from myspace....sept 11, 2001

Tuesday, September 04, 2007
the last time i was in skagway....Current mood: anxious
thought i'd write a brief note about the last time i was in skagway. i was en route to anchorage from where i'd lived the past 6 years '95-'01. i was moving to anchorage and my friend carla had flown up to do the move with me...a fun road trip. we had beautiful weather overall, especially coming up the lynn canal on the ferry. we woke in skagway and prepared for the next part of our journey...it was september 11, 2001. as we began packing my truck a man on the street said in a joking manner that the world trade center had been bombed. carla and i just thought he was joking at first and he then had to convince us he was serious and told carla to turn on the tv in our hotel room. it was true, the world trade center had been hit, not a bomb but commercial jets. the planes had been grounded everywhere, including alaska so juneau was backing up and the ferry would bring people back to skagway. after much discussion we decided to continue driving towards whitehorse in the yukon territory. radio service is impossible in these parts and so we drove in silence. it was fall and just amazingly beautiful. we drove wondering what was going on in the world. for all we knew world war three had begun, nuclear bombs could have been flying. it was eerie not having a clue what was going on in the world on that morning. when we got to the border crossing, the canadian border patrol simply told us that it was unclear, but the report was that another hijacked plane was headed to whitehorse and we may be directed to bypass. again, we drove on with no more news til we reached whitehorse. the main town had been shut down and everyone sent home there. we were able to get to our hotel, but it was packed with koreans who had been on the potentially hijacked plane. i believe in the confusion it was believed they were hijacked, when really they were low on fuel and requesting landing. they landed in whitehorse under military plane escort, the pilot was taken off at gun point. i was later told the president of the us had given orders that this commercial jet could be shot down if it was believed to be a danger. luckily, that never happened and really there were just many confused korean's attempting to explain to loved ones where they were. we couldn't understand anything they said on thier phone calls except "whitehorse".
the next day we headed on to anchorage. the border crossing went very smoothly back into the u.s.. i had figured they would totally unpack my truck which was totally packed. they only looked in the glove compartment. it was so odd to not have any plane traffic as alaska is a huge plane place. that is the only way in/out of most of the state. as it as fall, many hunters and such were out in the middle of nowhere, wondering why thier pick ups weren't coming. for several days they waited. when the planes could finally take off, they had to drop notes of explanation and do the best they could picking up people.
it took weeks before i had my television hooked up so i listened to npr and picked up the local paper.
today....took the girls for a walk in the bog and the neighborhood. then blossom and i snuck out to run some errands and hit the conners bog dog park before i went for my massage.