Happy.

Well. I am back. I am alive. I am in one piece. Praise Jesus.

What a trip. It was quite miserable, but at the same time it exceeded all my expectations.

We started out Sunday evening earlier than we had planned because we wanted to avoid the heavy snow that was expected in Indiana and Pennsylvania on our way there. It wasn't snowing in Illinois, which was great. We had a pretty uneventful trip, all things considered, and arrived at our stabling area Monday morning. Stabling was different than we expected and we found out that everything was outdoors, including arenas and wash racks, which is fine except for the fact that it was in the upper 20's. We made due. We rented a nearby house to stay in and got settled in as soon as we could. We needed to rest up for Tuesday.

Tuesday morning had me waking up at 3:30 in order to be at the barns by 4:30 so that the vets could do a final check of our horses and okay them for the parade. The horses had to be loaded by 7:30, and in the mean time we had to deal with making these poop stained horses white. The wash racks only had cold water and we had discovered that their water buckets had completely frozen overnight. It was cold. We curried and groomed those horses as best we could but they still needed shampoo, which had frozen in the truck the night before, to some degree. Somehow we got them looking sort of clean and we got them loaded and ready. All the horses in the parade were in the same stabling complex and so by 8:30 all of the trailers were lined up to leave in the first of 2 motorcades. Because there wasn't enough room in the truck for everyone, I rode in a military van at the front of the motorcade with 2 others from our group. Off we went, slowly on our way to Washington DC. 

Once we made it in the city there were people everywhere! It was unbelievable! A real part of history. At one point we had to turn down a street that was just swimming with people. We had to change our route because of it. When we were sitting, waiting for people to move, Obama's motorcade came sweeping past us, and we saw Obama in his car! The crowd erupted and it was amazing. Eventually we made it to our unloading site. 

There we had 40 minutes to unload, tack up our horses and make them parade ready so that the trailers could move and clear the streets. It was probably around 10:00 or so. In that area we stood holding our horses for 4 hours before it started. It was cold, and luckily for us we had enough people to take turns holding horses and warming up in the heating tents. At that point we were literally 2-3 blocks from the capital and could hear the whole Inauguration although not enough to figure out word for word what was happening. Every time the crowd cheered we could hear the echoes fill the streets and it was some kind of wonderful. Whenever I wasn't holding a horse I would run down the street to this one tent that had a television in it and I saw the opening prayer, Aretha singing, and the very end of Obama's speech. It was surreal. No one in the tent knew each other, but it was so cool to feel everyone's excitement and to see it in their faces- watch them cry, smile, or just stare in wonder. That, I will never forget. 

Around 2:00 the riders got on their horses and we all lined up for the parade. It was so cold. We waited, and waited. Now, we didn't start marching in the parade until 5:50, and I tell you that was the most miserable 3-4 hours of my life because we were just standing, the sun was going down, and it only got colder. We learned later that a couple of people decided not to march in the parade because of the cold and one rider from another group had to be taken away in an ambulance because of hypothermia. It was insane. We were all wind burnt and shivering. I have never shivered so long or hard in my life. It was as if I was having a seizure- I couldn't stop. Somehow, when the parade started, we forgot about it all. 

It went by like a dream. There were people everywhere and we were just there, marching along. It was a total out of body experience. I was so cold, but it didn't matter, because it was for Obama. The parade flew by, because we  had waited so long for it, and before I knew it we passed the president. More than anything else, that was the most surreal of it all. I remember looking up at him and seeing him standing there smiling down at us- all of us. He was so happy, so grateful, so peacefully content. I wanted to just stop and stare, but we kept marching. Then it was over. We eventually packed up and went back to get some sleep (although not enough) for our trip the next morning.  

Our trip home was a disaster, from traffic leaving to the truck breaking down. All in all it took us 19 hours to get home....

So. Was it worth it? For me, yes. Saying that I was apart of something historic, no matter how small a part it was, is beyond words. I respect Obama and am unbelievably excited about his presidency. There was something so profound about his smile and his warmth, and the effect of which it had on me. I will never forget it.