Wilson Family News: 2009

This is probably the best shot of me in front of the President.
You can see how close I got. Click the pic for the full shot.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to get these details down while they're fresh:

I ended up going into work Monday night to avoid the throng, which turned out to be a great call. They had cots in the office for us to sleep on, complete with chocolates on the pillows! A nice little touch from the HQ facilities folks. I couldn't really sleep on the cot, not that I would've gotten much sleep anyway, so I got up about 630am Tuesday and started getting dressed. I'll spare you all the gory details, but let's just say there were many, many layers and that bathroom breaks were to be avoided for the sheer logistics of it all.

Screengrab from C-SPAN as we passed the Presidential
Reviewing Stand. C-SPAN Parade Video (we're at the end).

The first adventure was getting from NASA HQ to the Pentagon for the security screening. We're only a few blocks from the Capitol so the streets were clogged with buses and swarming with people. We couldn't get on the interstate the regular way because of a "suspicious package." I'm sure the cops were dealing with that all day. We set out for plan B but couldn't maneuver around the crowds. One of the other banner carriers, Glenn Posey, got out of the van and took charge, directing traffic, stopping buses and limos, yelling at pedestrians. It was great. He ended up repeating this later in the night when we were rushing to get Buzz Aldrin back to his hotel in time for him to attend some of the balls.

CNN Video of NASA in the Parade

Anyway, we got to the Pentagon and created a little more confusion because we were there early. Eventually we found the right spot and went through the metal detectors. They had boxed lunches for us there, but it was hard to eat with two layers of gloves on. We waited there for a while and then got in our van to head to the next staging area.

Of course we sat in the van for a while waiting for the military convoy to pull out of the Pentagon. The swearing in ceremony started around this time and we were listening on the van radio. We finally got rolling and things were getting interesting. We crossed the river on Memorial Bridge and it was really cool to me to be heading toward the Lincoln Memorial right as all this stuff was happening. We made our way through the Mall and saw all of the crowds up close. Next to the parade itself, this was the coolest part. Seeing it on TV was a big enough "Wow," but seeing it in person was sort of surreal. People were on top of buildings and in trees. The lawn around the Washington Monument was just a massive sea of people. We were hearing the speeches on the radio and then hearing them on delay from the giant Jumbotrons around the mall.

NASA TV Parade Video

We finally got to the next staging area, and we heard the swearing in while waiting in our van. Applause broke out in the van and I know several of us got chills. Next, we went inside one of the "warming tents" and got to see some of the speech. There was a group of Native Americans in full tribal dress in there and I watched the speech with them. That was one of the more moving things for me. Unfortunately the TV audio in the tent was bad and we couldn't hear well, so I really didn't get to fully appreciate the speech until I got home later.

The next phase was the least enjoyable, since we just waited in the cold for about four hours before the parade actually started. During the wait, we got to see some of the other groups and parade floats. There was a group of "Lawn Rangers," these guys who wear crazy costumes and push creatively decorated lawnmowers. There was one lawnmower with a toilet on it and another with "Viva Obama, Si Se Puede (Yes We Can)" on it. There was also a huge group of Indiana high schoolers on horseback. This school has apparently been in the parade 15 times over the years. The horses were getting a bit frustrated with the cold and delays and a few of them kicked some of the students. We were hanging out near the first aid tent so we saw the injured kids come in. That was pretty tough, but the kids let out a huge cheer when they finally started moving. It sort of made you want to go charging up a hill or something.

Cold, dark and tired -- but making our way down Pennsylvania.

We were all getting cold and tired, and we were trying to get updates via cell phone and blackberry. We were able to figure out things were running pretty late. We finally got lined up to march around 5 p.m. Things kind of went in fits and starts for a while. We'd move to a position, stand there for 20 minutes, move to another position. My hands and feet were starting to get pretty numb at this point, but I knew it would get better when we started marching. We were all running around and hopping up and down to keep warm. It was pretty entertaining to see 79-year old moonwalking American hero Buzz Aldrin jumping up and down. The shuttle commander Chris Ferguson was cracking jokes to keep our spirits up. At one point he said sarcastically, "well, it's cold and windy, but at least it's dark now."

Finally we made it to the "merge point" at the corner of 4th street and Madison, on the north side of the Mall near the National Gallery of Art. They were bringing the marching bands and other walking groups in from Madison and merging the horse and float groups in from 4th. We were considered a "float element" because of the lunar rover. We knew we would be behind the Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets, so we were all looking down Madison anxiously awaiting their arrival. Before them we saw some strange groups, including a Chinese contingent with a big paper dragon and a guy in a huge panda suit. Again, surreal. There were a couple of marching bands I didn't exactly enjoy hearing for college football-related reasons -- the University of Utah and the University of Tennessee. Please, no more "Rocky Top."

Eventually, the VMI cadets came down Madison. And kept coming. For a while. There were 1200 of them. Just marching behind them was an amazing experience in itself. The parade controller called on us to fall in behind VMI and we started moving. After this it was pretty steady, though we had to pause a few times as other groups stopped at the reviewing stand and slowed up the rest of the parade. Unfortunately by this late hour there were very few folks left on the parade route, but those who were there were definitely enthusiastic about NASA.

President and Mrs. Obama see the rover

We were announced at several points along the route, but the announcers never quite got it all right. They either messed up the NASA acronym or mispronounced an astronauts name. They also didn't announce Buzz, which was kind of strange. But that's probably because he added himself to our group at the last minute.

We followed VMI down Pennsylvania, then made the short jog right onto 15th street to get back on Pennsylvania and pass the reviewing stand. As we turned on 15th, we noticed this guy on a bicycle pulling a cart with a passenger (think rickshaw) turned into the parade between VMI and us. None of the security folks really did anything, but we all thought it was sort of weird and started saying, "this guy shouldn't be here." I wasn't really concerned that he was up to anything bad. It was more a case of "what's this joker doing here?" Our military escort called it in on his radio and a motorcycle cop was there in less than a minute to run the guy off. It was a little scary for a minute.

Not long after that, we made the big left onto Pennsylvania and could see the reviewing stand. The bleachers were all pretty empty but I could see even from the corner of 15th that the Obamas were still there, standing and waving as VMI passed by. Michelle and Joe Biden were also still there, but most of the other folks had left the reviewing stand. As we passed by, I gave a big smile wave and a thumbs up and the President waved back. He was probably waving at all of us and I know the focus was on the rover, but I've pretty much convinced myself there was direct eye contact. Once we were past the stand, the banner carriers stopped and looked back to watch the rover salute. It was pretty cool watching the astronaut get out, salute, and carry the flag from the rover.

After all the cold and waiting, it really was worth it to get that close to the new president and be a part of history. We fought the DC traffic and got back to NASA HQ where I recovered for a while and actually did a little web work before heading home on the metro, which was surprisingly empty. At this point, it still doesn't all seem real yet.