Obama fans get creative to attend inauguration

Bob and Ty Johnston volunteered on the Obama presidential campaign, canvassing door to door, distributing fliers to commuters, and holding a fund-raiser in their Sharon home that featured Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama's brother. So they weren't about to miss seeing their man inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States.

They got their Amtrak tickets. And then they got a sobering lesson in the law of supply and demand: The hotel they contacted was $150 a night on Jan. 16. On Jan. 17, it leaped to $750 a night, with a four-night minimum. "And that's not even in D.C.; it's in Virginia," said Bob Johnston, a partner in The Visterra Group, a management consultant firm.

So he sent an e-mail to acquaintances in Washington offering a week at the couple’s Martha’s Vineyard home for four nights in the Washington area. Next Saturday the Johnstons will settle into a Capitol Hill condo with their new best friends, whom they've never met. The deal includes a guest room; the condo owners will be in residence.

"We’re the luckiest people I know," said Bob.

The Johnstons are indeed lucky. Throughout the Boston area, throngs are making their way to Washington for the historic Jan. 20 inauguration. But because more than 2 million people are expected, many hopefuls are flying into distant airports and staying at overpriced motels from Baltimore to Richmond.

And few visitors have scored a ticket to any of the events. The 5,000 tickets for a guaranteed spot along the parade route were sold out almost immediately after they went on sale for $25 apiece yesterday. Even Barack Obama’s volunteer coordinator for Boston is winging it.

"I'm staying on my neighbor’s daughter's couch," said Julianna Bruce of Jamaica Plain. ‘‘Most people have no idea how they will actually spend their time once they are down there; it’s a lot of spontaneous folks with confidence that anywhere and everywhere will be fun."

That would include Robin Saunders and Jacques Wells of Jamaica Plain, who volunteered for Obama. The day after the election, they booked 50 rooms for fellow supporters at a Holiday Inn in Washington. At the time, the rooms were $140 a night. Two weeks later, the hotel called: The rooms were now $400 a night, with a four-night minimum. And they had to immediately put down a $9,000 deposit.

It was time for Plan B: "The Celebration Bus," a de-facto motel-on-wheels.

Saunders and Wells hired a bus for anyone interested that will leave Boston at midnight Jan. 19, arriving in Washington at 8 a.m. on Inauguration Day. Obama will be sworn in at 11:30 a.m., and a parade will follow. Late that night, the bus will depart, with a 6 a.m. arrival time back in Boston. In other words, two back-to-back "red eyes." The cost for each person is $129, which includes a buffet dinner en route home.

The Rev. Susan Criscione bought seats on the bus with a friend and their young sons, ages 6 and 7.

"The hotels were all gone or they had outrageous prices," said Criscione, director of Renewal House, a shelter for abused women in Dorchester. Criscione knows there will not be much sleep for two nights but is not concerned. "I want to be there, and I want my son, when he's 40, to be able to say he saw Barack Obama inaugurated."

A group of 170 from Hingham Middle School -- 152 of them eighth-graders, the rest chaperones -- is leaving Jan. 18 by bus, returning the day after the inauguration. They will stay at the Marriott Courtyard in Baltimore. On Inauguration Day, they’ll leave their hotel at 5 a.m. and take the train from College Park, Md., to the National Mall, where giant screens will broadcast the inauguration.

"It's a long day, and I’ve told them to dress as if we’re going skiing," said history teacher Jen Larose, 26.

At Fenway High School, 15 students were chosen -- based on academics and essays -- to go to Washington, along with five teachers. They are taking a bus and staying at a Microtel Inn in Linthicum, Md. They have no tickets to events, but on Inauguration Day they plan to "get into D.C. at 6 in the morning and start walking," said teacher Rawchayl Sahadeo.

Nathaniel West, a 16-year-old junior at the Boston pilot school, will be on the bus, thanks to a grant from Tufts University. A year ago his family of six was homeless; they had been relocated by social services to a motel after the house they lived in was condemned. Now he is going to Washington.

p>"I'm a black male, and I want to say I was there when the first black took the oath as president of the United States," West said.

Michelle and Dana Harrell are longtime Obama supporters who live in Milton. In addition to being part of history, Michelle wants to go to Washington to collect T-shirts from vendors for the "Obama quilt" she is making. The couple can stay with her best friend in Arlington, Va. But every day, Michelle gets updates from her friend: It’s going to be a madhouse. You might have to walk miles. There will be 6,000 portable toilets.

"When I hear stuff like that, I think, I have a better seat at home," said Harrell, a social sciences professor at Roxbury Community College. "I'm very much up in the air."

She's inspired, she says, by the example of an elderly friend in South Carolina. "On Inauguration Day, she's going to get up, put on her best suit, her fur, her panty hose, heels, and gloves, and she's going to sit in her living room and watch the inauguration," Harrell said. "Then she's going to take a nap. After dinner, she'll put on her long formal gown, her makeup and her jewelry, sit in her living room and watch the ball." The old woman told Harrell's sister she could join her -- provided she was properly attired.