|
 |
|
Photo by Sam Yu
At 6 a.m. Tuesday, people were lined up waiting for the first train to the Inauguration to arrive at the Monocacy MARC station. |
|
 |
|
|
|
COMPLETE INAUGURATION COVERAGE
— — —
— — —
|
|
|
Even before 6 a.m. Tuesday, the station house at MARC's Monocacy Station in Frederick was full to overflowing with inauguration-goers looking to stay out of the cold.Riders from as far away as Seattle and as close as Frederick waited for the first train of the day, due at 6:21 a.m. Okeyse Warren had traveled from Seattle to attend the inauguration. Her grandparents had been involved in the civil rights fights of the 1960s, and that inspired her to come, she said. "It's something I felt like I could do for them," Warren said. Julie Suchomel, of Wadsworth, Ill., draped herself in a homemade patchwork quilt bearing the slogan "Change we can believe in" and the president-elect's last name over the date. The quilt was covered in signatures from people Suchomel and her husband, Bob, had met -- many of them at the concert for President-elect Barack Obama held Sunday in Washington. Lauren Binkley, of Midland, Texas, said she wanted to travel to the inauguration because she would like to be able to tell her grandchildren about it. Mark Schultz and his wife, Kim, of New Windsor, headed to find a spot on the National Mall. They didn't have tickets to the area in front of the stand on Capitol Hill, but they did have one resource many travelers wouldn't, Mark Schultz said. "I have an office downtown," he said. That meant access to a bathroom, food in the refrigerator, and a television in a heated lobby if the weather turned bad, they said. And for those who hadn't gotten MARC tickets when they were on sale, or made a last-minute decision to try to go downtown, Ralph Abelow, of Frederick , was selling tickets he'd purchased. He said that he and his wife had sold several on Craigslist, at face value, plus the cost of shipping and "a few dollars." "I'm not going down to stand in the cold for five to 10 hours," Abelow said. "I'm going to watch it on TV." Amid all those who were visiting town for the inauguration, Glyn Steckler, who lives in Frederick and works for the Architect of the Capitol's office, was on his way to work. He hadn't gotten any special access to or break on train tickets, but he was getting paid double time for the day, so he wasn't complaining. It could have been worse, he said: His co-workers who live closer in "have been there since 11 last night."
|
