Flight 93 memorial site.

After leaving our site, Happy Hills in Hancock, Maryland, we basically headed north into Pennsylvania.
Not long into the journey we spotted a visitor's centre, and pulled in to see what information was on offer.
An hour later, after talking with the very knowledgeable Cindy, and her elderly mate, Jean, we emerged with maps, brochures, advertising material, - and a change of plan!
We were intending to head west a bit, and find a site.  But the canny Linda advised us to head north and try the Wellsboro area of Pennsylvania.  Linda assured us that we would be much better off in Wellsboro.
So that's what we did.
Ruth asked Linda about the Flight 93 memorial site, and the lovely Linda located it on our free map, that was now a mass of different coloured marks from various highlighter pens.
Flight 93 was the flight on the 9/11 atrocities where the passengers disrupted the plan of the hijackers and sacrificed their lives in order to preserve others.  40 passengers thwarted the terrorists plan to crash the plane into Washington, either the White House of the Pentagon.

Interaction wallboard with those that died in Flight 93.

The Flight 93 memorial is in a field about a mile from the main road.

"A common field one day.  A field of honor the next" is the inscription marked on the viewing platform glass.
A very solemn place where people look at the exhibits in silence, with only the occasional sniff of somebody holding back their emotions.
There is no hype, no sense of revenge.  Just simply an exhibition stating the bare-nosed facts that one day in American history, the world was changed forever by the actions of terrorists.
We read the displays in silence.  We listened to the voice recordings of passengers who had managed to leave phone messages for loved ones.  We watched tv screens with news items from 9/11.
Outside, we were able to take a walk down a walkway that followed the flight path of the last few seconds of Flight 93.

Over-look at the crash site of Flight 93.

Part of the walkway of the flightpath

Flight path of Flight 93 leads to a memorial stone

A sandstone boulder marks the final resting place of the plane and the place where 40 innocent people died needlessly.

Fuselage piece from Flight 93

Sandstone memorial stone

A little word in your ear!

A little word in your ear!

Please keep this between ourselves, but I think Tim is struggling to see things as they really are. This could be because;

1. He’s losing at the ongoing leagues of Rummikub AND Yahtzee between us.

2. Is having to give his clothes up for washing more than he is used to.

3 He sat on a grape in the car yesterday creating a beautifully round wet patch on the back of his shorts, just as we entered a new camp site reception.

As he is such a wonderful, kind and loving husband and we’re having an incredible time away, I will be brief in what I now have to say….

Tim’s story of our stay overnight in the Walmart Car park was not quite as Tim saw it. It was my idea and we were both very happy to do it. My reason was it was going to be a free night, and in the light of having 4 nights in a camp site over Labor Weekend, it seemed like a good idea.

Tim had another reason.

His reason was to ‘use the Wallmart toilets in the morning.’ Or was it?!

The trot across the car park started after breakfast the next morning whilst I had a shower in Harvey. After the shower I did all the usuals; make-up, hair, washing up, sweeping Harvey’s floors, hoovering, making the bed and tidying the van.

No Tim.

‘Man, - he needed the loo!’ I thought

 I continued with washing the windows inside and out, re-decorating the lounge area, cooking the dinner for the next few days, pumping up the tyres and checking the oil etc etc. You know what it’s like.

Still no Tim!

Then it dawned on me…he’s gone walkabout! AND it’s in Walmart!

Oh no! He could be well over an hour……hang on a minute, he WAS!

My first thought was to phone 911 to report a missing person.

I sat in the front seat of Harvey and waited

And waited…!

And waited…!

Then I saw a glimmer of hope.

I saw what looked like Tim coming out of the main door. Yes, it was the same t-shirt and the height was about right as well.

No, it couldn’t have been him because he turned the wrong way and started walking across the car park away from Harvey. The figure turned and wandered very aimlessly among the cars and trucks and motor bikes, turning aside at every opportunity.

Yep, it was him!

When he finally got to the van, I asked him if he’d been looking at the cars on his way over. His reply was ‘No, but have you seen that red truck over there?’

Bless him.  

He enjoyed himself!

Walmart, wifi, and Wifey!

One of the things that I am discovering being married, is that living with someone else, you just HAVE to be understanding of each other!
I confess to finding that a little difficult at times.  And amusing at other times.
Last night we went to a baseball match in Altoona, Pennsylvania to watch the Altoona Curves play the Binghampton Mets.  I'll let wifey blog about that later, suffice it to say that we had a great time, and after the game it was a bit late, so we camped in the car-park of the Altoona Walmart (Asda for our UK readers).
It was her choice.  Not mine.  I'm easy about doing that sort of thing, but wasn't sure about the new wife.  But she was up for it.  So that's what we did.
It was really strange to see wifey walking round the Walmart carpark at something-gone-10-pm, looking for wifi!  It was half dark, and she strode off into the distance towards McDonalds, then to an orthodontist that came up on wifi, then to a nail-polishing salon, and eventually returned without wifi.
My wifey couldn't find wifi!

Wifey with wife!

It reminded me of the bible story when Noah sent out a raven to see if he could find land.  The raven didn't come back.  He then sent out a dove, which returned.
It was a bit like that.  I was like Noah, looking out to see if my bird would return.
Eventually she came back disappointed, though.
But we had a great time in Walmart!
In the morning, after breakfast, I was allowed out by myself, - to go into Walmart while she got her "slap" on.
It takes forever for a woman to get herself ready in the morning, so I took my time in Walmart.
I spent a happy hour or so in there just pottering about.  They sell everything from needles and cotton to kayaks and chainsaws.  And food, by the way.
It's Timmy heaven.
I also have to confess that I took my time in looking at the phone and technology section, and I was mildly scolded when I got back!
But hey, we had a great time in Walmart's carpark, even though wifey couldn't get any wifi!