Today was the Inauguration ceremony for Texas Governor, Rick Perry, and Lieutenant Governor, David Dewhurst. Rick Perry has served since December 2000, taking over before George W Bush became president. He is the longest-serving current US governor and also holds the record as the longest-serving governor in the history of the state of Texas.

I’ve never been to an inauguration. I decided to run up to the capitol (literally) for one hour between work phone calls.

The Texas A&M band was playing the Star Spangled Banner as I arrived at the capitol grounds. Police were everywhere but there were no checkpoints to pass through. Texas legislatures, dignitaries, the A&M band and who-knows-who-else were seated in chairs surrounding the stage. The general public stood a fair distance away from the stage. 

After brief introductions, David Dewhurst was sworn in. He was a polished, practiced speaker but his speech seemed too long. Perhaps I was impatient since I was watching the time.

I only heard about five minutes of Rick Perry’s speech since I had to run back down Congress Avenue (literally) to get back to work. I was sorry to miss the free barbeque lunch afterwards – it smelled good!