DALTON, Ga. — Many view the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump as the triumph of years of effort of citizens such as themselves working to elect a Republican president. Others see it as part of the genius of a democratic republic that allows a peaceful transition of power in the highest office of the land.

But more than 50 residents of the Dalton area agree that it will be a moment of history they want to witness themselves, and they will be traveling together in charter buses later this week to Washington, D.C., to see Trump’s inauguration on Friday.

Dianne Putnam, Whitfield County Republican Party chairman, is one of the organizers of the caravan. A veteran Republican Party activist and tea party member, Putnam has been to Washington, D.C., several times. But this time will be particularly sweet.

“I’ve been there before with groups of conservatives, rallying for a cause, to voice our concerns about things that were taking place in the Obama administration,” said Putnam, a longtime resident of Dalton. “But now, we are going back in victory.”

She admits that the last eight years have sometimes been frustrating. Grassroots efforts to keep Congress from approving the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, failed. When Republicans gained control of Congress in 2010, they were unable to repeal the law. Obama won re-election in 2012.

“But we didn’t act like the Democrats. We didn’t cry. We didn’t need sedatives. We made our opinions known, but nobody got arrested. We didn’t threaten anyone or harm anyone,” she said.

Putnam served as an alternate delegate from Georgia during the GOP convention that nominated Trump as the party’s presidential candidate last year.

“That was so exciting, to be there when he received the nomination,” she said. “But to be there when he takes the oath of office, that’s something I’ve been looking forward to seeing for so long. It’s going to be such a moment.”

Putnam became a bit of a celebrity herself at the convention, where she was interviewed by 14 different media outlets. And at a meeting with others going on the trip last Thursday, she informed them that Fox News would be sending a team down to join them when they leave from Marietta on Wednesday to follow them through the inauguration weekend.

Putnam said she would have supported the Republican nominee no matter who it was but supported Trump from the start.

“He was his own man. He had the courage to stand up to the political establishment and call them out,” she said. “I would have worked for any of the other 16 Republican candidates, but not with the enthusiasm that I did for Trump. I’m so excited to be going.”

Marsha K. Wilson delivered the prayer when Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, made a campaign stop in Dalton last year.

“The day after the election, I just felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and the people I’ve spoken to say they feel the same way,” she said. “This is going to be well worth the journey.”

MaKray Kyer’s great-grandfather, Jerry Albertson, was a Whitfield County commissioner for 16 years, so he might have politics in his blood.

“But it was really during Obama’s run for a second term that I really started paying attention, and I just thought that this country isn’t going in the direction it needs to go,” said the Dalton State College sophomore. “When Trump came on the scene, I was on board from the very beginning.”

Kyer said that he was hopeful that Trump would win, but he said after he heard Wilson’s prayer at the Pence rally that he really came to believe Trump would win.

Gavin Thompson, a freshman at Dalton State College, says he, too, has had a passion for politics since he was a child. Though he supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during the Republican presidential primary, he quickly got behind Trump once he became the GOP nominee.

Both admit their support for Trump makes them outliers at Dalton State College.

“You don’t see a lot of Donald Trump bumper stickers,” said Thompson. “You see more Bernie Sanders supporters. I’d say there was more support for Bernie than Hillary.”

This will be the first presidential inauguration for both.

“For someone with an interest in politics, just to be in Washington for an event like this is exciting,” Thompson said.

But it has to be even more exciting when it’s a candidate they worked to elect who is being sworn in, right?

“Oh, definitely,” said Thompson.

While Kyer and Thompson are relative newcomers to politics, Larry and Naomi Swanson helped form the Dalton Tea Party in 2009 and Naomi is still its coordinator. In the early days of the tea party movement, it attracted huge crowds at rallies in Washington, D.C., and other cities across the country, and the Swansons often took part in those rallies. Those large rallies eventually faded, but the Swansons say the tea party didn’t go away.

“When we lost on Obamacare, a lot of people just went away,” Naomi said. “But the tea party didn’t go away. We focused on community meetings, community education, grassroots activity. And Donald Trump is as close to that grassroots movement as anyone I’ve seen. He is anti-establishment.”

The Swansons say that returning to D.C. for the inauguration feels like the payoff for almost a decade of struggle. Back in 2009, they joined a group of fellow conservatives to call on Congress not to approve Obamacare. That effort did not succeed. But this week they will return to D.C. with fellow conservatives to watch the inauguration of a president they worked to elect who promises to repeal and replace that law, with a Congress already working to put a repeal measure on his desk.

Emily Stephens, 14, will be traveling to the event with her family.

“I’m looking forward to seeing history being made and being part of that history,” she said. “That seems really cool.”

Her mother Tammy said Emily and her brother Ellis stayed up late watching the election results. The next morning, on the way to school, the young boy asked, “What happens next?”

“That’s when we decided that we wanted to do this, so I called my husband (Chris),” she said. “He said, ‘Seriously? OK, let me call my friends.’ He has high school friends from Ohio who live in D.C. It all took about 10 minutes. I’ve never been active in politics before. But there was so much excitement around the election this year, so much hope, and I want my kids to see that hope.”

This will be Rosie Mosteller’s second presidential inauguration.

“I was in the inaugural parade in 1965 (when Lyndon Johnson was inaugurated) when the Dalton High band marched in the parade,” she said.

“My grandson Levi has been such a big Trump supporter since the beginning. He’s 19, and he was so excited when Trump won,” she said. “He said he wanted to go, and when I talked to Dianne and found out about the buses going up, I texted him and said, ‘How serious are you about going?’ and he said he’d been searching online for a way to get there. I told him that we could get spots on the bus. I’m so excited for him because this is so important to him.”