WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama followed the rails of history Saturday. His eyes sparkling and a huge grin breaking across his face, he waved to the thousands gathered as his shiny blue railroad car from the 1930s wound southwest from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. It was Obama's final journey to the nation's capital as the president-elect. Tuesday, his title is recast, and, in a time of economic peril and wars abroad, his challenge soars as he prepares to take the oath as the first African-American president of the United States.
President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden and their wives, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wave Saturday in Wilmington, Del. -- a stop on the train ride to Washington.
Among the signs along the tracks was a birthday greeting for future first lady Michelle Obama, who turned 45 Saturday. The crowds braved temperatures in the 20s.
"We need a new declaration of independence -- independence from ideology and small mindedness," Obama said, in kicking off his 137-mile, all-day journey from Philadelphia's 30th Street Station. "With this election, you provided once more that people who love this country can change it."
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