Shortly after September 11th, 2001, my brother, Shane, and I decided to drive my brother in law’s car to him, in New York. Lloyd and his partner, Gaston, had just moved to New York in August 2001 and were not too thrilled about it. They had left their car in California thinking in NY City that they wouldn’t need it, parking was too tough/expensive, that they could assess the situation and then decide if they would sell the car or bring it to NY. The desire to get out of town in the midst of the 9/11 tragedy was huge and they decided they wanted the car. I don’t blame them, I would want to get the hell out of there too!

Shane was in between jobs and my prior job had ended coincidentally with McKinley’s birth so we had time on our hands. How often does one get the chance to drive across country? We decided to go for it! Shane and I left mid-October so that we could take our time driving and visiting family and friends and then fly back in time for McKinley’s first Halloween. We drove the Southern route because I wanted to go to the Peruvian Connection outlet in Santa Fe. We stayed in Kingman, Arizona one night and then in Albuquerque the next night. The timing didn’t work to actually make it to the Peruvian Connection outlet during stores hours so we kept driving. We were struck by how quiet the country was. People were quiet. There weren’t many people out and about in the month since 9/11 had happened. Travel wasn’t the same, TSA didn’t exist yet. We were driving and that was fine with us.

We went to the Grand Canyon and snapped pictures at the rim. McKinley won’t remember this trip, but his National Park passport is stamped with more places than his two older brothers because of this long-haul trip. He was a great little traveler. He was only 10 weeks old on this trip. I think he weighed 15 pounds by then. He looked like a 5-6 month old. It was a cozy trip except for the cloud of tragedy that hung in the air everywhere we went. It was quiet. I know I said that before, but I don’t know how else to describe the country. Driving through the country and eating at greasy spoon places for breakfast, lunch and dinner gave us a good sense of how people were and what they were thinking. They were quiet.

From Tulsa, OK on, we were able to stay with famiy and friends instead of having to get a hotel. We stayed with my uncle Ronnie in Tulsa, OK. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of Ronnie and us or his house, but it was nice to reconnect with him and see him briefly. We missed my Aunt Debbie – she was visiting my cousin (her daughter) at the time.

We stayed with my dad and step mom in Kansas City, KS. It was nice for them to get to see McKinley for the first time. We spent more time than we intended in KS because there was a check engine light that came on here. So, we spent about 3 hours in the repair shop waiting, with a 10 week old. Not the happiest part of the trip.

Then we headed back home again to Indiana to stay with my first BFF, Kim and her family. It was fabulous to hang out and share one of my kids with her. I distinctly remember something about cherry wine from that evening – breast feeding be damned…

We also got to see our babysitter, Cele, and part of her family. Her daughter Karen, was about 5 years older than me and she loves, loves, loves babies (which you can see her in the picture holding McKinley).

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there, we headed to my grandparents to introduce McKinley to them. My grandfather had a way with babies – they were ALWAYS calm in his arms.

Then we headed to New Providence New Jersey (by way of Philadelphia and the Liberty Bell) to end our journey and stay with the Cowburns. We hung out there for a couple of day and we were very reluctant to head into NYC and to ground zero.

We had Lloyd and Gaston come out to New Jersey to actually pick up the car.

In the end, we avoided ground zero. It was only 4 weeks after 9/11 and we just didn’t want to see the rubble pile and have that emblazoned in our brains. We didn’t want the flood of emotion. We went to the Empire state building instead and enjoyed the amazing views, minus the twin towers. I regret not having seen ground zero a mere 4 weeks after the 9/11 tragedy. I wish I would have been able to see it rather than just in pictures or just on television. But the emotions just even trying to decide to go see it were overwhelming.

The irony of the entire trip is that we flew back to San Francisco from Newark – on a flight similar to Flight 93. I think we were 3 of a total of 9 people on that flight that day. There were not many people on the subway or  in the airport or on flights, and certainly not on a flight from Newark to San Francisco. It was quiet, everywhere.

This was to be the first incident in a long series of airport security incidents that I would experience over the next ten years involving security personnel (knitting needles, anyone?). There was a Starbuck’s cart (for those who know I love Starbuck’s, it was like a beacon of safety and security). I bought a drink and we headed to the security line, which had no one in it and was a mere 5 yards from the Starbuck’s coffee cart. I took McKinley out of his car seat/airline seat and as I am doing that, the security lady told me I couldn’t take my drink through… I didn’t just spend $4 on a drink and take one sip in the 5 yards it took me to get to the security line to be told I couldn’t take my drink through.

Thus started my experience, with what would become TSA and their inconsistently enforced polcies of no liquids, and take your shoes, belt, sweater, jacket, etc. off before coming through any airport security line. Needless to say, I went through the security line with my drink and McKinley. Although, I did have to take a sip of my drink in front of the security personnel so that they knew it was actually a drink in my cup (that they could see me purchase from 5 yards away). Why they didn’t put the cart on the other side of the security check point, I will never know…

The flight home with 9 people on it was peaceful and we could spread out and not have my infant cry and keep people awake. I was thankful for the opportunity see friends and family and to help out my brother in law(s) get their car back. I was thankful to be able to share McKinley with our fiends an dfamily. I was thankful the 3,000 mile drive gave me a chance to sit and knit and to talk at length with my brother.

I left New York (and that cross country trip) feeling like people were hunkering down for the long haul. With an attitude of “we’ve been through worse, we’ll get through this too, if we just stick together.” It was heartening and uplifting. It was inspiring.