4 days of events honoring former President George H.W. Bush

HOUSTON -- Former President George H.W. Bush will be honored during several public and private events in Houston and Washington before his burial Thursday in Texas.

Four days of events for Bush, who died Friday at age 94, include a state funeral at Washington's National Cathedral, a private service at his longtime church in Houston and public viewings in both cities. He will be buried next to his wife, Barbara, and their daughter, Robin, who died in 1953.

Here are details about the events:

Transport from Houston to Washington

Bush's body will be transported by a motorcade this morning from a Houston funeral home to Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, a Texas Air National Guard base. The casket will be loaded onto a plane during a departure ceremony scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. CST and flown to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Relatives accompanying the casket will include his sons, former President George W. Bush and Neil Bush, along with members of their immediate families. The rest of the Bush family is expected to be at Joint Base Andrews when the body arrives.

State funeral in Washington

In Washington, Bush will lie in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol from at 7:30 p.m. EST today until at 8:45 a.m. EST on Wednesday. His casket will be transported by motorcade Wednesday morning to the National Cathedral, where a state funeral will be held at 11 a.m. EST. President Donald Trump, who ordered federal offices closed Wednesday for a national day of mourning, is to attend with first lady Melania Trump.

Return to Houston

Following the service at the National Cathedral, Bush will be flown to Houston on Wednesday with a scheduled arrival of around 4:30 p.m. CST. His body will be transported by motorcade to St. Martin's Episcopal Church, where he and his wife regularly worshipped. A public viewing of Bush's casket will be held at the church from 6:45 p.m. CST on Wednesday until 6 a.m. CST on Thursday.

On Thursday, a private funeral service with about 1,200 invited guests will be held at the church starting at 10 a.m. CST. After the hour-long service, a motorcade will transport Bush's casket to a train station north of Houston, near the international airport named after Bush.

A ceremony will be held at the train station as Bush's casket is loaded onto a Union Pacific train. The train will take about 2 1/2 hours to travel roughly 70 miles to the city of College Station, home to Bush's presidential library at Texas A&M University.

The locomotive has been painted the colors of the Air Force One plane used during Bush's presidency and bears the number "4141" in honor of the 41st president. The casket will be in a car with Plexiglas windows to allow people to see it during the trip, according to family spokesman Jim McGrath.

Burial in College Station

The train is scheduled to arrive in College Station around 3:45 p.m. CST on Thursday. Bush's casket will then be transported by motorcade to the presidential library, where he will be buried at the gated family plot near his wife and their daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia at age 3. Barbara Bush died April 17 at their Houston home. The couple was married for 73 years, longer than any other U.S. presidential couple.

Ceremonies at the presidential library will include a missing man formation flyover. The casket will then be rolled along a path through woods, over a bridge and over a creek for burial during a private graveside service with Bush's family.

See AP's complete coverage of George H.W. Bush here: https://www.apnews.com/GeorgeHWBush

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at www.twitter.com/juanlozano70