Inaugural reflections from Dave on the Inaugural experience

Hi All,

I'm overdue for an entry, so without further ado...

I caught the 10:00 AM bus from South Station and enjoyed an uneventful ride to the cavernous Port Authority in NYC. I hailed a cab & then received a scenic tour of the Upper West Side en route to the hostel, but I made it there in good time and met up with Karen, Greg, Beth & Matt. We festooned the rental minivan with DC or BUST!! signs and red, white & blue ribbon streamers and embarked upon our big trip in high spirits.

Everyone got me up to speed on the events of Friday, including On Ensemble's performance at DROM and the already-famous karaoke tab. Kudos to the crew for a well-provisioned ride...even though the fresh fruit became frosty fresh fruit overnight in the frigid Manhattan air. (Hope you enjoyed the alliteration in there.) Our indefatigable drivers Beth & Karen cheerfully delivered us to Silver Spring, MD - YES!!!

Sunday's focus was the Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Outfitting ourselves with cold-weather gear and percussive devices, we rode the Metro & then walked to the National Mall, stopping along the way for some cool Inaugural buttons. Once on the Mall we began to play, which in turn began to turn heads our way. As previously noted a Fox affiliate filmed us and briefly interviewed Greg, but we don't know which city the "Fox13" crew came from...maybe Tampa or Memphis? It was interesting to observe passersby and note how much attention you can get from banging on drums & a cowbell.

We missed the opening moments from the concert; by the time I took my first photo, Denzel Washington was addressing the throng. We heard "Lean On Me" as we approached the Washington Monument; we settled on a spot just past it, and enjoyed the words & music awhile before relocating to get closer to a jumbotron during Garth Brooks' performance. The rest was pretty good, and a favorite moment for me occurred when Pete Seeger came out to lead everyone in several verses of "This Land Is Your Land" - surely Woody Guthrie was somewhere, smiling, while that song reverberated around our Capital. On that note, I'll stop for now. I'll check in a little later with another installment.

do-ko-do-ko-DON!