Nine Years Gone (Part 2)

   I took over driving somewhere near Cleveland, in a light rain and headed south down I-71 towards Columbus.  The news was all  9/11 and speculation was rampant about what would happen next.  Rolling on with a feeling of  solidarity for other travelers, a sign outside Columbus proclaimed St. Louis 375 miles.  That would be a good days work, to make St. Louis and get some rest, over a thousand miles in about 24 hours.  Stops were for gas, coffee, candy bars, soda and bathroom breaks, just pit stops.  A tank of gas took us about four hours to burn and it was pedal to the metal all the way.

    Making St. Louis I was feeling pretty strong and figured to drive until exhaustion took over but with the ol' adrenaline pumping Kansas City was in my sights.  By now I felt like we were embracing the whole country with a hug of compassion.  Everyone had a story and mine was really kind of trivial compared to those trying to get home to their families; we rolled on.  Roaring by Arrowhead Stadium we were in the Sunflower State of Kansas and Denver was "only" 575 miles. If we drove until nightfall we would be just about there with a good leg up on this cross country journey.  Streaking across the heartland of Kansas, with its unending waves of grain, my ass was getting mighty sore in the smallish seat of the Trans-Am but we kept on truckin'.  Coffee, gas, take a leak and back on the road.  I-70 is awesome to drive here, straight and flat with the cruise control set at 85.  The Rockies came into view and looked amazing.  We were cookin' now so at the next pit stop I grabbed a twelve pack to celebrate since we would be stopping soon for some well deserved rest before continuing the next day.  Denver was beautiful in the setting sun, the wheels kept turnin', and suddenly we were at the top of the Continental Divide.  Man, that is one steep drop coming down the western flank of the Rockies and in the dark was pretty scary.  We just kept going sore ass not withstanding.  Crossing Colorado the exits became spaced further apart, the piss breaks more urgent so at the western end of the state we stopped in Grand Junction to get a room finally.  No room at the inns!  All filled up with worn out travelers so now what?  Yep, keep going on into Utah and pick up I-15 south to Las Vegas.  It was now around two AM and the exits were like 70 miles apart with not another soul to be seen.  We finally pulled into a rest area, locked the doors and slept fitfully for three hours.  As daylight broke it was time to get moving so we did.  15 was empty of any other vehicles in either direction and with the cruise set at 90 we passed through some of the most forbidding, beautiful landscapes it has ever been my privilege to see.

    Las Vegas is a huge city with gargantuan hotels but approached from the north its just a speck compared to the unending panorama of mountains and desert that surround it.  We had done it!  We rolled into Caesar's Palace at 11:30 Saturday morning weary but triumphant. 2500 miles in 48 hours!  Our room was ready so up we went, filled up the beautiful hot tub, ordered six Buds  from room service, soaked the road out of our bones, made love and crashed.   It was a somber Vegas as rumors swirled that the city was on the short list of terrorist targets.  With all the canceled travel plans employees in the hotels and casinos were being laid off in droves and those left standing were scared they would be next.  It was unreal.

    Sad to say but the shared experience of our epic journey turned out to be the high point of our marriage, within five years we were acrimoniously separated with hard feelings all around.  But I will always be grateful for the bravery and loyalty she showed in those days after 9/11.

Nine Years Gone (Part1)

    Reflecting back to September 11, 2001, watching archived news feeds from that fateful morning, brought back the feeling of stunned disbelief I felt that day.  The anger, confusion and shock we all felt came rushing back.  But rather than discuss and review the events of 9/11 I would like to relate my adventure of a few days after.  Looking back now it all seems a dream.

    I was, at the time, Secretary-Treasurer of the Tunnelworkers Local Union 88 out of Quincy, MA and as such was elected as a delegate to the Laborers' International Union of North America Convention in Las Vegas.  The Convention is a once every five year event where the Constitution of the Union is amended by vote of the 2,500 or so delegates.  It is a big deal.  The Convention was to open with a welcoming dinner on Saturday night September 15th.  I had already secured airline tickets for my wife and I to arrive on the 14th but in light of everything that happened I expected the Convention to be cancelled.  I called the Regional office to check and to my surprise was told that the Convention would go ahead as planned.  Of course all the airports in the country were closed so how was one to get his ass to Las Vegas from Quincy?  How about drive?

    With no flights and thousands of people stranded you know rental cars were scarce but after a few calls I managed to get the last car available in eastern Mass.  It was a Pontiac Grand-Am and it would have to do.  So about 11:00AM Thursday the 13th we picked the car up in Dedham and took the next exit to I-90 heading west to begin a cross country odyssey.  I told the wife if she got us past Buffalo (400 miles) I would take us the rest of the way.  She did better than that and got us past Buffalo and down I-90 almost to Cleveland.  The drive was surreal.  Every state's troopers were out in force and every other car you passed had a rent-a-car sticker on its back bumper.  Speed limits were not enforced by the police and zipping by the mounties at 80 MPH soon became the norm.  I thought for sure there would be roadblocks at some point as the whole country was on alert but so far that was not the case. We were all in this together.   Since this post is going to be kind of long I'll finish the story in a second post.