ski

September 11th, 2001
On the way home...

My ticket on Delta from Anchorage to Salt Lake City, Utah.

My flight home left Anchorage at 12:30 a.m. for an overnight trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. There I had a brief layover and would take off for Dallas, then finally XNA (home airport) by 2:30 p.m. The flight went fine and smooth. I managed to sleep for a few hours. When I awoke the sun was coming up and I could see the Salt Lake below. It was 7 a.m. Utah time.

Little did any of us know, two planes had just crashed into the World Trade Center. It occurred just as moments before we landed in Salt Lake City (8:45-9:03 am NY Time). The pilot did not tell us of the events on the ground. Perhaps he didn't know. And even when everyone disembarked from the plane the airport still did not tell us anything! The TV's in the terminal waiting areas were playing the weather and entertainment news. It wasn't until I wandered up the hall to a Cafe that I saw the news playing on a television set. I was stunned to see both Towers boiling with smoke and fire. Peter Jennings played the footage of the second plane hitting the tower several times. A small crowd gathered to watch the TV set too. All of us were aghast!

Suddenly President Bush broke in on all TV sets in the airport with his short speech. It was 7:30 am. Suddenly everyone was aware that something was going on, but not sure what. Then the airport turned all the televisions in the airport off! The screens went blank! But crowds quickly moved into the nearby Cafe's to watch the news from there. People were on their cell phones too calling friends and family to find out what was going on.

More 9.11 pictures

At 8:00 a.m., just as I was supposed to board my plane for the flight to Dallas, the airport announced all flights would be delayed at least one hour. Then until noon. Then until at least 5 p.m. Then the World Trade Centers collapsed while we watched it live on TV. Then the airport announced everyone had to move to the baggage claim area and retrieve their baggage. They then announced the airport was closing and everyone had to leave.

On one hand I was actually relieved that I wasn't flying right away. The thought of getting on an airplane made me kind of worried. There was talk of more terrorists being in the air and mass plane crashes around the country. But on the other hand, I had to deal with the immediate problem of finding someplace to go for the night. I didn't have much money (spent it all in Alaska!) and didn't have a clue how to get around in Salt Lake City.

As the airport cleared, pockets of confused looking people were scattered around the baggage area. I still didn't know what to do and was feeling pretty exhausted by now. I had traveled 8 hours by train then 5 hours by plane, and now had to navigate through this chaos - all with only a few hours of sleep! I finally just found a corner and laid down in the floor!

Well, as fate would have it, about 10 feet away an amazing lady was talking with a small cluster of people. I thought they all knew each other, but it turns out they were all strangers and this lady (Gail Winegar) was asking people if they needed help. She lived in Salt Lake City and had just come down to the airport to see if she could be of any assistance to people. She came over and offered assistance to me and another guy standing nearby. Turns out she loaded all of us (6 people) in the Suburban and took us to her house! Her name was Gail Winegar and, as we learned later, her family owned a chain of grocery stores in Utah that known as "Winegars".

What a God-Send! We were each able to make phone calls, clean up, and make plans for getting home. Two of the women from Montana were on their way to Hawaii, but they cancelled their trip and had a friend from a neighboring city drive over and pick them up. Another guy, the lawyer, was on his way to Boston but he managed to get a hotel. The remaining 3 of us (Katey, Dave, and myself) took up Gail's offer to spend the night. She prepared beds for us and even allowed me to do some laundry (I had run out of clean clothes).

The next morning we each managed to get through to Delta and reschedule our flights. The news was saying the airports would open up again by 5 p.m. So we breathed a sigh of relief and decided to see some sights of Salt Lake City. We visited the Mormon Church headquarters, saw where the Tabernacle Choir sings, and watched a couple of nifty movies about the Church and its history and beliefs. It was a nice day, but we each kept our eyes on the skies to see if any planes were flying yet. By 5 pm no planes were in the air and we knew we were going to be stranded for an indefinite amount of time.

So we each decided to find an alternative way home. Katey managed to contact a friend in town and went to stay with her. Dave and I called rental car places, the train station, and Greyhound to try and find the cheapest transportation out of town. Finally we decided on Greyhound. It was $129.00 for a one way ticket to Fayetteville, Arkansas and would take 34 hours to get there. 34 hours! Ohmigod! But it was my only choice, so I took it.

Dave and I actually were on the same bus at the same time even though he was going to Albuquerque New Mexico. So it helped having someone on the bus I knew. Plus I met a woman going to Arkansas on the same bus, so at least we had a common goal to give each other moral support. Her name was Paula and she is a doctor in Little Rock. We left SLC at 10:30 pm on Wednesday September 12th.

The Bus ride was miserable! It was totally packed with airport refugees trying to get home. It was impossible to rest because you had to sit up the entire time, and the bus was constantly wobbling and bouncing. Some guy behind me kept kicking my seat over and over. I remained fully awake that entire night.

At 5 a.m. we stopped in Grand Junction, Colorado to service the bus and get a new bus driver. That's when the nightmare really started. Our new bus driver was a rude, hostile Hispanic guy who apparently had no concern for the safety or comfort of his passengers. He was a walking example of Latin machismo at it's worst. As we filed off the bus, he jumped on and honked at everyone to get out of his way. When an elderly gentleman didn't get out of his way quick enough, the driver literally lurched the bus forward at the old man! Later, the old man gave that driver a piece of his mind.

Then when the driver came back with the bus, he had moved mine and Paula's stuff one seat back. We had been sitting in the front seat directly behind the driver. The view was good and there was a little extra room to stretch out our legs. But he moved our stuff and put his stuff there instead. When I mentioned we were sitting there, he refused to let us sit there again. He claimed that is where he needed to put his 'personal stuff' (rather than put it in the bins overhead).

We loaded up and headed south toward Albuquerque. Yes, in order to get to Arkansas from Colorado we had to go waaaaay out of the way to New Mexico then across to Texas and Oklahoma. How retarded is that? Well, anyway, the driver didn't speak to anyone. He didn't bother to tell us how far it was until our first break, or whether we'd even get one. Only when someone finally asked when we were going to stop for breakfast did he bother to speak.

Things got worse as the day wore on. He was driving recklessly and passing numerous vehicles including tractor-trailer rigs. Several times he attempted to pass a vehicle without being able to see what was coming over the next hill or around the next corner. Then we came to Durango Pass in Colorado. Lord help us! This steep, curvy road has no guard rails and is certain death is you drive over the edge. Our driver was going as fast as he possible could through every turn. Up one mountain and down the other side. Then up again...

As we came zooming down the next mountain, I saw a sign whip by saying speed limit 40 mph. In that same instant, a buzzer went off and a little green read-out on his console said "The Bus is exceeding 75 mph". We blazed up behind another tractor-trailer rig and immediately he whipped the bus into the left-lane to try and pass. It was a blind curve and he absolutely could not see what was coming up. It was at this moment that I decided to speak out about his driving.

I said “Sir, would you please slow down!”. He looked up at me in the mirror with a dumbfounded look on his face and muttered “huh?”

“You need to slow down and start driving safe. You are going 75 in a 40 mph zone and you keep trying to pass on blind curves!”

He immediately began arguing with me in a arrogant tone and said “I have been driving this route for 5 years…” holding up 5 fingers. I interrupted “You are not driving legally and putting us in danger. Slow down and start obeying the traffic laws!”

“Nobody tells me what to do!” he blurted back.

I said “Hey, I bought a ticket on Greyhound and I expect you to get us home safely. Don’t forget many people on this bus have been through a harrowing experience with the airlines and are already stressed out. You need to stop worrying about your schedule and just get us home safely.”

He protested “I know what I am doing…”

“It doesn’t look like it to me.” I said. “Your driving is making me nervous.”

“Oh, my driving is making everyone nervous?” he said in a sarcastic tone.

“I don’t speak for everyone, just myself. And your driving is making me nervous. Just slow down and start obeying the law!”

Again he muttered, “Nobody tells me what to do!”

The other passengers nearby hushed me saying not to push the driver too far or it might make him worse. So I didn’t say anything else to the driver from then on. He did slow down for the remainder of the trip and seemed to drive safer. Although I noticed he didn’t stop while crossing two railroad tracks. He merely slowed down to about 15 mph, looked both ways, then moved on.

We finally made it to Albuquerque alive, but it was here that our luggage got shuffled around. No one would give Paula and I a clear answer on where our luggage was, they just hustled us on to another bus and assured us everything was okay. Well, it wasn't. As we both learned later, Greyhound had absolutely no idea where our luggage was and had no way to track it. It was just on a bus somewhere going to destinations unknown.

Next stop Amarillo. At this point, I decided to take some Dramamine and hopefully get so drowsy I would sleep through the last part of the trip. Good plan! It worked. I fell asleep shortly after we left Amarillo and didn't wake up until we were inside OK City limits. But I was so groggy that I couldn't muster enough cognitive though to ask about my luggage again. Or even worse, I didn't even get to say goodbye to Paula my travel partner. I saw her board the bus next to mine and in a flash it was on its way to Little Rock. Mine left a few minutes later for Tulsa. Again I fell asleep and didn't wake up until we were pulling into the Tulsa Greyhound. We switched busses and off we go again toward Fayetteville, Arkansas.

On September 14th I arrived home at 8:30 a.m. To add insult to injury, we were only a half mile from the bus station when the driver decided we would stop at a McDonalds. Aaargh! I just want to go home! Now I have to wait for him to fetch his Egg McMuffin! After about 15 minutes of doddling, we finally drove on over to the bus station. Jim was there waiting, but my luggage was no where in sight. How bad does Greyhound suck? Let me count the ways...

After many phone calls, my luggage finally showed up the next day. I never learned exactly where it had been. But it was all there and I could finally collapse and get some rest. On this trip I experienced many extremes. One week I had everything handed to me on a silver platter aboard the cruise ship, but the next week I was herded into a crowded bus like a jersey cow. On the ship, it was luxurious living with gracious hosts and excellent service. In the bus stations, it was disgustingly dirty with rude employees and horrible service.

And hardest to deal with of all, is the fact I've come back to a world that has changed. The terrorists attacks on America may forever change a lot things. The economy may take a long time to recover from this hit. We may have to endure some type of new war with Afghanistan. And I will always think twice now about traveling anywhere.

But anyway, I'm grateful I got to see the glorious state of Alaska. It is the most beautiful place I've ever seen! I hope I get to go back again someday...when it is safe to fly, of course.