Wow, what an awesome year this has been so far.. I can't help but reminisce about my trip to Washington DC to watch the Emperor take the oath..
A quick backstory, my cousin Derek and I are fairly close. We both rooted for DJT to win the election, and even talked for about an hour the morning after the victory. "They all underestimated him", "Because you'd be in jail", "Make America Great Again".. we reveled in the victory, pointing out some of the slogans and biggest burns by our now President.
Our side of the family meets up post-Christmas to exchange gifts, and Derek and I talked in person about the victory, and wished we'd been able to go out and celebrate with like-minded winners. But family and scheduling were not kind to us regarding going out on Election Night, or even attending a rally for that matter. Even though one rally was less than 10 miles away from both of us, the logistics just weren't there.
At the Malone family Christmas, I made him an offer..
Sam: "Hey, Derek... let's go to the Inauguration."
Derek: "Sam, you serious ?"
Sam: "Yeah, fuck it. We didn't catch the rally that was here a few months ago, and we didn't go out election night..."
Derek: "What time's it start ?"
Sam: "I wanna say around noon ? I can check."
Derek; "That means we'd probably have to leave here around 3 in the morning."
Sam: "Yeah. Five hours and change of driving. You in ?"
Derek: "If I can get out of work, I'm in. But I won't know until the day before."
Sam: "You're on."
And I trust Derek enough that I know he's not softly blowing the idea off, he legitimately won't know until the day before.
(Best part, Derek said to his wife that day that he might be going if he could get the time off... never asked her if he could go).
The morning of January 19, Derek calls me.. he's in.
The plan was simple. Pick him up Friday morning at 3 am, drive down to DC, watch the Inauguration, and if we end up staying late, we'll crash in a hotel somewhere.
3 am, I pull into his driveway, he kisses the missus goodbye, and we're on the road in less than 45 seconds. A dark drive the first couple of hours, but Derek and I killed a lot of the time talking about family situations and that sort of stuff.
I want to take a minute to acknowledge a few guys on the forum. I'd started a thread here the day before leaving, looking for suggestions on getting TO the Inauguration. Props to Silver_Tube for pointing me towards the Metro, which was a hell of a lot easier than trying to get close with the car. And to Polar, if/when I get down there again, first round's on me.
Derek and I arrived in DC around 11:00 (traffic was f'in crazy), and we ended up getting on the Metro at the Springfield station. Poured out of the Metro around 12:00, and started to get in the YUGE line to enter the viewing area just outside of the Metro station on Independence Ave... we opted to go a little farther down to the security entrance at the Washington Monument:
Finally through security, we made in to the eastern side of the Washington Monument to watch the Emperor being sworn in on the big screen (the white block on the pic was Derek in the foreground):
Some protestor drama, nothing crazy, just a few soy boys holding up a pussy-grabber kind of sign.. didn’t snap a pic, only because I didn’t want to give them any attention.
After the swearing in, and the crowds dispersed, this (at 9th Street) was as close as we could get to the Capitol Building:
But we did get to see the Emperor putting ink to paper on the big screen:
(Something I can personally vouch for, when the media was showing the lack of attendance at the Inauguration, I can tell you hands down that it is/was complete bullshit. There's no way that those 'hardly any people there' pics were taken at the height of the swearing in ceremonies).
Derek and I grab a hot chocolate and a breakfast sandwich from a nearby vendor, and we're contemplating our next move when, over the loudspeakers, we hear about the parade at 3:00. Derek asks what I think, and I tell him that I can't see driving all this way to stay for an hour, so let's go find a spot to see the parade.
We walk out of the set of security gates at 9th and Constitution Avenues to face a crowd of protesters standing in front of the access lines/security entrances to Pennsylvania Avenue:
Both Derek and I agree at this point to keep each other in check, as neither of us wants to go to jail for beating the snot out of some SJW or soy-boy waving their opinions in our faces. As we're standing there, I look to the west and tell Derek "C'mon". Derek points out that we'll lose our place in line (it looks to be at least an hour wait), to which I answer, "I've got a hunch." So Derek rolls with me.
We walk to the corner of 10th and Constitution Avenues, and I see a security entrance with maybe 15-20 people in line. A uniformed officer is standing in front of the gate with his weapon, so I politely approach him, run elderly game, and ask if this line is for just the press or something. "Nope, you guys can go through here if you want."
A quick backstory, my cousin Derek and I are fairly close. We both rooted for DJT to win the election, and even talked for about an hour the morning after the victory. "They all underestimated him", "Because you'd be in jail", "Make America Great Again".. we reveled in the victory, pointing out some of the slogans and biggest burns by our now President.
Our side of the family meets up post-Christmas to exchange gifts, and Derek and I talked in person about the victory, and wished we'd been able to go out and celebrate with like-minded winners. But family and scheduling were not kind to us regarding going out on Election Night, or even attending a rally for that matter. Even though one rally was less than 10 miles away from both of us, the logistics just weren't there.
At the Malone family Christmas, I made him an offer..
Sam: "Hey, Derek... let's go to the Inauguration."
Derek: "Sam, you serious ?"
Sam: "Yeah, fuck it. We didn't catch the rally that was here a few months ago, and we didn't go out election night..."
Derek: "What time's it start ?"
Sam: "I wanna say around noon ? I can check."
Derek; "That means we'd probably have to leave here around 3 in the morning."
Sam: "Yeah. Five hours and change of driving. You in ?"
Derek: "If I can get out of work, I'm in. But I won't know until the day before."
Sam: "You're on."
And I trust Derek enough that I know he's not softly blowing the idea off, he legitimately won't know until the day before.
(Best part, Derek said to his wife that day that he might be going if he could get the time off... never asked her if he could go).
The morning of January 19, Derek calls me.. he's in.
The plan was simple. Pick him up Friday morning at 3 am, drive down to DC, watch the Inauguration, and if we end up staying late, we'll crash in a hotel somewhere.
3 am, I pull into his driveway, he kisses the missus goodbye, and we're on the road in less than 45 seconds. A dark drive the first couple of hours, but Derek and I killed a lot of the time talking about family situations and that sort of stuff.
I want to take a minute to acknowledge a few guys on the forum. I'd started a thread here the day before leaving, looking for suggestions on getting TO the Inauguration. Props to Silver_Tube for pointing me towards the Metro, which was a hell of a lot easier than trying to get close with the car. And to Polar, if/when I get down there again, first round's on me.
Derek and I arrived in DC around 11:00 (traffic was f'in crazy), and we ended up getting on the Metro at the Springfield station. Poured out of the Metro around 12:00, and started to get in the YUGE line to enter the viewing area just outside of the Metro station on Independence Ave... we opted to go a little farther down to the security entrance at the Washington Monument:
Finally through security, we made in to the eastern side of the Washington Monument to watch the Emperor being sworn in on the big screen (the white block on the pic was Derek in the foreground):
Some protestor drama, nothing crazy, just a few soy boys holding up a pussy-grabber kind of sign.. didn’t snap a pic, only because I didn’t want to give them any attention.
After the swearing in, and the crowds dispersed, this (at 9th Street) was as close as we could get to the Capitol Building:
But we did get to see the Emperor putting ink to paper on the big screen:
(Something I can personally vouch for, when the media was showing the lack of attendance at the Inauguration, I can tell you hands down that it is/was complete bullshit. There's no way that those 'hardly any people there' pics were taken at the height of the swearing in ceremonies).
Derek and I grab a hot chocolate and a breakfast sandwich from a nearby vendor, and we're contemplating our next move when, over the loudspeakers, we hear about the parade at 3:00. Derek asks what I think, and I tell him that I can't see driving all this way to stay for an hour, so let's go find a spot to see the parade.
We walk out of the set of security gates at 9th and Constitution Avenues to face a crowd of protesters standing in front of the access lines/security entrances to Pennsylvania Avenue:
Both Derek and I agree at this point to keep each other in check, as neither of us wants to go to jail for beating the snot out of some SJW or soy-boy waving their opinions in our faces. As we're standing there, I look to the west and tell Derek "C'mon". Derek points out that we'll lose our place in line (it looks to be at least an hour wait), to which I answer, "I've got a hunch." So Derek rolls with me.
We walk to the corner of 10th and Constitution Avenues, and I see a security entrance with maybe 15-20 people in line. A uniformed officer is standing in front of the gate with his weapon, so I politely approach him, run elderly game, and ask if this line is for just the press or something. "Nope, you guys can go through here if you want."