Dateline: Shankesville, PA, September 4, 2014
Started the day with the flight 93 memorial. On the way there I was blinded by the glare of thousands of car windshields, which in NJ would be a dealership but in this part of PA is an auto graveyard. I wondered if there were 3000 cars in there- to match the number of 9/11 fatalities, and I was already teary. It was another cloudless, perfect day near Shanksville, PA The Memorial is still under construction, but they plan a visitors center which is broken in 2 by the flight path. There is a memorial wall with the 40 names, among them Todd Beamer and Mark Bingham , and Honor Elizabeth Wainio. Honor…
The land is a reclaimed strip mine field from the 90s, now a varied grassland filled with birdsong, butterflies, damsel and dragonflies. As time passed and I read the placards explaining how 40 people took a vote and decided to try to retake control of the plane, the minutes passed and I found myself at the scene on a September day at the exact time that the passengers acted. It was humbling and sad and triumphant all at once.
I took pictures of sunflowers at a state game land right nearby and I thought what it meant to save that Capitol building and wondered again if I would have been brave if it were me.
Continuing on the road, I followed 76 into Ohio and then set off in search of the National Rd, route 40. Easy enough to find snippets of it, hard to stay on it. But I was thrilled to find 3 S bridges and after a fashion figured out how to find the road.
I found a place where it was possible to view all the routes into Ohio from one spot- Zane’s Trace, Route 70, the railroad, route 40, and the National Road. I made one obscure right turn and I found a piece of bricked National Road. There was a highway worker there and I pulled up behind him and started taking pictures- he asked if he was in my way and I said no- I asked if people drove on the road- he said yes, and I asked if I could. Up I went, me and 1828, paved with bricks 1918, and perfectly kept homes on a ridge, older couples out mowing their grass, living on this marvelous piece of the past. If you are driving west from NJ to Ohio and beyond, check out the National Road- you will not be disappointed.
I didn’t leave the National Rd until Zanesville, and I looked wistfully at pieces of it from highway 70 at 70 mph. Made Beavercreek, Ohio at 4:30 and met up with my best friend, Jen, who is a flight surgeon in the US Air Force and an all around athletics nut like me. By 6:30 we were at a dinner with Chuck Berry, and Mike Berry, both air force aerospace guys. Chuck Berry was the NASA flight surgeon for all the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Flights. Michael Barratt was a featured speaker- an astronaut and doctor. A real live rocket scientist- 281 days in space, 2 spacewalks. And a nice guy. There was another guy there, a flyboy, he looked like a politician and lit up the room, like Howard Dean but without the wacky gleam in his eyes. He will get elected to something. Jen hangs out with some smart, brave people, and she fits right in. Let’s see, though, if she’s ready to bag Ohio with me.
