Obama's Whistle Stop Tour This Saturday

Our next new writer is Jim Yi, who spends his days battling traffic on the Schuylkill to get to and from his job in King of Prussia as a Software Engineer. He spends the rest of his time playing Rock Band, watching Gossip Girl, and secretly wishes he was as smart as Chloe on 24 (don’t we all?). Jim has lived in Austin, Houston, Chicago and New Orleans, but Philly is now happy to have him. Welcome Jim!

President-elect Barack Obama will be making an appearance in Philadelphia this Saturday, January 17, to begin his whistle stop tour to Washington D.C. Obama's tour will mimic the whistle stop tour of Abraham Lincoln, who held events in Philadelphia on his tour to Washington in 1861. Obama has invited 18 "everyday Americans" on board to join him on his one-day trip to kick off a week of inauguration events.

The event will be held in the North Waiting Room at 30th Street Station at 10:05 AM. Afterwards, Obama will board a train with the selected everyday Americans and continue his tour onto Wilmington, where he will pick up Vice President-elect Joe Biden. He will make one more stop at Baltimore before finally arriving at Washington on Saturday night.

Tickets are required for the Philadelphia event and have already been distributed, so if you don't have tickets, you can head down to Wilmington or Baltimore where the events are open to the public. If you decide to make the trip to Wilmington or Baltimore, Obama does ask that you bring a can of food to support their canned food drive.

The itinerary of his tour is as follows:

Philadelphia - tickets required
Location: North Waiting Room, 30th Street Station
Time: 10:05 AM

Wilmington - open to public
Location: Back of Wilmington Train Station, 100 South French Street
Time: 1:00 PM (Doors open 9:30 AM)

Baltimore - open to public
Location: War Memorial Plaza, 101 N. Gay Street
Time: 4:15 PM (Doors open 1:00 PM)

Image Credit: Flickr user jasondymond