REBECCA ROBERTS, host:
This is a weekend of journeys, inaugural journeys. From across the country, around the world, people are streaming to the nation's capital to witness history: Barack Obama taking the oath as the 44th president of the United States. Throughout the show today and tomorrow, our listeners will share their inaugural journeys. One is bringing family photos.
Ms. PATRICIA LOWTHER: My great-grandmother, my grandfather and then my mom.
ROBERTS: Another is wearing a bright orange, handmade hat.
Ms. RHONDA HODGE (Reporter, The Murphy Messenger): I wanted to be seen in the crowd of people.
ROBERTS: There's even a gaggle of pre-teens armed with video cameras and tough questions.
Unidentified Child: Are you happy with the president choice?
ROBERTS: We'll start with the man making the ultimate inaugural journey: President-elect Barack Obama. He's just finished a whistle-stop train trip from Philadelphia to Washington, and NPR's Don Gonyea rode the rails with him. I asked Don about the president-elect's message during the trip.
DON GONYEA: It's been an interesting hybrid. This looks and feels like a campaign. Of course, he takes the oath on Tuesday, but he's really focusing on the troubled economy and the challenges that he faces. His speeches that he's given really do, though, echo the message that he had for two years on the campaign trail. Give a listen, this is from Baltimore late this afternoon.
(Soundbite of President-elect Barack Obama's speech in Baltimore)
President-elect BARACK OBAMA: No matter what we look like, no matter where we come from, no matter what faith we practice, we are a people of common hope, a people of common dreams, who ask only that what was promised us as Americans, that we might make of our lives what we will and see our children climb higher than we did, that that promise is fulfilled.
ROBERTS: And I understand the vice president-elect hopped on board your train in his home state of Delaware.
GONYEA: He did. Our first stop was in Wilmington, which is where Vice President-elect Joe Biden has commuted to the U.S. Senate for so many years. He got on board there at the same Amtrak station where he's always started and ended that regular commute, and he spoke, as well. And again, he, too, kind of echoed the same themes. Give a listen.
(Soundbite of Vice President-elect Joe Biden's speech in Wilmington)
Vice President-Elect JOE BIDEN: Our economy is struggling. We're a nation at war. Sometimes, just sometimes, it's hard to believe that we'll see the spring again. But I tell you, spring is on the way with this new administration.
(Soundbite of crowd cheering)
ROBERTS: And Don, as the train has traveled south from Philadelphia to Washington, what have you seen outside the window?
GONYEA: Well, that's probably been the most interesting part of it. As the train rolled south, we would go through many tiny, little towns. And it seemed like every intersection we rolled through, there would be maybe just five or six - a family or some people who stepped out of a local business - or maybe it'd be a large group of several dozen or even a hundred people. They'd be on the overpasses. Even, at one point, as we were going past a refinery in the southern edge of Pennsylvania, saw a guy on top of one of those giant fuel tanks in his coveralls and his hard hat, just kind of taking a moment to stop and watch the train go by. So, a lot of people knew this train was going to be on this track, and a lot of them came out just to get a glimpse and hopefully, maybe get a wave from the incoming president.
ROBERTS: NPR's Don Gonyea onboard the president-elect's train heading to the inauguration. Thanks, Don.
GONYEA: Thank you.