Ok, so I packed my back pack and we left for the airport. We made it to Minneapolis and tried to catch the first flight to DC. There were 42 people in front of us to fly, but somehow, none of them showed up so we caught the first flight and got to DC by 10AM. We rode the Metro to Kyle's. Joe, his girlfriend Jess, and his friend Damien had driven from New York and we all crammed in to Kyle and his wife Rachelle's studio apt.
Every time I travel anywhere, I end up with huge blisters on my feet. This time, they were caused by slipper socks. Never wear socks with rubber grips on the bottoms when you have to walk any significant distance. Also, I was wearing slippers with thin rubber bottoms, which apparently do not offer much support. Needless to say, by the time we got to Kyle's my feet were feeling sore. We took the train uptown and ate at a Thai restaurant, stopped at a liquor store then went back to the apt where we all drank until we passed out by 10:00PM. All of us (accept Kyle) had been up for more than 30 hours, so a couple shots of tequila, some Woodchucks, two glasses of champagne, some Belgian liquor, and some wine later and we were out cold.
We woke up at 7AM. Kyle, Dan and Rachelle had tickets, so they left before the rest of us with the hopes of getting there when the doors opened at 9. The Metro was virtually unusable the whole day, so we all had to walk. By 9, Joe, Jess, Damien and I left to head to the Mall. We left the apt and there were a few people walking down the sidewalk presumably heading our direction. The further we walked the more people we came upon. When we had walked about 8 blocks, we were in a constant stream of "crowd". Everyone was being filtered to an intersection where people with tickets went straight and people without tickets turned left. We went straight. Then we turned and went left. The problem here was that there was a tiny woman with a large voice, facing us screaming, "If don't have tickets go to the right!" What no one realized is that she meant HER right. Luckily we figured out her blunder when a fully armed soldier hollered, "Ticket holders only!! Do you have a ticket?!" We walked back right passed the screaming lady who was still telling people to got to the right. Luckily we did not end up in the tunnel with the those who didn't get in.
The thing about large crowds is there's a certain level of trust that is imparted on those in the crowd. We assume that people know what they're doing. That if the majority of the people are walking in a particular direction, we assume that to be the right direction. This is 100 ways wrong. Most people do not know where they are going or why they're going there. We cut through the side of a building, which turned out to be the Holocaust Museum and happened to put us right where we needed to be in relation to the rest of the crowd. We cut right down the middle and wound up in front of the Washington Monument in perfect view of the megatron screen. We were far away from the actual event, about a mile, but we could see better than most because we were up from the screen and could see right over every one's heads and the trees. In fact we could see better then my pals with tickets.
Now, remember, we just walked about 40 blocks and I have terrible blisters. We eventually would have to walk back...
We stood outside from 10AM to 1PM. It was about 25 degrees and windy, but once in the shield of 2 million people, it wasn't so bad. People boo'd for Bush, cheered for Arnold, laughed at Cheney, and hesitated before deciding she wasn't so bad and clapping lightly for Barbara Bush. Beyonce was there, and P. Diddy. People cried. It was incredibly overwhelming.
All the roads were closed, so we walked right down the middle of the interstates and highways. I'm kicking myself hardcore for not buying any of the cheesy trinkets. I love cheesy trinkets. I'll post pictures of some of the best ones later on.
We looked for food, walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked. Eventually found McDonald's to the rescue. By this time I was walking like a cripple. Full on two foot shuffle. I'm talking homeless, partially handicapped shuffle. I drained my poor blisters when we arrived home and vowed to never stand again. We hung out and read the news for awhile, waiting for our friends to return and for the Metro to clear out. We left at midnight for the half hour ride to Joe's car, which was parked at a station outside of town. Five of us piled in to the Subaru with two guitars and headed for NY. We got there by 6AM and slept until Noon. We had planned to hang out for the day and see Walt Whitman's house, but Dan received a phone call saying his dad had a heart attack earlier that morning and would be having a quadruple bypass surgery. Joe brought us to the airport we flew from Laguardia at 4:30 to Memphis to Minneapolis to Grand Forks and got in about midnight.
The End.
Pictures coming soon.
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