See photos from the Inaugural Celebration held Sunday in Washington.

Stephan and Kim Jackson of Durham agreed months ago that they must be in Washington next week to witness the historic inauguration of America’s first black president.

But they didn’t want to take part in what could be a history-making traffic jam on Interstate 95.

So the Jacksons booked passage on a rolling hotel that will pick them up Saturday morning at the Amtrak station in Raleigh. They’ll join travelers on a pair of private rail cars, operated by a small South Carolina railway company, traveling to Washington attached the Amtrak Carolinian.

The trip includes gourmet food and drink, and a four-night stay in the center of the nation’s capital — sleeping on the train, parked at Union Station. The fare is $1,800 a person.

“Economically, we are sort of taking a leap of faith, because we’ve never ridden on a rail car before,” ... [MORE]

Durham’s East Regional Library invites the public to watch Tuesday’s presidential inauguration, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 211 Lick Creek Lane off N.C. 98. Viewing will be in the library’s large meeting room.

As cold as it's supposed to be for the next few days, you have to figure that the inauguration next Tuesday in Washington — not the Arctic, but closer to it than the Tar Heel State — could take place against a snowy backdrop. I checked the long-range forecast. On Inauguration Day, they're saying it'll be mostly cloudy in D.C. with highs in the 30s. But there's a 30 percent chance of snow on Saturday night. And the ground certainly should be cold enough for any snow to stick. Friday night, the weather folks say, it could go down to 4 above zero. If you're goin', take the long johns!

Washingtonians are well-known to be snow-averse, but if they had just one snow plow in the entire city, they'd surely put it to work on Pennsylvania Avenue to clear the way for Barack Obama and the grand inaugural parade. And these days, with so many people using the Metro to get around, snow-clogged roads would be less of a hindrance than in times gone by. Which brings to mind what for me was the most memorable inauguration — in part because I didn't make it.

In January, 1961, I was 14, living in the boondocks of southern Fairfax County, Va., near Fort Belvoir, about 20 miles from Washington. I was a Scout, and in a unit that was asked to serve as ushers along the inaugural parade route. The main job, as I understood it, was to help people find seats in the stands that had been set up. Would we have a chance to see President Kennedy sworn in and give his inaugural address? Well, I would have tried.

But then it snowed, not on Jan. 20 but a day or two before. It was a serious enough snowstorm that the dirt road leading to our house (six-tenths of a mile, with the maintenance crew consisting of my father and me) was impassable by car. Perhaps someone could have come down from Springfield and picked me up along Shirley Highway, present-day I-95, which I could have reached on foot (it ran near our property). But for one reason or another, I canceled.

Instead, I ended up watching the Kennedy inauguration on TV. The weather that day was the kind that often follows a snowstorm — perfectly clear, bright sun, breezy, very cold. Kennedy's speech was an inspirational classic to young people of my generation. I can't read it even now without getting the goosebumps and the lump in the throat. "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country" is only one of the great lines. (Find it here.)

Also unforgettable was the recitation by the great poet Robert Frost, who was 87. He was supposed to read a new poem written for the occasion. But as I watched, Frost struggled to read his manuscript amid the blinding glare from sun and snow, his shock of white hair tousled by the wind. Finally he gave up and spoke a more familiar poem from memory. I found it at this site and pasted it below: 

~ The Gift Outright ~

The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia.
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak.
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

Frost died in 1963, as did Kennedy — unexpectedly, as you'll recall. When JFK's funeral procession came up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, this time I was there.

Video: Governor Beverly Perdue takes the oath of office Saturday, January 10, 2009, during an inauguration ceremony in Raleigh. (Staff video by Travis Long)

As noted in Friday's critics's picks, Tres Chicas are among the local acts playing at the Raleigh Convention Center tonight for incoming Gov. Beverly Perdue's inauguration festivities. Chicas fiddler Caitlin Cary is also scheduled to do another Perdue-related performance this weekend, Saturday morning at Perdue's inauguration ceremony, where she'll sing "America the Beautiful."

"I don't very often see morning," Cary says, "let alone sing in it." Should be interesting.

As you may recall, the marching band over at N.C. Central University had hoped to be chosen to perform at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

At a recent trustee meeting, members urged each other to pull whatever strings they could, badger as many lawmakers as possible, etc, in hopes of getting the coveted invite. 

Alas, it is not to be. 

At this link, you'll find the exhaustive list of bands, performers and other artists who will perform. There were about a dozen college marching bands chosen, but none from this state.

North Carolina's sole representative will be the Harding University High School Marching Band of Gold.

Yes, that's the correct name.

The high school is in Charlotte, and band organizers looking for some help raising money for the big trip to D.C.

The link above has the information.

The inauguration is Jan. 20.