Over the past 24 hours, many Chicagoans and Illinoisans are heading home after traveling to Washington D.C. for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Earlier this week, WBEZ political reporter Ben Calhoun brought us the story of a group from Chicago. They’d traveled out on a bus, and ran into more than a little trouble.The group was part of a caravan of coach buses chartered by Chicago Congressman Danny Davis and was designated “bus number ten.”

Bus ten was repeatedly delayed by things like whiteouts and a six hour breakdown on the Pennsylvania turnpike. Yesterday, Ben joined the other passengers as they reboarded bus number ten-and started to reflect on their trip.

Bus number ten was supposed to start boarding in front of a Maryland hotel, starting at 7am on Wednesday morning.

It was supposed to leave at 10am.

All morning, other coach buses pulled up, loaded up, and left. But at 10:30, bus number ten was still missing and its passenger were milling around the hotel lobby.

CALHOUN: Where is bus 10?
TAPE: That’s the question we been asking.

No one seemed to know and people were getting antsy.

YORK: This has been ridiculous.  This has been the whole situation from day one with bus number ten.

Reginal York is a gym teacher in Chicago and was one of the people most irritated by the mishaps on the way down. It also turned out that York’s problems didn’t end after the chaotic journey of bus ten on Monday.

YORK: I didn’t get a chance to see anything.

After all the delays on the trip down, York said he got to his hotel so late, there was no time to sleep. A shuttle was supposed to pick people up and take them to the inauguration.

That shuttle never came.

York and others waited hours and finally took cabs and trains to get to the capitol, only to find out that police had decided the Mall was too crowded.

York and others watched the inauguration from a television.

CALHOUN: Okay, so here’s the question.  Was it worth it?
YORK: Honestly, no.  This trip was not worth it.  I could have stayed home and watched this historical event with my daughter on tv-or shared it with my students as they watched it at the school.  No this definitely has not been worth it.  I didn’t get a chance to see anything.  I just thought this was going to be one of those life-changing experiences I will always remember, but… I won’t forget it!  But it’s not going to be-I’m not going to remember it the way I wanted to remember it.

With bus ten no where to be found the group’s patience was straining. And then, all of a sudden, a rumor shot through the lobby.

CALHOUN: Wait.  What?!
TAPE: She better be playin.

Eyes rolled, shoulders dropped, some people just laughed.

TAPE: The rumor is bus ten broke down.

And just as tension seemed to be rising, that rumor turned out to be false.

TAPE: Bus ten!  Bus ten!  Bus ten loading. 

As people took their seats on the bus, conversations started to unfold.

People tried to make sense of the trip.  They talked about the weather, the breakdowns, the miscues, and the missed opportunities. Some people got philosophical.

JOHN PETERS: I’m always a realist.  I think whatever can go wrong will go wrong-and you have to plan for every little bit.
BRIAN BOLTON: I’m not going to not say there’s not some of that but also, there’s certain things you can’t plan for.

Pastor James Wiggins look at it from a spiritual perspective.

WIGGINS: We can grow from this experience.  I’ve grown since I’ve been on here.  I said, “God, why did you put me in the midst of here.”  “I want you to see, I want you to understand, that these are my people.

By the time bus number ten actually hit the road, it was closing in on twelve noon-meaning the bus was two hours behind from the start.

TV: Excuse me. We kind of want to get this thing moving, this party jumping.

As bus ten climbed back towards the mountains of Pennsylvania, people watched movies and reruns of sitcoms.

But even with everything going relatively smoothly, previous mishaps continued to hang over the bus.

STANDUP: So I’m standing in front of bus number ten, which is stopped at a rest stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  From what I can tell, it’s right across the turnpike from the rest stop where we got stuck on Monday night for several hours.  To give you a sense of how people on the bus are feeling-I heard a couple people bet that once they get back into town, they’re going to have to go straight into work in the morning.  They’re just that confident that something else is going to go wrong on this trip.

The passengers of bus ten, watched movie after movie, hour after hour. Many were visibly tired and drifted in and out of sleep.The sun dimmed as Pennsylvania turned into Ohio, Ohio turned into Indiana.

Until one of the trip organizers announced bus ten would be making its final rest stop. The bus eased off the interstate in Indiana, and people started climbing down and out into the parking lot.

JOHNSON: Hi I’m Nina Johnson Jalil

This was when Nina Johnson Jalil pulled me aside. I’d met her on the bus ride out to D.C. when I asked her if she’d talk to me tape.

At the time, Johnson-Jalil said she wanted time to collect her thoughts. Standing amid a forest of idling semi-trucks at the rest stop, she told me she was ready to talk.

JOHNSON: I’ve got these two pages.

Johnson Jalil smiled as she held up two hand written pages, and tilted them towards the headlights so she could see what she’d written.

JOHNSON: To have been among the ten bus loads of people, traveling to Washington D.C. for the inauguration, the inauguration, mmm, of President Barack Obama.  The inauguration of justice.  The inauguration of diversity.  The inauguration of inclusion.  The inauguration of hope.

Johnson-Jalil quoted the Bible and the president. She talked about the history behind Obama’s election, about campaigning for him in the freezing cold in Iowa.

JOHNSON: We came for the inauguration, but we have gotten so much more.

Here’s the thing.  It turns out that Johnson-Jalil didn’t even get to see the inauguration.When I asked her where she’d watched it from, she explained that she’d tried to get to the capitol by train-and couldn’t.

After traveling more than 700 miles over the course of 2 days, Johnson-Jalil ended up watching the inauguration on a television in the lobby of her hotel.

So I asked her.

CALHOUN: Would you still go to Washington again, if you had the choice?
JOHNSON: Absolutely.  Absolutely!  It’s all worth it.  I think about my son.  I have a ten year old son.  I believe.  I believe.  I really believe.

Bus number ten eventually returned to the parking lot it left 3 days earlier. It pulled in just before midnight last night. Shortly after Barack Obama completed his first full day as President of the United States.

Early enough so that all of its passengers could get some sleep before going back to their regular lives in Chicago.

Related: The Saga of Bus Number Ten- Part I