WASHINGTON - Three Minnesota women stood among the throngs on the National Mall, huddled and shivering, exhaustion in their eyes.
None of that mattered to them. They had traveled for two long days on a bus and rose Tuesday before the sun in anticipation of joy they had never felt.
They arrived among the crowds in Washington on a charter in the predawn darkness, a sea of motor coach taillights illuminating the gloom, all bound for a remarkable day of American history.
"We're here!" announced Gaynell Ballard, 67, as she stepped off the bus. "We have arrived."
After an hour of walking and waiting in line, they climbed aboard a shuttle for a stop-and-go ride to the outskirts of the National Mall. The moment was nearing, and the masses were streaming in -- parents carrying newborns in pouches, senior citizens walking gingerly with canes, a multicultural mural of every color and race.
The closest patch of open grass the women could find was in the shadow of the Washington Monument -- a mile away from the inaugural platform just below the Capitol.
The bulk of the crowd, estimated at 1 million by the Associated Press, centered itself in a singular sea of humanity between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. In some areas, people were shoulder to shoulder; others had plenty of room. Many walked for miles.
Ballard and her sister, Barbara Doyle, climbed a small hill to get a better look. In all the days leading up to Tuesday, the St. Paul natives, whose early years included painful personal encounters with segregation, kept asking themselves: Is it real? Is America really inaugurating its first black president?
