SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is Weekend Edition from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. With his swearing-in as the 44th president of the United States now just three days away, President-elect Barack Obama is in the middle of one, final, campaign-style road trip before officially taking on manyt of the challenges that await his arrival in the Oval Office. Today he's making a whistle-stop train trip from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware, to Baltimore and finally on to Washington, D.C., where the pre-inaugural weekend will be in full swing. NPR's Don Gonyea is traveling with the president-elect on the train. Don, can you hear us?
DON GONYEA: I can hear you, yes.
SIMON: Do you have a snack car on that train?
GONYEA: There is a snack car. And it seems to be stocked. And you know, there are a lot of reporters on the train, so there's been a bit of activity at the snack car.
SIMON: Well, we'll look forward to reviewing your expense account. But what has President-elect Obama been saying?
GONYEA: Well, we rolled out of Philadelphia about 45 minutes ago or thereabouts, through all these little towns, Sharon Hills(ph), Chester, Claymont. And right now, as we speak, the train is coming to a slow roll. We're going to stop in Wilmington. And that is where we pick up Vice President-elect Joe Biden. Of course, this is his home state, and he'll be here with his wife, Jill, joining the president-elect and Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama, by the way, 45 years old today. Her birthday is on the train.
SIMON: This must be, for so many families, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the next president of the United States.
GONYEA: Well, here's what it is, looking out the window, you see, you know, little knots of people - a dozen here, four or five there at an intersection as we roll through or on an overpass. I saw a guy standing on top of one of those giant tanks at some kind of a refinery as we rolled out of Pennsylvania in his, you know, heavy coveralls and hard hat, just all by himself up there as the train went by with him silhouetted against the morning sun. And in Wilmington, of course, we expect a very big crowd. There will be an event here, as there will be one later in Baltimore.
SIMON: Wilmington, as you note, of course, the nominal home of the Biden family before they move on to Washington, D.C. What's the metaphorical meaning the Obama administration wants us to take from this train trip right before he becomes inaugurated?
GONYEA: You know, he does want to feel close to the American people and give them a chance to kind of see him in this way, as he heads to Washington to take the oath. They are also retracing at least part of a trip that Abraham Lincoln took in 1861 on the way to his inaugural. He went through Philadelphia and to Baltimore before heading to Washington. Many comparisons between these two men have been made. We are seeing more of that today.
SIMON: NPR's Don Gonyea, traveling with President-elect Obama as they head south on the rails coming, finally, to Washington, D.C. Thanks so much, Don.
GONYEA: My pleasure.