Inauguration: A destination with many paths

updated 4:24 p.m. ET Jan. 19, 2009

WASHINGTON - They're coming by car, by train, by plane, by subway, by foot.

Barack Obama's inauguration will bring together Americans of all ages and backgrounds, from all corners of the country, all converging on the nation's capital to witness an event that means so much collectively, yet something a bit different for each individual.

A Pennsylvania retiree who took a bus to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech 46 years ago and is returning to see his own dream come true. A 13-year-old girl whose California school raised funds for her trip and who'll wear a sparkly inaugural gown donated by a bridal shop. A Massachusetts social worker whose volunteer work for Obama turned into a passion. And the daughter of a former president, who's been to so many inaugurations she can hardly count them, but is eagerly heading out into the cold for this one, too.

The Associated Press spoke to these four Americans as they prepared for their date with history.

James Jones knew Obama would win
It was last May, when Barack Obama was still battling Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. But James Jones, a retired schoolteacher and police officer in Philadelphia, apparently knew something the rest of us didn't.

And so his letter to Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey was brief and to the point. "I am a 73-year-old Black Man who participated in the civil rights movement," Jones began. "History will be made at the Democratic National Convention in Denver when Barack Obama will be the Democratic Presidential candidate. History will be made again for he will win in November. Will you PLEASE see that I get two tickets to attend this history making event."

It took a while, but Jones got the call about two weeks ago: The tickets were his.

Tuesday's trip will have a resonance for Jones that few can claim. One day in August 1963 he left his wife and kids at home and boarded a bus in Philadelphia headed for the March on Washington. There, he recalls now, "I heard a gentleman say, 'I Have a Dream.'"

"We were way, way back," he recalls. "We could see the Washington Monument, but not Martin Luther King." They could barely hear, either, except for snippets on a radio someone brought. "But just being there was important. It was electrifying."

Boarding the same bus back home, Jones and his fellow passengers exulted over what they'd heard. "We got on that bus and we were all elated, overjoyed," Jones says.

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But just wait 'til Tuesday, Jones says. "I've got an idea it's gonna feel better this time because I never dreamed this would ever happen," he says of the moment he'll witness a black man take the oath of office.

Not that Jones was a believer from the start. When Obama first declared he was running, "I said, I dunno, I don't think he can make it." But sometime later, he looked at a friend and said, "I think this may be it."

Jones, a widower, drove with a friend on Monday — Martin Luther King Day — to Washington, where he planned to spend the night with friends and take the Metro to the inauguration. There, Casey, whose staff showed him Jones' letter, hoped to meet him.

"My gosh, that letter was just infused with hope," Casey told The Associated Press. "In a few short words he captured not only the meaning of the election, but also the aspirations and hopes and dreams of so many in this country."

One thing Jones is counting on to be different than his 1963 trip: This time, he'll have a better view. "I think I'm a little closer than I was last time," he says.

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