Sunday September 11th, and we're waiting in last nights room for the staff to get the room we'll be in for the next few nights cleaned for this conference. Obviously the day is about remembering ten years ago. And we did remember how Monday, September 10th, 2001, we had driven up from spending the night in the Salt Lake City area to the Coeur d' Alene area on our way to Bonners Ferry, to see the property we'd gotten in 2000 but had not been able to drive up to see yet.
We'd made it to the Coeur d' Alene KOA, no longer there, and had spent the night at the KOA to make the two and a half hour last part of the drive the next day, the eleventh.
That morning, ten years ago today, was a Tuesday. We had gotten up and I was having breakfast and was listening to a local radio station in the 5th wheel trailer and Stacy was doing some cleaning. As I was listening the local DJs were talking about a plane hitting a building in New York. I recall they were talking like it was a 'War of the Worlds' kind of thing and didn't quite seem Iike it could be for real. So I told Stacy about it and turned on the little TV we had in the trailer to see if I could get any TV news about it. The KOA was in a little cut out of this mountain and back up close to the side so it turned out to be hidden from most of the station signals but the ABC station did come in, just very fuzzy.
So we started watching and listening to Peter Jennings talking about all that was happening in Manhattan and the World Trade Center. I put in a video tape and recorded an hours worth of the video from ABC. We had to get to Stacy's brothers property as our property at that time was too overgrown to get our trailer into the place. So we packed up and headed North, all the while trying to get any information we could about the events.
Thing was, then as now, not too many local radio stations to listen too as we got farther North. Only one am station in Bonners Ferry, even now. And at Stacy's brothers place he had no reception of TV or radio. So when there except at night when we could get 'skip' radio signals, we were out of the information loop.
It was quite a week, we found out later about the all flights stoppage, and that affected our area to get out of area news and magazines, so again we wanted to know but couldn't find out. XM was still over two years away for us and cellphones and Internet were nothing like they are now.
We were both really concerned about our son Sean as his first day in Marine Boot Camp had been the night of September 10th, and we knew there would be a retaliation to whoever had been involved in the planning of this attack. We worried that Sean, who had been very 'gung ho' to be a Marine in peacetime, would now be a Marine in wartime.
We found out later that none of the new recruits knew anything about the attacks for the first two months of Boot Camp. In the early part of basic you are totally cut off from outside contacts, and we guessed that even with an event like this one, they chose to stick with the training.
Thing I recall well were all the American flags out and on many cars and trucks, all the way back home to California. It was quite the thing to see all that US pride.
But that was then, now to get the rest of the recent trip to Missouri done.
So I left Missouri on Friday afternoon around 4:30 pm and drove via county roads to Salina, Kansas, arriving there about 8:00 pm. I wound up on those roads as my GPS unit had warned of 'toll roads' to Topeka and I had picked yes to avoid them. Except for the very hot temps, over 103 until it started getting towards sunset then it dropped into the 90s, it was a very interesting drive. As often is the case I got to see stuff most never get to as they're scooting along the interstates. How else would I ever have seen a clean and polished single passenger rail car sitting in a field all by itself? And why was it there?
Or the ranch that had a herd of Buffalo and sold Buffalo meat? I know in our area there used to be a place like that, that sold Elk meat and had a herd of Elk right near the highway. Wouldn't ever see it from the freeway. I just wish I could have stopped and taken photos of many of the old ranch buildings I also saw. There just wasn't any room to pull on the shoulder and although sparse, too much traffic to stop in the road and hop out to take the shot. And there were quite a few places I would have liked to get.
I did find it interesting that considering how the area was very flat, the cell coverage was not that great. Actually, I had no signal for much of the way that afternoon. It was never too bad on the freeway, but off the beaten path it went away quickly.
But that wasn't the case in Wyoming, when I went through Wyoming I had 'five bars' all the way, even way out miles from the nearest town. And so far out I couldn't even see where the cell towers could be but still I had great coverage!
As I got back to Wyoming and then Montana I got back into much cooler and dryer weather. That was really nice! It was also really smokey as I got close to Bozeman and West from there. Still smokey now from all the fires going in Montana, Idaho and Oregon.
The fuel got more expensive the week I was gone too. It had been about thirty cents a gallon less for diesel in Kansas and Missouri but had gone up ten cents a gallon locally to four nineteen and now four twenty-five a gallon.
I got through two of four parts of the twenty-eight hour audio book biography about the life of Howard Hughes that I listened too when there were no shows I listen too on XM satellite radio on at the time. And long, long days to cover over eighteen hundred miles in as fast as possible but having to be back before Tuesday. And I got back on Monday around noon as I had stopped to wash and fuel the truck in Sandpoint due to all the bugs I had collected on the truck.
So, back to work Tuesday and a lot has come in the week I was off. So several days to get caught up, but I have to take Stacy to Coeur d' Alene Tuesday night so first thing Wednesday morning she can catch a ride with another person for meetings in Boise till Friday at which time I will pick her up at the airport in Spokane.
Well with all the stuff that was going on last Friday, when I was supposed to leave at ten thirty to be able to be at the airport by one in the afternoon to get Stacy, I wound up not leaving until almost eleven thirty, so Stacy didn't get picked up till a little after two. Then we drove to a motel instead of going home to go have to go all the back the next day to Moscow for this conference.
And so here we are!
Now in the new room as I had to stop and help get us moved over. At least it was just across the hall. The place had been sold out yesterday due to a football game and so we knew we would have to move the next day. The motel wants to keep all the conference attendees in one section.
More later, Tad
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad2
We'd made it to the Coeur d' Alene KOA, no longer there, and had spent the night at the KOA to make the two and a half hour last part of the drive the next day, the eleventh.
That morning, ten years ago today, was a Tuesday. We had gotten up and I was having breakfast and was listening to a local radio station in the 5th wheel trailer and Stacy was doing some cleaning. As I was listening the local DJs were talking about a plane hitting a building in New York. I recall they were talking like it was a 'War of the Worlds' kind of thing and didn't quite seem Iike it could be for real. So I told Stacy about it and turned on the little TV we had in the trailer to see if I could get any TV news about it. The KOA was in a little cut out of this mountain and back up close to the side so it turned out to be hidden from most of the station signals but the ABC station did come in, just very fuzzy.
So we started watching and listening to Peter Jennings talking about all that was happening in Manhattan and the World Trade Center. I put in a video tape and recorded an hours worth of the video from ABC. We had to get to Stacy's brothers property as our property at that time was too overgrown to get our trailer into the place. So we packed up and headed North, all the while trying to get any information we could about the events.
Thing was, then as now, not too many local radio stations to listen too as we got farther North. Only one am station in Bonners Ferry, even now. And at Stacy's brothers place he had no reception of TV or radio. So when there except at night when we could get 'skip' radio signals, we were out of the information loop.
It was quite a week, we found out later about the all flights stoppage, and that affected our area to get out of area news and magazines, so again we wanted to know but couldn't find out. XM was still over two years away for us and cellphones and Internet were nothing like they are now.
We were both really concerned about our son Sean as his first day in Marine Boot Camp had been the night of September 10th, and we knew there would be a retaliation to whoever had been involved in the planning of this attack. We worried that Sean, who had been very 'gung ho' to be a Marine in peacetime, would now be a Marine in wartime.
We found out later that none of the new recruits knew anything about the attacks for the first two months of Boot Camp. In the early part of basic you are totally cut off from outside contacts, and we guessed that even with an event like this one, they chose to stick with the training.
Thing I recall well were all the American flags out and on many cars and trucks, all the way back home to California. It was quite the thing to see all that US pride.
But that was then, now to get the rest of the recent trip to Missouri done.
So I left Missouri on Friday afternoon around 4:30 pm and drove via county roads to Salina, Kansas, arriving there about 8:00 pm. I wound up on those roads as my GPS unit had warned of 'toll roads' to Topeka and I had picked yes to avoid them. Except for the very hot temps, over 103 until it started getting towards sunset then it dropped into the 90s, it was a very interesting drive. As often is the case I got to see stuff most never get to as they're scooting along the interstates. How else would I ever have seen a clean and polished single passenger rail car sitting in a field all by itself? And why was it there?
Or the ranch that had a herd of Buffalo and sold Buffalo meat? I know in our area there used to be a place like that, that sold Elk meat and had a herd of Elk right near the highway. Wouldn't ever see it from the freeway. I just wish I could have stopped and taken photos of many of the old ranch buildings I also saw. There just wasn't any room to pull on the shoulder and although sparse, too much traffic to stop in the road and hop out to take the shot. And there were quite a few places I would have liked to get.
I did find it interesting that considering how the area was very flat, the cell coverage was not that great. Actually, I had no signal for much of the way that afternoon. It was never too bad on the freeway, but off the beaten path it went away quickly.
But that wasn't the case in Wyoming, when I went through Wyoming I had 'five bars' all the way, even way out miles from the nearest town. And so far out I couldn't even see where the cell towers could be but still I had great coverage!
As I got back to Wyoming and then Montana I got back into much cooler and dryer weather. That was really nice! It was also really smokey as I got close to Bozeman and West from there. Still smokey now from all the fires going in Montana, Idaho and Oregon.
The fuel got more expensive the week I was gone too. It had been about thirty cents a gallon less for diesel in Kansas and Missouri but had gone up ten cents a gallon locally to four nineteen and now four twenty-five a gallon.
I got through two of four parts of the twenty-eight hour audio book biography about the life of Howard Hughes that I listened too when there were no shows I listen too on XM satellite radio on at the time. And long, long days to cover over eighteen hundred miles in as fast as possible but having to be back before Tuesday. And I got back on Monday around noon as I had stopped to wash and fuel the truck in Sandpoint due to all the bugs I had collected on the truck.
So, back to work Tuesday and a lot has come in the week I was off. So several days to get caught up, but I have to take Stacy to Coeur d' Alene Tuesday night so first thing Wednesday morning she can catch a ride with another person for meetings in Boise till Friday at which time I will pick her up at the airport in Spokane.
Well with all the stuff that was going on last Friday, when I was supposed to leave at ten thirty to be able to be at the airport by one in the afternoon to get Stacy, I wound up not leaving until almost eleven thirty, so Stacy didn't get picked up till a little after two. Then we drove to a motel instead of going home to go have to go all the back the next day to Moscow for this conference.
And so here we are!
Now in the new room as I had to stop and help get us moved over. At least it was just across the hall. The place had been sold out yesterday due to a football game and so we knew we would have to move the next day. The motel wants to keep all the conference attendees in one section.
More later, Tad
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad2
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