Christmas gift from children sent Powell couple to Donald Trump’s inauguration

Flying across the country, walking several miles around Washington, D.C., and standing for hours amid a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people was all worth it for a Powell couple who attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration Friday.

“It was marvelous, being in that crowd of Americans, watching this process,” said Colleen Anderson.

“It was just a humbling thing to do,” agreed her husband, Clarence Anderson.

Colleen said attending the inauguration would have been an honor no matter who was becoming president, because it’s about the process.

“Of course,” she adds, “am I tickled that it turned out the way it did? You bet I am!”

The trip to D.C. was a Christmas gift from the Andersons’ children — Jennifer Anderson and her boyfriend Mathew Hotovec and Stacie McClain and her husband Monte.

Stacie McClain said her mother “is a very politically minded woman, and the moment she heard Trump was running she was elated.”

“She (Colleen) is the biggest Trump fan I think God has ever created,” McClain said.

The children decided on the gift immediately after Trump’s Nov. 8 win.

“They (Colleen and Clarence) live to help other people — and not just Stacie and I … but for anybody,” said Jennifer Anderson. “They would drop anything to do anything for anybody else, and it was time that they got theirs.”

The children combined forces to book flights and a hotel room, secure inauguration tickets from U.S. Sen. John Barrasso’s office and get Colleen a new iPhone to document the event.

The Andersons flew out of Cody and stayed in Fairfax, Virginia — just outside the District of Columbia.

They left their hotel around 5:30 a.m. for Friday’s inauguration and navigated the unfamiliar D.C. public transportation system.

“We don’t have that kind of stuff here,” Colleen said.

Roughly 193,000 people had ridden the Washington Metro by 11 a.m. Friday, according to Metro statistics — the equivalent of about one out of every three Wyoming residents hopping on board.

Fortunately, the staff and riders on the Metro were courteous and helpful in directing the Andersons.

Tight security around the U.S. Capitol Building meant emptying everything out of their pockets; things were so strict that fruit was only allowed inside the area if it was sliced.

“There was no way a protester could get through this line,” Colleen said, adding, “They might have had their voices, but that’s all they would have had.”

The Andersons had no encounters with protesters during their trip, though “we heard a lot of comments (about protesters), and none of them were good,” Colleen said.

The couple had plenty of space during the inauguration, but it was a thick crowd. Once the event got going, it was difficult to even get to the bathrooms, Clarence said.

The Andersons met people from across the country — they stood near folks from New York, New Jersey, South Dakota, Colorado and Chicago, Illinois — and from Australia, Japan, England and Canada; those international visitors indicated they were pleased that the election turned out the way it did, Clarence said.

The Andersons were not the only Wyomingites in attendance; one was Gov. Matt Mead, there to welcome and get to know the new administration. Thirteen airmen from the Wyoming Air National Guard also helped provide security in the capital.

As ticket holders, the Andersons were toward the front of the crowd, but they were still well back, having to take in the inauguration on a large video board that was inconveniently blocked by a tree.

Despite that, “it was worth every minute,” Colleen said, to agreement from Clarence.

Colleen’s Christmas present included one of Trump’s famed “Make America Great Again” baseball caps, but, unlike many other attendees, she did not wear it to the inauguration and limited her Trump apparel to an inauguration T-shirt.

“We’re kind of opinionated, … but we kind of kept that to ourselves” leading up to the event, Clarence said.

Afterward, Colleen did buy more than $100 worth of “trinkets” — including a President Trump bobblehead. She plans to put it right next to her bobblehead of former President Barack Obama.

“But,” Colleen said, “Donald’s bigger.”