SUITCASE

My wife, Diane, and I were on a wonderful cusire to Alaska and the morning of 9/11/01 we were anchored in the Hubbard Glacier field and it was a bright, beautiful, and awesome morning. As we watched the calving of the glaciers a older man came running by to tell some friends about the planes crashing into the twin towers. We were stunned and then spent the next several hours waatching the events unfold on a little TV in our stateroom. There were some people who were on the ship who had family or friendds in New York who were understandably frantic trying to get additional information and trying to contact them but cell phones had little, if any, reception at the location where we were anchored. The Cruise line immediately announced that the Captain was confering with the company executives to determine if the cusire should end and return immediately to Vancouver which is where the cusire started and was to end. Several hours later the Captain announced that since no airlines were going to be allowed to fly in the US it would not help to end the cusire. The Captain further announced that they would assist anyone who had family or friends in the New York area try to contact them on the ships communication devices. Several ministers on board then agreed to arrange a memorial service to be held in the ships theatre the next morning. It was a beautiful memorial service and all the ships entertainers also participated in the service. When we returned to Vancouver on Friday at the end of the cusire it took quite awhile to disembark from the ship. Since planes were still not allowed to fly in the US we needed to find another way to get back to North Dakota. We took a cab to the airport and went looking for a rental car. The airport was desserted so there was no line for a rental and we got one which we agreed to drive to the Airport in Seattle and then exchange for another rental to drive back to North Dakota. The rental car company said they would waive any drop charge under the circumstances. We found our rental car and headed for the border. When we neared the border we found cars lined up in 3 rows with each row at least a mile long. The authorities were runiing dogs by every vehicle in line and then when you got to the check point they would open all doors and trunks and remove the suitcases and either open them and inspect or have a dog come by the suit case. It took us 7 hours to get through the border. Interestingly, despite the long delay and the large number of people in line no one seemed distrurbed about either the inspections or the delay in the crossing. Also a number of the local Canadians were mingling with those of us in line and brought drinks and other goodies for us while we waited. Once we got through the border we headed for Seattle and exchanged cars about 3:00 AM and then drove out of Seattle because we did not want to stay in a large metro area. We finally stopped and found a motel about 5 in the morning and tried to get some sleep. We drove home to Bismarck in two days. The cusire line, the car rental people, and the airlines were all very accomodating. The whole experience was surreal as in Vancouver, at the border, in Seattle and in every town we stopped in as we drove home the people we spoke with were stunned at the event and everyone wondered what would happen worldwide as a result of the insane act of flying 2 planes into the twin towers and killing thousands of people.

Not Given