crowds were massive, but the experience, unforgettable.
Brandon Township resident John Dickie and his daughter, Alexis, a junior at Brandon High School, attended the inauguration of President Barack Obama on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
‘It was overwhelming, the number of people there,? John Dickie said. ‘It was an exhausting day and really cold out, but a really good experience.?
John and Alexis arrived at their hotel 70 miles outside of Washington, D.C. on Sunday night. At about noon on Monday, they picked up their tickets from Congressman Mike Rogers? office after a two-hour wait in lines that wrapped around Capitol Hill. From there, they went to the Hard Rock Cafe for another long wait and visited the Ford Theater. They strolled down Pennsylvania Avenue, observing set-up for the parade the next day and saw vendors hawking souvenirs of the event.
The father and daughter weren’t able to do much sight-seeing due to extreme crowds and returning to their hotel room were stuck in a traffic jam for four hours after a 50-car pile-up on westbound Interstate 70 in Maryland. As a result, they didn’t get back to their hotel until 10 p.m. and had to get up at 4 a.m. Tuesday to return to the nation’s capital for the inauguration.
They used the Metro rail system, which Dickie described as ‘really smooth? despite hordes of people riding it, and arrived in downtown D.C., getting to the National Mall at about 7 a.m., but entry into the area didn’t go as planned.
The entrance, one of four main access points, was barricaded with plastic and police tape.
‘The crowd kept getting bigger and bigger,? he recalls. ‘There were tens of thousands of people at one gate. We were stuck off to the side in the middle. Independence Avenue was blocked off. We moved over there and could see the front of the Capitol and where he was being inaugurated. The crowd was pushing and it was like the levee broke and everyone ran into the mall area. As far as security goes, the plastic didn’t do anything.?
Their view to the podium and Obama wasn’t blocked he said, but really far away. Video monitors were around, but close to the Capitol building. The public announcement system was in the center of the mall area, but cut out every once in awhile.
‘We heard bits and pieces of the speech, but it wasn’t always clear,? Dickie said. ‘We heard it echoing down toward the Washington Monument, where there was another system. At key points in the speech, the applause would start, and whistles and cheering. It went all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial.?
After the speech ended, Dickie and Alexis headed back to the subway rather than battling the crowds to see the parade.
On Wednesday, they drove home, where Dickie planned to view the inauguration and speech on his digital video recorder.