Flight 93 Memorial

Visiting the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania is a sobering experience. All of us remember where we were that Tuesday morning, some ten years ago now, when nineteen men on a suicide mission changed our world in a span of less than an hour.

 Time is supposed to heal all wounds, but as we make our way across the field where Flight 93 crashed on that fateful morning, taking the lives of forty souls as well as the life of an unborn infant, the cold, bitter, rain stinging our faces, tears are welling up in my eyes.

A boulder in the middle of a field, marks the point of impact by Flight 93.  Nearby is a white marble wall which appears to be solid in construction, but is actually forty individual panels with the name of each passenger and crew member inscribed upon it.

 They were individuals, strangers for the most part, who came together during a crisis to plot and plan and act selflessly to save our nation's capital.  Each and everyone of them a hero, never to be forgotten.

"The Flight 93 Story

On the morning of September 11, 2001, al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners in a strategically planned attack against the United States. These terrorists intentionally flew two jet airliners into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City and a third aircraft into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth aircraft, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into an open field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, killing all passengers, crew members, and terrorists on board. The four aircraft strikes killed nearly 3,000 people, the deadliest attack on American soil by a foreign entity. This is the Flight 93 Story.

It began as just an ordinary day...

Seven crew members assigned to Flight 93 began to prepare for the early morning non-stop flight from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, California. Thirty-three passengers were traveling for ordinary reasons. Flight 93 was a Boeing 757, with a capacity of 182 passengers. The terrorists targeted domestic flights that; normally had few passengers so they would have less resistance, used the type of aircraft that they had been trained to pilot, were non-stop, coast-to-coast flights with full fuel tanks that would cause the maximum amount of destruction, and were departing at approximately the same time so they could make a coordinated, surprise attack.

The hijackers on September 11, 2001 were terrorists on a suicide mission. This was the first time hijackers used commercial airliners as weapons to destroy symbolic targets, commit mass murder, and spread terror.

On that morning, three of the four hijacked flights departed on schedule. However, Flight 93 was delayed more than 25 minutes due to typically heavy morning traffic. Just four minutes after Flight 93 departed, hijacked Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03 a.m., a second hijacked plane, Flight 175, hit the South Tower.

At 9:37 a.m. hijacked Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. The Federal Aviation Administration, at 9:42 a.m. ordered all aircraft to land at the nearest airport at 9:42 a.m. An estimated 4,500 aircraft landed safely without incident. This was the first time such an order had been given in United States aviation history. By that time, though, Flight 93 was not responding to any orders.

"Mayday! Get out of here!"

At about 9:28 a.m., after 46 minutes of routine flight across Pennsylvania, the terrorists on Flight 93 overtook the cockpit, turning the plane southeast on a course directed toward Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. The passengers and crew were forced to the back of the plane and told to be quiet.

Using airfones, passengers and crew began making calls to report the hijacking. They soon learned the shocking news about the other hijacked planes and quickly realized that Flight 93 was part of a larger attack on America. This realization led to a vote and a collective decision to fight back.

In just over 30 minutes, this diverse group of people on Flight 93 developed a plan and put it into action. The cockpit voice recorder (reader discretion advised) captured the sounds of their struggle: shouts, screams, calls to action, and sounds of breaking glassware.

The phone line was still open when an operator heard him say,"Are you guys ready?  Okay. Let's roll."

To stop the uprising, the terrorist piloting the aircraft began to roll it to the left and right, and pitch the nose up and down. In its final moments, the plane turned upside down as it passed over rural Western Pennsylvania.

The terrorists remained in control of the plane and chose to crash it rather than risk the passengers and crew regaining control of the aircraft.

Lauren Catuzzi perished along with her unborn infant.

At 10:03 a.m., Flight 93 plowed into an empty field at a speed of 563 miles per hour. Upon impact, the 7,000 gallons of jet fuel on board the aircraft exploded, creating a ball of fire that rose higher than the trees.

This segment of the fuselage was the largest piece of wreckage recovered.

Quick and determined actions...

The flight data recorder that was recovered from the crash site revealed that the terrorists had reprogrammed the aircraft's autopilot system for a new destination - Washington, D.C. Recovered evidence and responses to interrogations revealed that the terrorists' intended target was most likely the United States Capitol Building, where the nation's legislators were in session. Flight 93 crashed only 20 minutes flying-time from Washington, D.C.

Because of the quick and determined actions of the passengers and crew, Flight 93 was the only one of the four hijacked aircraft that failed to reach the terrorists' intended target that day. The passengers and crew showed unity, courage, and defiance in the face of adversity.

Today the National Park Service, its volunteers, and its partners work to honor their sacrifice and to try to understand more fully the legacy of Flight 93 and the other events of 9/11."

The Dream of an Airstream

"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.  Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for."  Louis L'Amour

The decision to purchase our 28-foot International Airstream trailer in May, 2010, was a life-altering one.  Travel is our passion and we had been spendng a few months every year in San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, Mexico.  After a rash of kidnappings there, we decided that traveling to state and national parks, historic sites, and the various festivals across the United States would be an intelligent and rewarding alternative. We never quite get used to just about everyone saying, "Are they still making those things?"

'The company was created by Wally Byam, who began building trailers out of Masonite in his backyard in Los Angeles during the late 1920s. A lawyer by training, Byam published a magazine selling "how-to" kits to customers wishing to build their own trailers.

1934 Bowlus Road Chief

He then acquired the struggling Bowlus Company. In 1936 Byam introduced the "Airstream Clipper", which was essentially a rebadged 1935 Bowlus, with the door relocated from the front to the side. The design cut down on wind resistance and thus improved fuel efficiency. It was the first of the now familiar sausage-shaped, silver aluminum Airstream trailers.

1937 Clipper

Of more than 400 travel trailer builders operating in 1936, Airstream was the sole survivor of the Depression.  During World War II, travel became a luxury most could not afford and non-military industries faced an acute aluminum shortage. When World War II ended, the economy boomed, and people's attention once again turned towards leisure travel. Byam's company went back into production in 1948. In July 1952 a new facility in Jackson Center, Ohio, was established. 1979 saw the last Airstreams to be manufactured in California.' Wiki

Kitchen, 1934 Bowlus Road Chief

Wally Byam is said to have created the unique aluminum trailer in response to his wife’s refusal to go camping without a kitchen. In 1936, Wally stated that he is in business “to make people’s dreams come true.”

1957 Caravaner

Airstream is the oldest manufacturer of recreational vehicles in the U.S. and is the most commonly recognized aluminum travel trailer in the world.  When Airstream began, there were less than 48 trailer manufacturers that were registered for business. Five years later, nearly 400 companies squared off against each other. Today of those 400 companies, only Airstream remains.

1937 Clipper

The aluminum-skinned Airstream is based on an airplane fuselage, with rounded corners to help increase gas mileage – its aerodynamics cuts drag by 20 percent vs. square “white box” trailers.  It takes about 280 human hours to build the average Airstream.  Airstream was the first trailer to have a holding tank, the first ladder frame, the first pressurized water system and was the first fully self-contained travel trailer.

Before leaving the production floor, every Airstream spends 40 minutes under 100 pounds per square inch of water pressure in a special booth to ensure that it’s water-tight.

Celebrity owners include: Tom Hanks who was gifted by his wife, Rita Wilson, Johnny Depp, Adrian Brody, Diablo Cody, Steve Carrell, Colin Farrell, Matthew McConaughey, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock, Matthew Modine, Kate Pierson of the B52s, David Duchovny, Tim Burton, Lenny Kravitz, Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong, John Mellencamp, Eddie Vedder and AC/DC’s Brian Johnson.

Matthew McConaughey used an Airstream trailer while promoting his 2005 film “Sahara,” and lived in a 28-foot Airstream in Malibu for several years before buying a home with enough space for his 3 Airstream travel trailers.

In 2008, Airstream partnered with longtime fan Jesse James to create a one-of-a-kind motorcycle and sidecar featuring Airstream design elements. The $300K Airstream Chopper was built by James’ company West Coast Choppers, in exchange for an Airstream trailer which he gave his wife at the time, actress Sandra Bullock, for her birthday.

By the 75th Anniversary of Airstream in 2006, nearly 66%  of all Airstreams ever built were still rolling down the highways.'
www.airstream.com

Spending 2/3 of the year in our Silver Chalet has been a real adventure. The Chalet is around 225 square feet of aluminum efficiency, meeting all of our basic needs and then some!  Since we spend most of our time outdoors, the Chalet is mainly for sleeping and cooking.  Having the ability to live anywhere we choose is an exhilarating life experience and oh, so exciting! Thank you, Wally Byum, for your vision and genius!

"Life is the road." Jack Kerouac

"Adventure is where you find it, any place, every place, except at home in the rocking chair."  Wally Byam

Fallingwater

'Fallingwater is the name of a very special house that is built over a waterfall.  Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s most famous architect, designed the house for his clients, the Kaufmann family.  Fallingwater was built between 1936 and 1939.  It instantly became famous, and today it is a National Historic Landmark.

Why is it so famous?  It's a house that doesn’t even appear to stand on solid ground, but instead stretches out over a 30’ waterfall. It captured everyone’s imagination when it was on the cover of Time magazine in 1938.

The Kaufmanns were from Pittsburgh, PA. They owned Kaufmann’s Department Store, a very exciting and elegant place to shop in the 1930s.  (Today, it is part of the Macy’s chain). Edgar Kaufmann and his wife, Liliane, had one son, Edgar jr.

The Kaufmanns lived in the city, but like many other Pittsburghers, they loved to vacation in the mountains southeast of Pittsburgh. They could hike in the forest, swim and fish in the streams, go horseback riding, and do other outdoor activities.

Pittsburgh at the time was sometimes called the “Smoky City,” due to the amount of air pollution from Pittsburgh’s steel industry. People who could afford to take the train to the mountains ($1 round trip) relished the chance to breathe fresh, cool mountain air.

The Kaufmanns had a summer camp for the department store employees, located along a mountain stream called Bear Run. When the Great Depression made daily living so hard for so many people, the employees no longer had time or money to come up to Kaufmanns Summer Camp.  But Mr. and Mrs. Kaufmann and their son dearly loved the mountains, and decided to make the summer camp their own country estate.

Their summer camp home had been a very small cabin with no heat and no running water. They slept outdoors on screened porches! The cabin stood very near a country road.  When traffic became noisy after the road was paved, the Kaufmanns decided it was time to build a more modern vacation house.

They turned to Frank Lloyd Wright to design it for them. At the time, their son was fascinated with Wright’s ideas and was even studying with  him at Wright’s school, the Taliesin Fellowship.

The Kaufmanns, who had recently become very interested in modern art and design, also were intrigued by Wright’s ideas, and they asked him to design a new vacation house. They knew that Wright loved nature, as they did, and Wright knew that the Kaufmanns wanted something very special at Bear Run, something only an innovative architect like himself could design.  He also knew that they loved the waterfall, and he decided to make it part of the new house.'  www.fallingwater.org

Hyde Park, NY

The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site preserves the Springwood estate in Hyde Park, New York, overlooking the Hudson River Valley. Springwood was the birthplace, lifelong home, and burial place of the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and established as a National Historic Site in 1945.

Roosevelt was born in 1882, in what was then the second floor tower bedroom at the south end of the house.  After marrying Eleanor Roosevelt, his fifth cousin once removed, in 1905, the young couple moved in with his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt.  It was here that he and Eleanor raised four sons and one daughter.

The estate remained the center of Roosevelt's life in all stages of his career. During his presidency alone, he came for almost 200 visits. The estate functioned as a "Summer White House", where the President hosted his political associates as well as other prominent national and international figures. In June 1939, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited, Sara was worried that they might be offended by her son's prominently displayed collection of anti-Brit political cartoons about the American Revolution and the War of !812.  When the King saw them, he remarked that the President had some that were not in HIS collection!  

Other guests included Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, as well as European royalty such Queen Wilhelmina, Princess Juliana, and Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, and Crown Prince Olaf and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway.

Roosevelt used the estate as a retreat for himself and his political associates on the eves of all elections in which he ran for president. When the incoming results indicated that he had won the election, he would go outside onto the front terrace to deliver his acceptance speech.

The living room and library was the place were Roosevelt worked on his private collections, accumulating a personal library of approximately 14,000 volumes, over 2,000 naval paintings, prints, and lithographs, over 300 bird specimens, over 200 ship models, 1.2 million stamps, as well as thousands of coins, banknotes, and campaign buttons.

Roosevelt made his last visit to Springwood in the last week of March 1945, about two weeks before his death. At his own wish, he was buried near the sundial in the Rose Garden on April 15, 1945. His wife was buried at his side after her death in 1962. Also buried here are Fala, the famous scottish terrier, and Chief, a German Shepherd also owned by FDR.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York, is the first presidential library built in the United States and was conceived and built under the direction of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1939 to 1940.  It was built by Philadelphia contractor John McShain, and constructed on 16 acres in Hyde Park, New York, donated by the President and his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. The library resulted from the President's decision that a separate facility was needed to house the vast quantity of historical papers, books, and memorabilia he had accumulated during a lifetime of public service and private collecting.

Prior to Roosevelt's Presidency, the final fate of Presidential papers was left to chance. Although a valued part of the nation's heritage, the papers of chief executives were private property which they took with them upon leaving office.

Some were sold or destroyed and thus either scattered or lost to the nation forever. Others remained with families, but inaccessible to scholars for long periods of time. The fortunate collections found their way into the Library of Congress and private repositories.  We are fortunate that FDR started this historic precedence.

FDR is one of my favorite Presidents.  He was elected for a remarkable four terms, but died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1945.  He guided the nation through the worst economic turbulence of the Great Depression and through WWII almost to its end.  My dad was one of the 1 in 4 Americans who was unemployed, hopping freight trains all across Texas in search of work, mostly picking cotton. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps at the age of 25. FDR's leadership helped save his life and that of our nation.  For that, I will be forever grateful.

Just down the river is the Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt Mansion, a premier example of the country palaces built by wealthy industrialists during the Gilded Age.

The site includes 211 acres  of the original larger property historically named Hyde Park. Situated on the east bank of the Hudson River,

the property includes pleasure grounds with views of the river and the distant Catskill Mountains,

formal gardens, natural woodlands, and numerous auxiliary structures. The grounds also include Italian Gardens that have been restored by the volunteer Frederick W. Vanderbilt Garden Association. Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856–1938) purchased the property in 1895 for use as a seasonal country residence.

FDR wanted to acquire the property for the US Government in 1939 in order to use it as a museum and an example of the wealth and opulence of the Gilded Age.  He negotiated a deal with their favorite niece and heiress to purchase the property for the tidy sum of $1.00.

Mills-Norrie State Park is five miles north of Hyde Park and is a lovely, sylvan and quiet place to call home during our stay over this October weekend.