Gene Fitzpatrick of Spokane is on his way back to his RV from the inauguration ceremony, hoping to put his feet up and watch some of the parade. Here's what he had to say about the ceremony.

"The ceremony was short. I was really kind of surprised at how quiet the crowd was. . . Everyone was patiently waiting and saying "OK, it's finally here. Every now and then there'd be a cheer that would break out."

It was so crowded that if you put your hand down by your side, you had to wait to pull it back up until the crowd shifted..."

For the speech, "the crowd was generall quiet and listening. I thought (the speech) was just what we needed...that we've got to buckle down and take responsibility. It was the right note."

Fitzpatrick thought some of the strongest parts of the speech were Obama's calls for personal responsibility, and for "the watchful eye of the government" over the free market economy. 

Among the African Americans in the crowd, the references to Martin Luther King Jr and Obama's father not being able to eat in a diner 60 years ago registered.

"The biggest reaction, which was a negative reaction, was when Joe Lieberman's picture appeared (on the Jumbotron). He was booed louder than Bush or Cheney."

The trek to get out of the Mall took about two and a  half hours. People who said you could see the swearing in ceremony or the parade, but not both, were correct, because there was no way they could get to Pennsylvania Avenue from their vantage point on the Mall near the Native American Museum. They'd been up since about 4 a.m., and headed back to American University.

"It was a great experience. I'll never do it again. But you can watch it on TV and it's spectacular, but it's not the same."

"You meet just the greatest people."

 

---

---