My September 11 Story

It was a beautiful fall day on Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula - not a cloud in the sky. My Sheltie companion Charlie and I were walking in a small park in a small town called Sister Bay. A man approached us across the parking lot and told me he had been watching TV in his motel room. He thought it was a movie about a burning skyscraper, like “The Towering Inferno” when an airplane hit the building next to it and he realized it was not a movie. The date was September 11, 2001 - the day everything changed.

I had left home the previous day on my way to a computer convention in Des Moines. Charlie and I would be spending a couple days with my cousin Bryan. We had come through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and had spent the previous night sleeping in my van in a campground. I had planned to ignore the news for a couple days and just relax and enjoy the journey. It would prove to be difficult.

As I walked back to the van that morning, my brain was filled with many conflicting thoughts. Would the convention still be held? Should I turn around and head back home? What will happen now? I decided to continue my journey and just take one day at a time. I did not turn on the radio. I stopped once for gas and saw many people watching TV inside the store. I did glance at it and saw the buildings burning. I paid for my fuel and left. On the way I noticed long lines at some gas stations. I looked at the prices to see if they were cheap but they were not. It took a while before I realized people were starting to hoard.

 I stopped for the night at a campground just before the Iowa border and the man at the office said “Well the World Trade Center is gone”. After getting to my campsite I finally took a look at TV and saw that plane hit that tower over and over again. That was enough for me and I went to bed.

The convention was canceled because nobody could fly. I did spend a couple days at Bryan’s house before heading back home. On the way back I saw many towns flying flags. My parents generation had Pearl Harbor and December 7 to remember. We have the World Trade Center and September 11. My hope is that future generations will not have a date like this to remember.

ON THE TRIP

I’ve been home for a while now and have had time to reflect on my latest journey. I’ve been asked why I didn’t stay away longer. Two reasons: (1) money and (b) my roommates. I do not live alone. My daily companions are Sadie, a canine and Twiggy, a feline. They are my friends and my responsibility. My thanks to sister Carolyn for keeping Sadie and to my neighbor and friend Joan for looking in on Twiggy. Also, I can eat so many restaurant meals and stay in so many motels, no matter how nice before I start to think about my own bed and my place in the woods and a grilled cheese sandwich at my table.

What I am considering for next year is renting a place for a month or so, probably in Florida. I’d take Sadie with me but I’m not sure what to do with Twiggy. Cats do not travel well and I’m not sure she would be happy anywhere but right here. The jury is still out on Sadie as far as travel is concerned. We have take a couple day trips with mixed results. She’s still quite young and may prove to be a good traveling companion. Time will tell. We may do a trip to the Upper Peninsula later this spring to see how it goes.

But I digress, as I always do. The trip was for the express purpose to do the Road Scholar program in Fernadina Beach which was five days. I spent another five days on the road, coming and going. As you should know by now, I don’t like freeways and sprawl and much prefer the back roads and old highways. William Least Heat-Moon called them “Blue Highways” in his wonderful book of the same name. It’s sort of a later-day “Travels with Charley” but without Charley. They are called blue highways because that is the color of secondary roads on the map.

In recent years I have flown to some destinations but I find the experience unsatisfactory. Being stuffed into an aluminum tube with a hundred other people after being treated like sheep and examined for contraband is not really my idea of having a good time. I’m funny that way. Besides, I think the journey is part of the total experience. I like to see the subtle changes in the climate and topography along the way. To see mountains loom in the distance from your windshield is to anticipate an adventure. I’m curious to see what is around the next curve and over the next hill.

I’ve been going south in the spring for many years. I like the climate and I like the people. There really is such a thing as southern hospitality. I think that have done a better job in preserving their culture and history than we in the north have. I especially like places that preserve some of the old south. I also think they have done a better job of integration than we have. I lived in the segregated south briefly back in the 50s. To go into a small town cafe and see blacks and whites together still gives me a thrill, knowing how conditions used to be.

There are still places, even in Florida that still are not overrun with tourists and condos and theme parks. I hate all that crap. I will not tell you where they are because I want to keep them a secret but you can find them if you look hard enough. Places where there are mom-and-pop cafes and motels and two-lane highways and a quiet dignity and charm that is uniquely southern. Those are the places I seek before they too disappear under the Walmarts and malls and fast food joints. That’s why I travel south. That and the spring weather. But don’t ask me to go there in summer!

Okefenokee Swamp

Yesterday to we took a bus up to the Okefenokee Swamp where we had a boat ride back into one of the areas of the huge park, which is the size of Rhode Island. We also took a walk on a 3/4 mile boardwalk back to an observation tower.

This morning I'll be checking out of my very nice room and it's back on the road, headed north. I'll be traveling the back roads of Georgia today, looking for more old buildings and stuff.

Today we took a trolley ride to a boat ride. The boat ride was around the island, which is surrounded by wilderness, mostly salt marshes and little island called hammocks. After the boat ride we had a nice lunch at the Harborside Grill. We got the afternoon off and I took a well-deserved nap. Tonight's dinner is a cookout at the hotel but I have a hankering for seafood so I think I'll skip the cookout and walk down to Slider's on the beach, which is about a block away. I hear they have real good margaritas.

HOLD THE FORT!

Today we took a trolley ride around the island and to the historic district. We had lunch at a local cafe and had time for a little shopping in the town. After lunch we visited a Civil War era fort and were given a guided tour by a reinactor who was very entertaining. Tomorrow we take a boat ride around the island and get a free afternoon. I plan to drink.

FANCY DIGS

After staying at cheap motels on the way down here, I was very surprised when I opened the door to my hotel room here at Marriot Residence Inn on Amelia Island. I don't normally comment on lodgings but I'll have to make an exception in this case. Simply put, this place is awesome! I might not ever go home except for the dog and cat I left behind.

Also you will notice that I'm using a different blog. This is one I had before on Blogger. I'm hoping it will work better with FB. Bear with me as I experiment.....