WASHINGTON -- It was a cold and crazy and chaotic day for Jerome Gill at the presidential inauguration.

But there was also joy. Pure, uncontrollable joy.

"It brought tears to my eyes," he said. "I got chills all through my body. It was just a moment of excitement."

Gill, who helped coordinate a bus trip to Tuesday's event, said the day could not have been more perfect. His group of 56 area residents stood toward the back of the massive crowd, but that didn't matter.

The sea of people was simply breathtaking, he said, and the power of the moment was overwhelming.

"It was just beautiful," he said. "It was absolutely beautiful."

C.J. Hague and Jake Miller had a slightly more harrowing inaugural experience. The pair had tickets to the Capitol lawn for the ceremony, but said they couldn't believe how difficult it was to use them.

The Goshen College students stood in line for more than three hours, only to find out they weren't really standing in a line at all.

There were no police officers or volunteers directing people to entry areas, they said. Even worse, the ceremony was about to start, and they were outside a ring of barriers where there were no video screens or speakers.

Finally, they said, someone pushed over a barrier, and they found a spot to stand just in time for the inauguration.

"It was frustrating, discouraging," Miller said. "But once the ceremony started it was very enjoyable."

While dealing with the mass of people was a hindrance at point, they said, it soon became something incredible.

"I would just turn around and look behind me and see the faces of people," Hague said. "There was just a sense of joy and hopefulness."

People from seemingly every state, every country were there, Miller said, and all for one reason.

"Lots of different languages were being spoken, lots of different colors of skin," Miller said. "Yet everyone's just excited about what's happening. Ready to move forward."

It certainly made for a marathon day -- the pair woke up around 3 a.m. and planned to attend a ball later in the evening. But for Hague, it was a day that made up for the last several years.

"This day and what this election has meant makes me feel a little more excited about this country," he said. "And you could see that in this crowd."