9/11/01 - Bob P's Story

From the 9/11 Reader's Project - here is Bob Patterson's story (co-host on KHND Radio in Harvey, ND):

My wife Jerri and I were in North Dakota. We had been here 9 days on a
visit from California to make a purchase of a farm about 20 miles from
Harvey, ND. We were staying at a motel in Minot and planned to fly out
of Bismarck to Sacramento on Tuesday September 11, 2001 at 1:30 pm.

I was in the shower when Jerri called and said I better come out and look,
a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I watched and couldn't
believe my eyes when the second plane hit. My first thought was a
computer glitch at air traffic control but as the minutes passed it
became clear to me that this was an act of war. I told my wife "this is
war and we better get a move on because it could spread quickly."

We quickly threw all our bags in the rental car and checked out and
started the 2 hour drive to Bismarck. On the freeway there were very
few other private vehicles and quite a number of Air Special Police from
Minot Air Force Base who man the missiles sites. That was one of the
longest drives I have ever taken. It seemed like forever to get to the
Bismarck Airport and find that all flights were canceled.

We tried train and bus and they were also not moving. I checked with Avis and
they said we could keep the car we rented until we could get a flight
but please don't take it out of state as they were very short on rentals.
The next thing we did was hit the money machine for cash then check
other car rentals but no one was allowing cars to be rented one way out
of state and our personal car was in Sacramento, California. What
little we heard on the news sounded serious so I reserved a U-Haul truck
to "haul personal belongings" to California. I figured if I couldn't
fly, ride a train or bus we would drive. My final fall back position was
to buy a car, if necessary.

We were lucky to get a motel as rooms in Bismarck were quickly filled
with travelers who had their planes grounded and like us were stranded,
many with very limited resources. We tried to help others where we could.
We checked the air port several times a day and stayed glued to the news
and being ham radio operators and always having my duel band hand held
we checked in to the local emergency nets for any local information.

Finally on Saturday September 15, 2001 the airline told us to be there
at 10:00 am and they would try to get us at least as far as Denver as
Denver airport was opening on a limited basis. We waited till the last
minute as we didn't want to give up our rental car and end up sitting at
the air port for several more days. Once I was sure we were actually
going to board I went over to Avis to turn in the keys and settle the
bill. Avis said they were just happy to get the car back and glad we
were able to get on a flight out and there was no charge for the extra
days. That was sure a pleasant surprise.

We finally departed for Denver about 1:30 pm. Once in Denver it was
total panic. Air ports in California were open then they were closed.
The airline employees were great and tried to accommodate us any way
they could. Many people were being extremely rude to the air line
employees as though they were to blame for the situation. We ran into
several groups who had shared a rental car from Washington D. C. and
stopped in Denver as they heard there may be flights to California.
People were doing everything and anything they could to get home, back
to friends and family.

Finally San Francisco International opened and we were booked on the
next flight out. We boarded the plane and just got seated and someone
said something about the planes safety and we had to do an emergency
evacuation of the plane so we all exited and had to stand in rows in the
terminal for nearly another hour until they got the plane checked out
and let us board again. Once on board every one settled down for the
flight and we started to move out on to the runway then stopped. The
pilot thought there was something wrong with an engine so back to the
terminal but this time we remained on board. Right at that time I
wanted to be anywhere else but on that plane. After about 25 minutes at
the terminal we finally left for a smooth ride to SFO which was deserted
since we were the first flight in after 9 / 11. Arriving at a few
minutes before midnight.

Thankfully we had the forethought to call ahead for a rental car once we were fairly certain we would go to SFO. I found a group of 5 San Francisco police standing in a cluster and got directions to the rental car area.

Once the rental was secured at about 01:30 am Sunday morning, we headed
out to Sacramento where our car was parked in the long term parking. At
Sacramento everything was closed except for the rental return. We
dropped the car off without thinking we should have driven out and
retrieved our car first as it was about 1.5 miles out there and no
shuttle bus at 04:00 in the dark dark morning. We asked the attendant at
the rental car drop if there was anyone who could give us a lift but
there was no one so off we went, so tired we were acting like a couple
of party goers who had a little too much to drink. Of course you can't
walk straight out to long term parking as there are roads to cross and
those roads have fences to keep people out or in , which ever the case
may be. We ended up walking another estimated 2 miles just to get to
the gates and by the time we got our car it was day light. Still ahead
was a 3.5 hour drive to our home in the mountains in eastern Madera
county but first was a stop at "The Peoples Choice" on the American
River for a hearty Breakfast.

We made it home Sunday afternoon and felt very lucky that we were not in
New York. About a week and a half later the tattered remains our checked luggage
was delivered to my office near the Fresno Airport and I couldn't have
cared less.