COLLEGE STATION, Texas – College Station Mayor Karl Mooney views former President George H.W. Bush’s final journey by train as a symbolic piece of American history that should not be missed.
“It’s a moment that needs to be etched in the memory of everyone who can make it here on Thursday,” Mooney said.
Channel 2 caught up with Liz Zemanek at the intersection of George Bush Drive and Wellborn Road.
“This is going to be very heart-wrenching for me,” she said.
Zemanek admits she came out 48 hours early to get an idea of potential vantage points. She wants to pay her proper respects to a man she met on the Texas A&M campus.
“I met him and Barbara many times when I was on campus,” she said.
A few miles down the road along Wellborn sits America’s Country Store. The train tracks across the street can be seen from inside the store.
“I’ve got friends asking me to save them a spot on the porch, save a spot in the parking lot,” said store owner Rabevra Ofczarzak.
Ofczarzak said there are plenty of opportunities along the rail line to witness Bush’s train heading into town. That being said, she does offer key advice: “Just get here early. I think there is going to be a huge crowd here.”
The train will pull into this temporary platform being constructed near Kyle Field. Coincidentally, near the end, it will roll right beside Blue Bell Park, home of the Texas A&M baseball team.
In 2016, the Aggies welcomed the president’s college team -- Yale -- for a commemorative series. A&M Manager Rob Childress finds it fitting that a baseball diamond will be at the end of the president’s final journey.
“It think it’s something that is going to mean an awful lot to a lot of people and most importantly his family,” he said.