Today is one of those dates that the above question would mean something to almost everybody.
Tuesday September 11th, 2001 we woke up at the Coeur d' Alene K.O.A. a few miles east of the town. We'd gotten there the night before on our way to get the first look at our new Idaho property that had been bought the fall before. Stacy's father had done all the 'leg work' in getting the property and we hadn't been able to take the time off to go see it until that September. We'd left Phelan on Sunday the 9th so we could see off our son on the Saturday the 8th. Sean was waiting for his start in the marine corps. He left for San Diego on the 8th for his start, and went in at 12:00 midnight of the 9th to 10th. We'd spent the night of the 9th north of Salt lake City Utah and got to the CDA KOA Campground after sunset the 10th.
We were in our 5th wheel trailer, I was having breakfast, Stacy was in the front bedroom getting dressed and it was about 8:20 am Pacific time. This was before XM radio so I was listening to a local FM music station and an announcer came on and was taking with his co-host about a possible hoax about a plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center towers they were hearing about. A couple of minutes later they came back on and said it was not a hoax and that planes had hit both towers. At that point I told Stacy about it and we turned on the TV and I tried to get some news on the TV. Although sometimes fuzzy and distorted I got the area ABC channel and started to record what was happening with the built in VCR. We watched and I recorded about an hour of stuff. It's all on DVD now.
It was very surreal from that point on.
About 10 am now and we wanted to get to the property. We still had about over 2 hours to go to get there from where we were. In the campground several of the people there, and there weren't too many at the KOA, were huddled in groups talking about what was happening as we were hooking up to leave.
As we drove on north, we kept trying to find out any and all we could about what was happening in New York on the radio. When we got in our area, the property was too overgrown to get the trailer in so we had to go about a half hour farther to park at Stacy's brother place. That was where we'd be staying for this trip and driving to the property in the truck. At Scott's place he didn't have any TV, no cell coverage, and limited radio reception due to the area hills and mountains. The rest of the first day was spent talking about the events. That night in the 5th wheel we could pick up am radio "skip" and we listened to several stations from California to Canada and I recorded some of what we heard as the events of the tragedy were told.
The rest of our week there was spent working on the property planning things out, dreaming of how things could look. And still trying to get all the info we could about it all. We found out that all San Bernardino County offices had closed up and sent everybody home on the 11th. Our daughters were worried. Laura was just plain scared and at home alone and we were worried because of rumors we'd heard on the radio that another big city could still be hit. Sandy was attending USC then and you can't get much bigger than L.A.! And Sean, well, nobody in his training unit even knew anything about 9/11 for almost two months because of the training isolation.
I wanted to see a Time, or Newsweek, or USA today, anything! But we were told that with the national airspace closed down our little part of the world wouldn't be getting much from out of the area. I finally got (and still have) a People magazine that had photos and stories about the event. Just an incredible time. On the way home we were glued to the radio listening to Bush's "finest hours" as he read what his speech writers had written (he didn't even mess up!). As we got back towards California we saw more and more U.S. flags on cars, giant flags in the beds of pick up trucks, on big rigs, on skyscrapers, U.S. flags were being displayed everywhere!It gave incredible feelings of patriotism all around.
I remember the Challenger and the Discovery disasters, John Glenn in space, We watched the fuzzy black and white images of Apollo 11, and wondered with the class at Jr. High about Apollo 13. The funeral of JFK I was 5 but remember it because my mom was so upset by it. And other events I can't think of right this second. I got to hear the double sonic booms of the Space shuttle when it came back and would land at Edwards and I got to see twice, the Shuttle on the back of the 747 on its way back to Florida for another mission. Got to see the B-1 and B-2 bombers being flight tested over the desert. One time I was flying near Lancaster and a B-2 with fighter back up was doing maneuvers below me as I flew by above. That was a sight! Since I love aviation and flight, being near Edwards for almost 20 years was pretty interesting to see flights of fancy abound.
Well, enough of my memories, how about yours?
Type later, Tad.
Tuesday September 11th, 2001 we woke up at the Coeur d' Alene K.O.A. a few miles east of the town. We'd gotten there the night before on our way to get the first look at our new Idaho property that had been bought the fall before. Stacy's father had done all the 'leg work' in getting the property and we hadn't been able to take the time off to go see it until that September. We'd left Phelan on Sunday the 9th so we could see off our son on the Saturday the 8th. Sean was waiting for his start in the marine corps. He left for San Diego on the 8th for his start, and went in at 12:00 midnight of the 9th to 10th. We'd spent the night of the 9th north of Salt lake City Utah and got to the CDA KOA Campground after sunset the 10th.
We were in our 5th wheel trailer, I was having breakfast, Stacy was in the front bedroom getting dressed and it was about 8:20 am Pacific time. This was before XM radio so I was listening to a local FM music station and an announcer came on and was taking with his co-host about a possible hoax about a plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center towers they were hearing about. A couple of minutes later they came back on and said it was not a hoax and that planes had hit both towers. At that point I told Stacy about it and we turned on the TV and I tried to get some news on the TV. Although sometimes fuzzy and distorted I got the area ABC channel and started to record what was happening with the built in VCR. We watched and I recorded about an hour of stuff. It's all on DVD now.
It was very surreal from that point on.
About 10 am now and we wanted to get to the property. We still had about over 2 hours to go to get there from where we were. In the campground several of the people there, and there weren't too many at the KOA, were huddled in groups talking about what was happening as we were hooking up to leave.
As we drove on north, we kept trying to find out any and all we could about what was happening in New York on the radio. When we got in our area, the property was too overgrown to get the trailer in so we had to go about a half hour farther to park at Stacy's brother place. That was where we'd be staying for this trip and driving to the property in the truck. At Scott's place he didn't have any TV, no cell coverage, and limited radio reception due to the area hills and mountains. The rest of the first day was spent talking about the events. That night in the 5th wheel we could pick up am radio "skip" and we listened to several stations from California to Canada and I recorded some of what we heard as the events of the tragedy were told.
The rest of our week there was spent working on the property planning things out, dreaming of how things could look. And still trying to get all the info we could about it all. We found out that all San Bernardino County offices had closed up and sent everybody home on the 11th. Our daughters were worried. Laura was just plain scared and at home alone and we were worried because of rumors we'd heard on the radio that another big city could still be hit. Sandy was attending USC then and you can't get much bigger than L.A.! And Sean, well, nobody in his training unit even knew anything about 9/11 for almost two months because of the training isolation.
I wanted to see a Time, or Newsweek, or USA today, anything! But we were told that with the national airspace closed down our little part of the world wouldn't be getting much from out of the area. I finally got (and still have) a People magazine that had photos and stories about the event. Just an incredible time. On the way home we were glued to the radio listening to Bush's "finest hours" as he read what his speech writers had written (he didn't even mess up!). As we got back towards California we saw more and more U.S. flags on cars, giant flags in the beds of pick up trucks, on big rigs, on skyscrapers, U.S. flags were being displayed everywhere!It gave incredible feelings of patriotism all around.
I remember the Challenger and the Discovery disasters, John Glenn in space, We watched the fuzzy black and white images of Apollo 11, and wondered with the class at Jr. High about Apollo 13. The funeral of JFK I was 5 but remember it because my mom was so upset by it. And other events I can't think of right this second. I got to hear the double sonic booms of the Space shuttle when it came back and would land at Edwards and I got to see twice, the Shuttle on the back of the 747 on its way back to Florida for another mission. Got to see the B-1 and B-2 bombers being flight tested over the desert. One time I was flying near Lancaster and a B-2 with fighter back up was doing maneuvers below me as I flew by above. That was a sight! Since I love aviation and flight, being near Edwards for almost 20 years was pretty interesting to see flights of fancy abound.
Well, enough of my memories, how about yours?
Type later, Tad.
Comments
The CNN news was the usual "Stuff' until the words Breaking News came on. It was the usual speculation that CNN does when they know nothing-they talk endlessly about what they don't know.
I was close to switching to something else when an airplane appeared out of the corner of the view and started to turn. I knew it would have to damned low to make that type of shot since the view was of the lower floors of the buildings.
The the plane seemed to move in slow motion into the side of the building. I kept thinking,"This is good special effects" and then remembered, its the news. That is when I called for Camdin to get down stairs. As she was coming down the second plane hit the tower.
This was like an optical alusion as the plane dissapeared into the building and then liquid flames poured out the side. Thas when I realized that several hundred people were liquified along with the everything around them.
The worst outcome of the whole event was it allowed that retard jack-ass, Duba-Bush, to start two wars we will never finish gracefully and have lost like VietNam.This along with the respect of the world, our credibility as a people, our economy, education standards, and
self respect. All from a jack-ass who is all Hat and no Cows.