The day of the inauguration
At 4 in the morning crowds of people were descending on the Capitol to get in line at their assigned gates for the inauguration. The end result were groups of people standing in line for hours at a time, and entering the Capitol lawn, only to find that the premium seating and standing room was taken. Some resorted to climbing trees to get a better view.
Tim Tarvin, 47, of Ohio, watches the inaugural festivities Tuesday, Jan. 20, from a tree in the Capitol lawn. Photo: Rashah McChesney/Iowa State Daily
Others played in trees while their parents watched the ceremony.
Akira Jamel Garner, 9, of Tulsa, Okla., and Jeremiah Carrington-Davis, 7, of Carry, N.C., sit together in a tree Tuesday, Jan. 20, in the Capitol lawn while their parents watch the inauguration. Photo: Rashah McChesney/Iowa State Daily
Still others found more unconventional places to sit on.
Many revelers climbed to the top of any available surface to catch a glimpse of the ceremonies. These particular ones were forced to dismount after a few minutes. Photo: Rashah McChesney/Iowa State Daily
The last leg of the trip
During Jon’s drive, while everyone else was sleeping he and Rashah watched the sunrise.
Photo: Rashah McChesney/Iowa State Daily
After crossing over into Pennsylvania we ran into a group of the Pennsylvania National Guard, on their way to D.C. to help out with the Inauguration. According to MSNBC there are 24,000 police officers, national guard and other law enforcement officials in the D.C. area to help control the crowds during the Inauguration festivities.
Photo: Jon Lemons/Iowa State Daily
After the night
Jon’s driving shift came right about the time that the sun came up as we passed through Ohio into Pennsylvania. Neither Jon nor Rashah has slept much at this point, but with the sunrise some last reserves of energy come out. Photo: Rashah McChesney
After a 17 hour drive
Heather and Jessie grab some sleep in the car while we drive through Pennsylvania. Photo: Rashah McChesney/Iowa State Daily
Introducing…
Four students, and a friend heading off to D.C. for a Grand Adventure. Photo: Jon Lemons/Iowa State Daily
Rashah McChesney is a senior (super!) in Visual Communication who loves politics and well, big crowds in general. She’s worked as a reporter, photographer, news editor, photo editor and managing visual editor for the Iowa State Daily. She loves to write about politics, and international affairs, and she takes pictures of just about everything. She’s hoping to find people who traveled across the country to see the Inauguration and maybe drink some coffee with Karl Rove and find out what his future plans are. In her spare time she likes to play the piano and sing to her neighbors although she’s not sure if her neighbors like it. She also really likes the feeling of pencils on paper, and is rather fond of reporter notebooks. She wishes that she could have been trained by Woodward and Bernstein but his happy to settle with Dennis Chamberlin, the Pulitzer prize winning photographer at Iowa State University. Rashah is really excited to be covering this event from D.C. but wouldn’t have turned down the chance to cover it in Kenya. Her goal as a photojournalist is to travel to the places where everyone else is afraid to go and take pictures of people who’ve been forgotten by the outside world.
Heather Johnson is a senior in journalism and mass communication with an emphasis in print. She’s been a copy editor at the Iowa State Daily for three semesters. Heather’s sister (the fifth person on the trip) won tickets and Heather jumped at the chance to go. She’s excited about the inauguration in general and wants to see the D.C. area. When she’s not riding halfway across the country to see the new president Heather likes to play the piano and make stuff.
Jon Lemons is a super senior who will be graduating this May with a double major in Journalism and Photography and a minor in Philosophy. In his spare time Jon enjoys the outdoors and playing soccer. He is a 23- year- old native Iowa from Waukee. This is his first trip to Washington D.C. and he loves to travel. Jon is extremely excited about this historic event and he intends to share it visually.
Jesse Opoien is a freshman, double majoring in English (literary studies) and pre-journalism and mass communication. She is originally from Iowa, but lived in Marinette Wisconsin for most of her life. She is very happy to be back in the land of the cornfields, especially because she gets to work for the Iowa State Daily- which is how she got the awesome gig of covering the Inauguration. During her time at the Daily, Jessie has worked as an Opinion columnist, Assistant Opinion Editor, and is currently serving as the Opinion Editor. Jessie has always had a passion for politics- her high school government teacher told her that her interest was “beyond normal”- and she has embraced the abnormal interest. As soon as she found out about the trip to D.C., she decided to go, even though she did not yet have a ticket. Thanks to the wonderful people at Senator Tom Harkin’s office she now has a ticket and cannot wait to witness the Inauguration of the man she helped elect in the first election in which she was old enough to vote. She is excited to see the people who have traveled here from all across the country because of a shared excitement about one very historic moment. In her free time, Jessie enjoys playing the piano, writing on wide-ruled paper going on adventures, and disucssing politics, religion and all those things you’re not supposed to talk about.
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