9/12/18 Shanksville, PA

9/12/18

Happy Birthday to our granddaughter Ruby, who  is 2 years old today!

Since our Road Scholar trip was truncated by Hurricane Florence, Gwynne still has a day off of work and we decide to take advantage of that with a trip to Shanksville, PA and the Flight 93 Memorial. It is about a 3 hour drive, but mostly on the turnpike, so easy going.

The day is cloudy but only a little rain here and there.  We head out about 6 AM, with a quick stop for some breakfast along with sandwiches and drinks for later in the day.

We arrive a little after 9:00, and go first to the Tower of Voices.  It had been announced that this was now "open", but apparently that only means that you can walk to the 93' tall tower.  The chimes that are to be mounted in the tower haven't been completed yet.  A few were hung yesterday (9/11) for the ceremony, but they were rung and then tethered again.  One of the folks visiting with us is a site architect and he tells us that these chimes are very unique and they are still working on installing and tuning them. Should be nice when completed, as the wind will activate the chimes.  A grove of trees will surround the site, with the trees coming from the hometown areas of those who died here.

We continue on to the Memorial/Museum which is extremely moving and well organized.

Flight 93 was scheduled to go from Newark, NJ to San Francisco on 9/11/2001.  The museum traces the horrific events of that day, including the World Trade Center collapses and the Pentagon crash.  Because flight 93's departure was delayed, the passengers and crew became aware of those events. When terrorists took over the plane, the passengers voted to rush the cabin and try to stop the terrorists from completing their heinous plans (which most agree targeted the US Capital). The terrorists wanted to attack commerce (World Trade Towers), military (Pentagon) and government (US Capital).

Timeline gives details gleaned from the recovered cockpit voice recorder, including Todd Beamer's famous "Let's Roll".  The recorder was found 25' down in the crater created by the crash and is the only one providing any evidence that day. Several phone calls from folks aboard the flight were recorded by home answering machines and are replayed here. So moving, to hear these people who were facing almost certain death leaving their last messages of love and concern!

 There are photos and biographies of all those aboard and descriptions of events from those living near the site. as well as first responders.  The horrific news coverage is still burned into my brain.

This is a very rural area with agriculture and mining.  Next we went down one of the rolling hills of the area, to the actual crash site, marked by a 17 ton boulder.  There is a wall with inscribed names, some marked with flowers or memorial items. President Trump was here yesterday for the 9/11 Memorial Service and there are still tents and platforms at various locations.  A pretty good number of visitors today, but I'm sure yesterday was crazy.

We head back towards the turnpike and find Shawnee State Park (nice, though a little fishy smelling) where we have our lunch.

We head back to Gwynne's house and then Greg, his Mom and I continue back to Greg's Mom's place in New Holland, PA.  Nice dinner at the cafe, then we watch some tv and head to bed.