“Hot, windy weather like this creates a high fire risk” the septuagenarian ranger who had lived his entire life in the area told the group of visitors to Glacier National Park who had joined him for an interpretive walk near Lake McDonald.

(Dick Jordan Photo)

“You mean a fire like that one” my wife said, pointing to a wisp of grayish-white smoke off in the distance over the ranger’s shoulder.

“S…” the ranger exclaimed as he rushed back to his pickup truck to radio in a report of the fire.

And that was a harbinger of what would ultimately force us to hastily devise a “Plan B” to modify our planned two-week trip to western Montana.

A Warm Start

Climate records indicated that one could expect sunny skies with highs in the low to mid-70s when visiting in and near Glacier National Park during late July in a normal year. So, my wife and I packed blue jeans, short and long-sleeved shirts, a sweater and maybe a pair of shorts each, along with hiking boots and “sneakers” for our summer 2003 trip to the area.

But as it turned out, that hot, windy weather that we experienced during our first afternoon in the park when we went on the ranger-led walk would persist for the duration of our trip, spawn fires in the park and in other parts of Montana and force us to spend a few days far to the east of Glacier.

(Dick Jordan Photo)

During the first half-dozen days of our visit to Western Montana the weather wasn’t too hot although poor ventilation in our room at the Lake McDonald Lodge made for fitful sleeping.

(Dick Jordan Photo)

We spent three days at Lake McDonald on the west side of the park before driving the scenic, twisting “Going-To-The-Sun Road” over the mountains to St. Mary Lake on the east edge of Glacier.

(Michael Kirsh Flickr Photo)

While fires may have burning to the west, the skies were clear although it was getting quite warm, so we visited a sporting goods store in the town near our lodgings and bought a pair of hiking shorts each.

Into Canada

Our next stop was the Prince of Wales Hotel perched on a bluff overlooking Waterton Lake at Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, which butts up against the northern edge of Glacier National Park in the U.S.

There was a bit of smoke in the air during one day hike, but clear the day we took a tour boat south on the lake and disembarked to hike into Glacier where we had to show our passports at the ranger station in order to cross the U.S.-Canada border.

On the boat trip back to the Town of Waterton and our hotel we heard some talk of fires within Glacier.

(Photo by Sharissa Johnson on Unsplash)

Burned Out

The following day we drove south back into the U.S. but were unable to reach out next intended overnight stop, “Many Glacier,” one of the most scenic spots in the park. A U.S. National Park ranger who had parked her vehicle to block the road into that area told us that visitors were being evacuated from the park.

(Christopher Michel Flickr Photo)

We continued back to St. Mary Lake to see if the park lodging where we had stayed before heading to Waterton had a room available. It didn’t, and when I asked my wife if she wanted to stay in a windowless, basement room in a hotel in town she looked at me as though I had totally lost my mind.

The Blackfeet tribe’s reservation occupies much of the land area just east of Glacier National Park and there was almost no lodging to be found within many miles of St. Mary Lake area.

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I called a hotel in Great Falls, 155 miles to the south, and booked a room for the three nights that we had planned to stay at Many Glacier. It turned out that there was a silver lining in the clouds of smoke that had forced us to come up with an impromptu “Plan B” for that part of our two-week trip.

A Great Time In a Great Town

We arrived in Great Falls at the end of the afternoon, passing almost no other vehicles, even on Interstate 15 (which runs from the U.S.-Canada border south to the U.S.-Mexico border), until we neared that city. The hotel was very nice, the city had some very good restaurants, and there were five pleasant surprises that came out of that long detour from the national park.

First, we were able to watch the annual “Pet and Doll Parade” our first night in town.

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Second, we were able to attend the Montana State Fair which happened to be going on while were in Great Falls.

(Tracy Flickr Photo)

Third, a local outdoor store was having a big sale and we bought some more hiking shorts at a great price.

Fourth, we were able to visit the outstanding Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center operated by the U.S. Forest Service that recounts the Corps of Discovery travel up the Great Falls section of the Missouri River.

Fifth, on the way to the center we had a great luck to find Snyder Drug & Gifts which serves up burgers and creamy milkshakes in its old-fashioned soda fountain.

(Sndyer Drug Facebook Photo)

So even though we would probably not have included Great Falls in our original trip itinerary, we had a great time there and we were lucky to have been compelled to travel there by the fires within Glacier.

Back To Glacier

The next planned stop on our trip after Many Glacier had been East Glacier and its historic log hotel at the southeastern edge of Glacier National Park.

We headed there after leaving Great Falls. Thankfully, smoke from fires elsewhere in the park had not drifted into that area.

We were able to make a daytrip from East Glacier up to Many Glacier which had been re-opened to visitors even though the skies above the lake and mountains were still an ugly ash gray.

(Dick Jordan Photo)

But stumbling upon the Park Café in St. Mary that served up delicious fruit pies made that day for us.

The final stop on our trip was Big Fork on Flathead Lake, west of Glacier National Park and just south of Kalispell where we had begun our trip after flying in from San Francisco via Seattle.

(Eugene Beckes Flickr Photo)

We had hoped to spend a day touring areas near the lake, but the hot weather and smoke-filled air forced us to opt for a drive into Kalispell to visit the nifty Western Outdoor store chock-a-block with cowboy boots and hats, and the adjacent Norm’s Soda Fountain, before taking in the movie “Seabiscuit” (which would win three Oscars, including “Best Picture” at the 2004 Academy Awards) at an air-conditioned theater.

Smoke Got In Our Eyes

Because there were some real upsides to the downside of having to change our Glacier National Park trip plans due to forest fires, I wish I could say that never again were our vacation trips affected due to forest fires in the Western U.S.

In June of 2008 we spent two weeks traveling to and through Southeast Alaska. Our flight back to San Francisco from Seattle was delayed departing due to reduced visibility at Bay Area airports caused by fires burning far to the north. When we landed at San Francisco International the sun had turned a Devil-red color and the smell of smoke hung heavy in the air.

On a September trip to the Steens Mountains in southeastern Oregon smoke from fires near Lake Tahoe had spun northeastward for hundreds of miles.

(Brian Flickr Photo)

And in August of 2018 forest fires burning in Southern Oregon and Northern California created unhealthy air conditions in the City of Ashland prompting us and many others to cancel plans to attend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Travel in The Western U.S. During the COVID Era

During the coronavirus pandemic travel within the Western U.S., as well as the rest of the country and the world, diminished markedly. As time passed and as more people were vaccinated against the virus, a pent-up demand to recover from “lockdowns” and “coronavirus cabin fever” began to be unleashed. And because many believe that being out-of-doors is safer than being indoors, one should expect that visitation to national and state parks, and areas managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management will increase.

At the same time the risk of mammoth forest fires engulfing huge swaths of the American West seems likely. Once there was a limited-in-time “fire season” outside of which fires rarely occurred. Now it appears that “megafires” can happen during most months of the year, especially after prolonged drought.

So, if a trip the Western U.S. during this summer and early fall is high up on your travel “Bucket List” have a “Plan B” prepared in case you need to revise your itinerary, especially if you are in the middle of a trip. You may not be as lucky as we were when fires in Glacier National Park landed us miles away in a city which we would probably have never have otherwise visited but which proved to be an interesting and fun destination.

(Update, August 7, 2021. Yesterday the New York Times published a story entitled “Reconsidering Outdoor Travel in the West, as Wildfires Burn” which discusses the impact of wildland fires on tourist in the Western U.S.)

COVID-19 wiped out Alaska’s cruise ship season in 2020.

According to this story in the Anchorage Daily News, in 2019 1.2 million tourists came to Alaska on cruise ships but that number dropped to a mere 48 visitors arriving in the 49^th State by cruise ship in 2020.

But on Monday, May 24, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the “Alaska Tourism Restoration Act” which aims to send more cruise ships to Alaska this summer.

Canada Bars Big Cruise Ships From Its Waters

The Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 was designed to protect U.S. shipbuilders and ship owners by prohibiting “foreign flagged vessels” from sailing from one U.S. port to another without first stopping at a port in a foreign country.

Because of that law, large cruise ships traveling from the U.S. West Coast ports to Alaska, and which are typically registered in and fly the flag of countries other than the U.S., had to make a stop in Canada on their way north.

This “Op-Ed” piece in the Los Angeles Times says that

“In 1886, President Cleveland tried to protect American jobs by signing the Passenger Vessel Services Act, which permits only U.S.-flagged vessels to carry travelers between U.S. ports, such as San Diego and Seattle or New York and Miami. How does a ship get a U.S. flag? To qualify, the ship must be made at a U.S. shipbuilding facility, owned by an American company and staffed by an American crew.

“What Cleveland and his Congress obviously did not foresee was that, by the late 20th century, nearly every cruise ship sailing in U.S. waters would be built abroad — from Princess’ Love Boats to Crystal’s luxury liners to Disney’s magical floating kingdoms.”

In pre-pandemic times the PVSA was not an impediment to the cruise ship industry since a layover in British Columbia port was possible. But COVID-19 changed the rules on transiting Canadian waters.

Prior to Biden signing the legislation the Website Travel Pulse noted that

“Alaska cruises usually stop in Vancouver or Victoria, Canada. But Canada has banned large cruise ships from its waters through February 2022, a move that appeared to block Alaska’s 2021 season – except for small U.S.-flagged passenger vessels – until Congress passed a PVSA waiver last week. The bill still needs the signature of President Joe Biden.”

The Alaska Tourism Restoration Act temporarily waives the PVSA requirement that Alaska-bound ships departing U.S. ports, such as Seattle, must stop along the way in a Canadian port.

This story published last October by Cruise Radio reviews this history of the PVSA and other laws and how they have impacted the cruise ship industry in the past and up to the present.

Cruise Lines Respond To The New Law

The Anchorage Daily News reported that

“Shortly before the bill was signed, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines announced that it will send two ships to Alaska this year. Combined with previously announced voyages from other cruise lines, that means at least six large ships will come to Alaska on weekly visits later this summer.”

According to the Seattle Times

“Earlier Monday, Norwegian Cruise Line announced plans to resume U.S. operations beginning Aug. 7, with voyages from Seattle to Alaska ports. The company has planned sailings through mid-October.

“Cruise lines such as Holland America Line also have announced sailing plans.”

If You Sail, Will They Come?

The Anchorage Daily News noted that

“The six ships coming to Alaska later this summer have a combined average capacity of 3,200 passengers. If each were to sail for eight weeks on average at full capacity, that’s the potential for 153,600 cruise tourists. [Tales Told From The Road Editor’s note: That would only be about a tenth of the number of cruise tourists who came to Alaska in 2019.]

Mount Roberts Tramway, Juneau

“But it isn’t clear how much demand there will be for cruise travel. Cruise ships were a focus of the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the cruise lines are now marketing Alaska voyages on short notice.

And according to the Seattle Times the larger cruises ships will be sticking to the waters and parts of Southeast Alaska’s “Panhandle” and not venturing farther north into Southcentral Alaska.

CDC COVID-19 Rules On Cruises

Travel+Leisure pointed out that the pandemic has also required cruise ships to meet the U.S. Centers for Disease Control requirements on vaccination of passengers and crew. Some cruise lines are doing “test sailings” to prove that they can meet CDC requirements, and The New York Times reports that a large number of potential passengers have volunteered to be aboard those trips.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that

“All of the large cruise lines coming to Alaska are requiring passengers and crew to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are imposing further restrictions.”

Other Ways North To Alaska

While cruise ships have historically carried many millions of visitors north to Alaska, they have never offered the only means of transportation for tourists heading to that state.

The “Alaska Marine Highway” operates ferry service between Bellingham, Washington and Ketchikan, Alaska every Wednesday and some Saturdays from May through September.

Alaska Marine Highway Ferry “Taku” at Juneau

These large ferries can carry foot passengers or those traveling with a car. AMH also provides ferry service to other Alaska towns and cities especially in Southeast Alaska (the state’s “Panhandle”) which are not connected to each other by roads or highways.

Alaska Airlines flies between several cities in the Lower 48 States and destinations in Alaska, often with connections through Seattle and sometimes Juneau (a hub for both airline and ferry service) as well.

Our Plane Lands at Sikta

United Airlines has service to Anchorage from several cities, as do Delta and American Airlines.

What To Do While Ashore

In the pre-pandemic era large cruise ships often sailed overnight between Alaska ports. On arrival, passengers could either tour the port city on foot or go on an organized excursion or tour arranged through the cruise line or directly with local tour companies.

Tour Vendor at Juneau Cruise Ship Dock

“Flightseeing,” dog sledding, glacier walking, and day trips on tour boats are examples of activities that passengers might choose to engage in while ashore.

On The Ground, MistyFjords Near Ketchikan

And port city shops and restaurants might receive the lion’s share of their annual revenue from purchase of meals and goods by cruise ship passengers.

Although Alaska tourism took a financial beating in 2020, it is not clear how many tour operators and other businesses might have permanently closed since 2019 in Alaska cities visited by cruise ships and how many might be open for business went cruises from U.S. ports such as Seattle resume this summer. However, Holland America’s Website has four pages of shoreside excursion listings for Ketchikan alone.

And back in March, before the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act became law, the Anchorage Daily News reported that

“[f]or many cruise-dependent communities and businesses, the prognosis for the 2021 tourist season is similarly bleak [as in 2020] … independent travelers present a huge opportunity in Alaska…since before the pandemic, close to half the state’s year-round visitors were independent, arriving by air, highway or ferry… [and who have] more access to a variety of restaurants and shops, and [who stay] longer and [spend more in Alaska.”

And if an actual cruise to Alaska isn’t in the cards for you in 2021, you can always “Take A Virtual Journey Through Southeast Alaska” which many cruise ships headed up the Inside Passage visit each year.

“Yellowstone is certainly one of the most heavily visited national parks in the Western U.S. with over 4 million tourists coming each year from 2015 through 2019.

“But thanks the coronavirus, visitation may drop off considerably this year especially since park lodging and dining may be quite limited.

“Even in a normal year, waiting until late April or May to book lodging could result in you discovering that there is “no room at the inn.

“With luck, a year from now a vaccine against the virus will be widely available so putting off a trip to Yellowstone until 2021 might be prudent.”

So, what, if anything, has changed for those planning to head to Yellowstone this summer?

COVID Concerns

The good news is that there are now three COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S. and that by the time you read this in most states residents 16 years and older are now eligible to be vaccinated.

The bad news is that some refuse to be vaccinated and even those eager for “The Jab” may have found it difficult to locate a place near where they live to actually receive it. So, in the U.S. we still are far from reaching the point where seventy percent or more of the population has immunity either from having contracted the virus and survived or from having been vaccinated.

Even if you are fully vaccinated other visitors that you encounter in and around Yellowstone, particularly indoors such as when dining, may not be. And although being outdoors may help minimize the risk of becoming infected by COVID-19, at times you may find yourself in the midst a crowd of park visitors particularly at popular locations such as the Old Faithful Geyser.

(Old Faithful Geyser; Jim Peaco and Yellowstone NP Photo)

Because the vaccine you received is not 100% effective against the original novel coronavirus and its variants there is at least some slight risk that an infected visitor could pass the virus on to you. And if you should become ill from the coronavirus while in Yellowstone where could you go to get treatment?

Even were to assume that COVID-19 will not pose a health risk to you it is still spreading through American communities so one would expect that availability of lodging, campgrounds, and services within Yellowstone might be limited again in 2021. And that does appear to be the case.

The Web site of the concessionaire that operates lodging in the park and handles campground reservations states:

“As we continue to navigate the uncertain waters of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the health and safety of our guests and employees remain top priorities. Based on the guidance and recommendations of public health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Park Service, we are modifying the opening schedule of our operations and beginning with a first phase of limited services for Summer 2021.

“As health and safety guidelines allow, we hope to open additional lodging and services as part of the second phase of our Summer 2021 operations. At this point, we are not able to predict when this might happen but will provide updates as they are available.”

What’s Open, What’s Available

The concessionaire’s Website does show lodging and campgrounds that will be available during “Phase 1.” But nowhere online could I find a description of “Phase 2” of the Summer 2021 operations within the park.

(Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel; Dick Jordan Photo)

More importantly, the fact that beginning June 2, 2021 the concessionaire will begin taking reservations for stays in 2022 may be a tacit admission that dates in 2021 are nearly or completely fully booked.

The Yellowstone National Park Website does not offer much information about availability of services during the coming summer months. However, it does state:

“The below information is for reference only. We will continue to evaluate and adapt to changing COVID-19 guidance and adjust operations as needed.

“Important Safety Notice

“Effective February 5, 2021, individuals over the age of two years must wear masks, except when actively eating or drinking, in the following locations:

1. 1. All common areas and shared workspaces in buildings owned, rented or leased by the National Park Service, including, but not limited to, park visitor centers, administrative offices, lodges, gift shops and restaurants.
   2. Outdoor areas where physical distancing (staying at least six feet apart) cannot reasonably be maintained.

“Masks must cover the nose and mouth and fit snugly around the nose and chin with no large gaps around the sides of the face. Masks not designed to be protective, masks with ventilation valves, and face shields do not meet the requirement.

“Exceptions: CDC guidance recognizes that masks should not be worn by anyone whom has trouble breathing. Wearing masks may be difficult for some people with sensory, cognitive, or behavioral issues. If a visitor is unable to wear a mask properly or cannot tolerate a mask, they should not wear one and may be asked to leave any location where masks are required to be worn. Visitors may be asked to lower their masks briefly for identification purposes in compliance with safety and security requirements.”

And the “Plan Your Visit” section of the park’s Website does provide basic, but useful, information which you should be sure to read if you are heading to Yellowstone.

Getting There By Air, Getting There By Car

Another factor to consider, especially this year, is the means of transportation will you use to reach and travel around within the park.

If you will be traveling by air there are several airports in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming that are reasonably near to Yellowstone.

But even prior to the coronavirus pandemic flights into those airports from your hometown may have been quite limited and probably would have involved at least one change of planes at an airline’s larger “hub” airport.

For example, on my first trip to Yellowstone I flew from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, were a very long layover which gave me ample time to take a taxi downtown and visit the Mormon Tabernacle and Temple Square before returning to the airport to catch a connecting flight to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

I rented a car there, spent three nights in nearby Grand Teton National Park, then drove north to Yellowstone for another three-night stay before driving back to Jackson Hole to hop a flight back to Salt Lake City and then on to San Francisco and home.

(Teton Range; NPS Photo)

On my next trip I flew from San Francisco to Denver, had lunch in the airport, and then flew on to Bozeman, Montana.

After a couple of days there, I drove south and east into Yellowstone, spent nine nights at three different locations within the park, then headed northeast to Red Lodge for a short stay, and back to Bozeman to overnight before flying home.

(Bozeman Airport; Tim Gage Flickr Photo)

But during the pandemic airlines cut back markedly on flights to many destinations. Now, as people begin to plan and take trips, the number of flights will increase. But whether you can find a seat on a flight to an airport hear Yellowstone could be problematic, especially if you cannot be flexible about the dates that you leave and return home.

The easiest way to get to Yellowstone and travel through the vast park is by car. But you could spend many hours behind the wheel of your own car just getting there depending on where you live. Here are driving times in hours (not including any stops) one-way from some major U.S. cities:

• Denver (9-10)
• Seattle (12-13)
• Portland, Oregon (13-14)
• Los Angeles (15-18)
• San Francisco (16-17)
• Phoenix (16-17)
• Chicago (21)
• Dallas (21)
• Atlanta (29-30)
• New York City (33)
• Miami (38-39).

If you add in overnight stops, you could easily spend two to eight or more days going to and from Yellowstone with your sightseeing along the way limited to “through the windshield” views of the passing scenery.

Yellowstone is a huge park, 2.2 million acres covering nearly 3,500 square miles, an area larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

On my first trip to the park I only had two full and two partial days to spend. One day I left my room at 7:00 a.m. and return at 7:00 p.m., on a marathon, twelve-hour whirlwind drive from Yellowstone Lake to Yellowst0ne Falls to Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful and back to Yellowstone Lake, spending at least half of the time just rolling down the park roads in my car.

Having 10 days and 9 nights in Yellowstone on my second trip allowed me to leisurely explore several areas of the park rather than rush through it as though I was on a mission to see as much as I good in as little time as possible.

Flying from those cities to the Yellowstone area and then renting a car would seem to make a lot of sense.

But as I recently wrote in “Where Have All The Rental Cars Gone: Not On The Road Again” you could arrive at your destination, wait hours to get the car you reserved or discover that even with a confirmed reservation there are no cars to be had or that you will be charged a king’s ransom for the rental. (This Washington Post story provides a detailed explanation of how the pandemic has led to the relative scarcity and high cost of rental cars.)

Last year in “Yellowstone In 2020” I said “putting off a trip to Yellowstone until 2021 might be prudent.” This year my advice is “putting off a trip to Yellowstone until 2022 might be prudent.”

(Lower GeyserBasin; Dick Jordan Photo)

In the meantime, read my 2016 story “Yellowstone: Mother of All Parks” to be inspired to keep Yellowstone on near the top of your “travel bucket list” of destinations you “must see.”

The bad news is that the “original” novel coronavirus and its variants are still moving through the world and that none of the available vaccines provide 100% immunity from them.

You want to head to San Francisco and your anti-COVID strategy is to spend as much time as possible outdoors during your stay.

The good news is that if you are going to visit between now (mid-to-late April) and October the odds that you will get rained on are low. But summer in and around the City of San Francisco can be windy, foggy and cold, at least at times. So sweaters, jackets and long pants and long-sleeved shirts should be in your suitcase, not just shorts and tee-shirts.

Here are some suggestions for outdoor activities during your stay. Some visitor facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area mentioned it this story may be closed due to the pandemic so be sure to check online to see what will actually be open during your stay.

Along San Francisco’s Northern Waterfront

While visitors can walk from the Ferry Building to Fisherman’s Wharf, I recommend that you begin your waterfront stroll the Maritime Museum and the Hyde Street Pier.

(U.S. National Park Service Photo)

From there continue westward through Fort Mason, have lunch there at Greens or pick up something from the Safeway store deli just across from Ft. Mason and try to find a bench or picnic table along the waterfront near the marina area where boats are docked.

Then continue west and walk along Crissy Field to Fort Point just below the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

(Dick Jordan Photo)

After Fort Point you could hike up to the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center and even it is not open get a good view of the bridge and San Francisco Bay or even walk all the way across the bridge and back. After that stop, head back downhill and over to the Pet Cemetery and then walk through the grounds of the Presidio of San Francisco.

Muir Woods and Other Marin County Hikes

 If you are saying in San Francisco you might be able to get to and from the walks outlined above by taking public transit or using a ride sharing service like Uber or Lyft. But it will be easier to do the outings listed below if you have your own car or one from a rental company.

Muir Woods National Monument is probably atop the “Must See” list of places to go for many visitors to San Francisco. But Muir woods can be busy any day, anytime of year, particularly in summer, and you will probably need a parking or transit reservation to be able to get into it.

(Photo by Kevin Wolf on Unsplash)

Hikers have another option for getting into Muir Woods: Drive up to the Mountain Home Inn, park across the road, hike down into Muir Woods and back up again to Mountain Home Inn through Camp Alice Eastwood.

(Courtesy Theresa Fisher)

There are many hiking trails in the area, especially in Mount Tamalpais State Park which sits just above Muir Woods. Here are some trail hikes you could do in and around Muir Woods.

The Marin Headlands Unit of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area covers a vast area that extends from near the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge and extends north pass to Muir Woods, Mt. Tamalpais State Park and to the southern and eastern edges of Point Reyes National Seashore.

One of my favorite Marin Headlands hikes (although not on a hot day because there is almost no shade) takes you from the parking lot near Rodeo Beach up to the Battery Townsley gun emplacement, around Hill 88 on the Coastal Trail, down the Miwok Trail through the Gerbode Valley (which remains a large open space rather than a city full of homes and a shopping center) and back to you starting point.

(Dick Jordan Photo)

You will pass the road up to The Marine Mammal Center as you head back to Rodeo Beach; it is world-renown and well worth a visit if it is open.

(Dick Jordan Photo)

I would not do any of these hikes in flip-flops, tennis shoes or street shoes. Some of the trails are steep and rocky so wearing hiking boots is best. Carry water, lunch or snacks especially since the limited facilities that might provide them could be closed.

A Huge Model of San Francisco Bay and An Historic Shipyard

As an indoor-door alternative to doing these hikes, you could visit the Bay Model Visitor Center in Sausalito, a mile north of the busy, touristy downtown.

(Photo Courtesy of Bay Model Visitor Center)

It is a three-dimensional hydraulic model of San Francisco Bay, a slice of the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the river system to the east which feeds into the Bay, tucked into a warehouse building about two acres in size.

(Photo Courtesy of Bay Model Visitor Center)

It was built in the 1950s-1960s as a laboratory for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That use ended in 2000 so it is now basically a natural history museum that demonstrates how tidal action affects the San Francisco Bay Estuary.

(Photo Courtesy of Bay Model Visitor Center)

From the Model you can walk around the part of the Sausalito waterfront which was the site of the Marinship shipyard operation during World War II. A number of buildings and other artifacts from Marinship still remain, and the Bay Model Visitor Center has a section devoted to its history.

(Tales Told From The Road publisher lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over forty-five years before moving to Eugene, Oregon. He often hiked trails in Marin County and for thirteen years was a volunteer tour guide at the Bay Model Visitor Center.)

But the availability of vaccines appears to have unleashed a strong pent-up desire on the part of those who have received “The Jab” to travel because (to steal lyrics from one of Willie Nelson’s famous tunes) they “just can’t wait to get on the road again” and they are booking flights, hotels and (so they think) reserving rental cars.

Unfortunately, as revealed by comments to a Facebook post that included a link to this recent Wall Street Journal article (“Wait, Where Did All the Rental Cars Go?”) those who have tried to “hit the road” after flying to a destination have encountered some very unpleasant surprises.

Those Facebook comments echo what the WSJ said near the beginning of that article:

“The sudden surge in post-vaccination travel is colliding with a relative shortage of rental cars. Rental-car companies sold a huge chunk of their fleets—hundreds of thousands of vehicles—to survive the pandemic. Now they can’t get cars onto their lots fast enough to meet the new demand, especially with car factories stalled by semiconductor shortages.

“Travelers report sky-high prices and sold-out dates even in non-beach destinations like Kansas City, Houston and Memphis. Even travelers with reservations complain that they now sometimes show up and, with no cars on the lot, must wait for a car to be returned and cleaned before they can drive off.”

“SORRY, WE HAVE NO CARS”

The while a shortage of rental cars because companies have reduced their fleets at many locations because of the marked downturn in travel due to the pandemic, finding that there no cars to be had or that the car that you had reserved was not available soon after your flight landed is not a new phenomenon.

Several years ago a good friend who lives on Maui had to fly over to Kauai between Christmas and New Years to attend a business meeting arranged on very short notice. When he arrived he discovered that there were no rental cars to be had presumably because tourists seeking a warm and sunny respite from winter weather at home had snatched them all up. While it might be possible for a rental car location at a mainland U.S. airport to quickly add cars to its fleet by moving some from other nearby locations, transporting cars between the islands of Hawaii to deal with a temporary shortage is not so easy.

I have personally encountered a shortage of rental cars on at least five pre-pandemic trips even though I had reserved a specific type of vehicle far in advance.

At Newark there were no “full-size” sedans so I was given an “upgrade” to a Lincoln Town Car at no additional charge. The car was fine for freeway driving but rocked and rolled like an aircraft carrier in heavy seas on the winding country roads of Pennsylvania and New York where I did most of the driving during the trip.

On a trip to Maui I was upgraded from a standard sedan to a Toyota Land Cruiser at no additional charge. For normal in-town, local driving it was a bit of a behemoth. But it did mean that I could “legally” drive it on the narrow, and sometimes dirt section of highway that curves around the southwestern end of the island on which car rental company contracts usually don’t allow the typical “family sedan” to be driven.

On arrival in Phoenix, I had to wait the better part of an hour to pick up the Honda Prius I had reserved even though as a Hertz “Gold” member the car was supposed to be ready drive off in as soon as I arrived.

When I flew into Calgary’s airport in 2012, I had to either accept a van (it being the only car ready to go) or wait (as I did) for the type of car I had reserved to be cleaned and refueled despite (once again) being a Hertz “Gold” member who had paid an annual fee to avoid having to stand in line at an airport rental car counter to pick up my reserved car.

On my last pre-pandemic “Big Trip” I spent the first three weeks of December of 2018 on Maui and then flew to San Francisco on Christmas Eve so my wife and I could have Christmas dinner with her cousins the following day. At that time the earliest non-stop flight between Maui and San Francisco departed around 1:30 pm Hawaii time and arrived in San Francisco around 9:00 pm local time.

Yet again despite being a Hertz “Gold” member the only vehicle available to us after we landed at San Francisco International Airport was a large pickup truck. The Hertz staff just shrugged their shoulders when I pointed out the truck was not what I had reserved. Fortunately, the family who had beaten us to the rental car garage decided they would prefer the pickup to the full-sized sedan they were given so we “exchanged gifts” and drove away in the vehicle that we had asked “Santa” to bring to us.

While some travelers posting comments on Facebook the Wall Street Journal article have complained about having to wait for a rental car to be returned, cleaned, and refueled, many have said that there were no cars available from any rental car company let alone from the one through which they had made a confirmed, advance reservation.

RENTAL CAR PRICES GO SKY-HIGH

And then there are the car rental rates which in my mind even in pre-pandemic times seemed quite high. Now I read reports of rates double or more what they had been in the past and as even as high as a few hundred dollars per day.

If you are traveling to and staying entirely in a major metropolitan city renting a car often makes no sense at all, especially if you would only use it to drive to your in-town hotel from the airport. Taxis, buses or light rail systems or ride sharing offered by Uber or Lyft usually are a good option for that trip into town as well as getting around town. And since most downtown hotels charge a fee to guests who park a car in their garage, you can save quite a bit of money by not renting a car.

But what I am hearing now is that both “locals” and tourists have been steering clear of the close quarters with other passengers aboard buses, subway, and light rail systems to avoid the possibility of being infected with COVID-19, optic instead to rent a car in which they only will be riding. I have also heard that there have been fewer drivers working for Uber and Lyft during the pandemic.

Life is still not back to “normal” and even though booking of flights and hotels may be on the increase, nothing about travel at this time seems to be the way it was before the novel coronavirus turn our lives upside down.

And, unfortunately “getting on the road again” is not as easy was it used to be.

(Read “How to Deal with the Rental Car Crunch” by The New York Times “Frugal Traveler” for tips for getting around the shortage and high cost of renting a vehicle.)

So I am presumably as protected as possible at the present time from getting infected, seriously ill, hospitalized or dying due to the novel coronavirus.

On Friday, April 2, 2021, the Washington Post reported that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (better known as the CDC) announced that fully vaccinated persons could resume travel within the U.S.

“without getting a coronavirus test or self-quarantining, provided they follow the other recommended public health measures, such as wearing masks on planes, buses, trains and other forms of public transportation.”

The newspaper also reported that the CDC had decided that

“For international travel, fully vaccinated people do not need to be tested before their trips unless it is required by the destination, the guidance says. For their return to the United States, fully vaccinated people should get tested and have a negative result before they board an international flight back to the United States.”

The last overnight out-of-town trip I took was in January of 2020, before the pandemic began its deadly spread across the U.S., when I went to Coos Bay to see one of my films screened at the historic Egyptian Theatre during the Oregon Coast Film Festival.

During the past fifteen months the farthest away from home I’ve ventured is about 10 miles east to get pizza-to-go once a month and once 10 miles south down I-5 for an outdoor lunch last summer at a bakery favored by “locals.”

So you’ve think like other Americans suffering from long-term “cabin fever” I would planning at least a short “getaway” trip by car or a farther-away-from-home trip by air and be busy booking lodging and flights.

But I’m not. I’m staying put. At least for the moment.

Here’s why.

Been There, Seen That

Unlike my travel writer colleague, Gary Ardnt, who travels frequently and who publishes the travel blog “Everything, Everywhere” I have not seen “everything” and not been “everywhere.”

But I during the five decades since I reached “legal adulthood” (old enough to vote, drink alcohol in every state) I have been to many places, particularly in the Western U.S. where I have lived most of my life, and parts of Canada, plus the British Virgin Islands, and several European cities and countries. And the U.S. Air Force sent me to some places I may not have chosen to visit on my own: Indiana and Texas, and the island of Okinawa.

(Dick Jordan Photo/Crater Lake National Park)

I don’t have a “bucket list” of destinations that I “must visit” before I “kick the bucket.”

Now approaching the middle of the seventh decade of life, and having lost well over a year of the “traveling life” to the coronavirus, most of my future travels will probably be to see friends and family rather than to visit “tourist destinations.”

Getting There Isn’t Half The Fun Anymore

Traveling by car any significant distance from my home in Eugene, Oregon is likely to involve “trucking” up and down I-5 which, particularly as one nears the larger cities along the path of that freeway from Washington State to Southern California, is no longer “The Open Road” but a highway clogged with local traffic, long-haul trucks and, at least in the summer, RVs, pickup trucks with camper tops or ones towing boats or trailers.

(Doug Kerr Flickr Photo)

Gazing through the windshield and the passing scenery instead of keeping your eye on the road before and behind you creates a risk of becoming a traffic fatality.

The “Joy of Driving” which I experienced as a teenager with a newly-minted driver’s license and the first car he purchased can no longer be felt, replaced by stress-inducing fear as one heads down the highway.

When I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area catching a non-stop flight out of the international airports at Oakland and San Francisco to places near and far was relatively easy even though it could take an hour or more driving in heavy traffic to reach those airports.

(Wikipedia Commons Photo)

The Eugene airport is about a twenty-minute drive from my home, has decent, cheap parking and is small enough that getting to the gate from which your flight will depart is quick and easy.

But unlike airports serving major metropolitan cities, there are fewer flights on fewer airlines and fewer destinations served by non-stop flights.

If you are headed to the East Coast from Eugene plan on leaving home at “O-Dark Thirty” to catch a flight out about 6:00 a.m. and changing planes at least once if not twice before reaching your final destination sometime, perhaps even quite late, in the evening.

There are no flights from here to international destinations. From San Francisco there were at least four ten-hour long non-stop flights to London daily. From Eugene it would take at least twelve to thirteen hours with a stop along the way to change planes in Seattle, Denver, Phoenix or San Francisco to reach the capital city of the U.K.

Although the Eugene airport can handle 737 aircraft many airlines the serve the destination fly smaller, more cramped, “regional” jets.

And regardless of whether I’m flying “Up Front” in First Class or the last row of “Coach” next to the galley and restrooms I’ll be required to “mask-up” during the entire flight (except presumably while eating and drinking). But will all of my fellow passengers agree to adopt the COVID precautionary measure or will there by harsh words and even fisticuffs between those who refuse to wear masks and flight attendants or those passengers who do wear masks?

So “getting there” from where I live, whether I travel by air or car, is definitely not “half the fun.”

Destination COVID Blues

How will I be greeted on arrival at my vacation destination?

Even if I traveled in my own car, or if the airline didn’t require it, will I have to provide proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID by presenting a vaccination record card of a digital “Vaccine Passport” either by the destination itself or hotels, restaurants of other venues visited by tourists?

Will I have to self-quarantine for a few days or as long as two-weeks and undergo periodic COVID testing?

Of course, I will probably still be required to “mask up” wherever I go in public and face possible ostracization from others around me or perhaps even local authorities if I don’t do so?

And then there is the troubling aspect of rising rates of COVID infection even as the percentage of the population being vaccinated is on the rise. Will I arrive at my destination only to discover that the increased rate of infection has just caused COVID-based restrictions on indoor (or even outdoor) dining, events, and public gatherings to be approaching “lock-down mode?”

Why Bother Leaving Home?

When I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area a former Fotomat kiosk that been turned into drive-through espresso stand offer a drink known as a “Why Bother?” It was a coffee latte made with decaffeinated coffee and non-fat milk.

So planning and taking a trip during this “COVID roller-coaster” period strikes me as a “Why Bother?” Even if your trip comes off without a hitch the travel experience is likely to be a bit “edgy” and nothing like it would have been in pre-pandemic times or, if we ever get there, the post-COVID era.

If you’re off to see the world, or just a tiny bit of it close to home, have a great trip and let me know how it went.

But don’t look for me in the airport or on the highway anytime soon.

For now I’ll be at home doing a “staycation.”

(The third installment of Dick Jordan’s recollections of the events of September 11, 2001 appeared yesterday. The story concludes today.)

 Unhappy Travels

A month after returning from Europe we were in the air again, this time flying from San Francisco to Newark where we picked up a rental car and drove northwestward into Pennsylvania. In mid-summer my wife had gone back to upstate New York to help her 94 year old ailing aunt move into an assisted living facility located across the Delaware River just a few miles south of her home. Now we were coming to help her celebrate her 95th birthday.

(Wikipedia Commons Photo)

The health of my wife’s aunt had declined since August. She was hospitalized when we arrived, then moved to a nursing home. We bought a cake and some gifts and held a bed-side birthday party for her.

We stopped at the nursing home the following morning to pay her one last visit before driving on to the Newark airport for the trip home. But she had died sometime during the night, so we rescheduled our flight to later in the week in order to attend the funeral.

As it turned out, we might not have made it home that day, anyway. Earlier in the morning American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Queens shortly after takeoff from JFK. Flight operations at Newark were temporarily suspended due to concerns that the plane might have been brought down by a terrorist attack.

(NOAA Photo)

Less than a month later I received a phone call from my stepfather’s brother. My stepfather had suffered a severe stroke. I flew to Seattle the following day, stayed with him until he passed away at the end of the week, and set about making the funeral arrangements. My wife arrived from California, we buried my stepfather, then flew home just before Christmas.

Temporarily Grounded

We did little traveling in 2002 and nearly all of it was in our own cars.

Although I flew to and from Seattle to go sailing with a friend, my wife had no desire to fly again so soon after our three post-9/11 trips.

We gradually resumed vacation travel by air.

In the summer of 2003 we went by plane to the area in and around Glacier National Park.

(Dick Jordan Photo)

In 2004, we boarded flights to Maui, Montana, Atlanta, and Phoenix.

The following year we flew to Las Vegas, Idaho, and Montreal.

Déjà Vu

In August of 2006, less than three weeks before our planned return visit to Europe, British authorities uncovered an alleged plot to use liquid explosives to blow up ten airliners flying between the U.K. and the U.S. and Canada.

Chaos reigned at Heathrow and other airports world-wide.

(Snappy Goat Photo)

Flights were canceled. Some passengers were stranded, others were told to arrive many hours before departure because clearing security checkpoints would be a prolonged process.

New rules limiting the type of liquids and gel products that could be placed in carry-on luggage were implemented.

British officials prohibited passengers from bringing aboard more than a single bag about the size of one used to tote a laptop computer.

At SFO and Heathrow my wife’s cosmetic bag was gone through with a fine-tooth comb, but my toiletry kit was given only a cursory inspection.

Before flying from London to Vienna on British Airways we carefully re-packed our hand luggage so it would meet the new bag-size limits, only to watch a man ahead of us in line at the security checkpoint walk through carrying a huge rucksack which was clearly over-size.

(Needpix Photo)

It was debatable who was the least informed and most confused about the new security measures: Passengers, or airport security staff.

No Problemo

Three years later we were once again on an airporter bus headed to San Francisco International to catch a flight to London at the beginning of a month-long trip across Europe.

As in 2006, we would stay two nights in London, then fly from Heathrow to the Continent, work our way back to London by car and train, then board a Heathrow-SFO flight to get home.

(Geograph Photo)

So what terrorist plot or activity threw a monkey-wrench into our plans this time?

None, nil, nada.

No liquid bombers.

No shoe bombers.

No hijackers.

Everything went smoothly at the airport and on-board.

What The Future Holds

What happened on September 11, 2001, has forever changed the air travel experience. Those terrible events have not been repeated thus far, but the once-friendly skies will never, ever again, feel entirely safe.

Our bags can be checked, but our subliminal fear of flying will cannot.

(This is the final segment in his recollections of 9/11 and his travels over several years following that awful, unforgettable day in American and world history. This story was first published on Tales Told From The Road in September of 2011. At age 7, Dick Jordan donned a suit and tie, climbed aboard a United Airlines DC-6, and took his first flight: Up to Vancouver, British Columbia.)

(The second installment of Dick Jordan’s recollections of the events of September 11, 2001 appeared yesterday. The story continues today).

Arrival in Italy, At Last!

The weather had been good for flying and only a few puffy clouds floated in the skies ahead of us. We crossed the still snow-clad upper reaches of the Alps, then began our descent towards Milan.

(Wikipedia Commons Photo)

I could see rectangular patches of farmland below us.

Somewhere to the south the Po River must have been coursing its way toward the Adriatic.

The pilot banked the plane as we turned onto the final approach. Flaps were extended. Wheels were deployed.

(Wikipedia Commons Photo)

The noise of air passing by the fuselage increased.

Touchdown!

The passengers broke out into spontaneous applause; Italians glad to be home, foreign tourists cheering the real beginning of their vacation trip. I was about 2:30 pm, Milan time.

Despite what happened just days earlier, it was quite calm at Malpensa Airport northwest of Milan. We passed through Customs & Immigration and picked up our bags without undue delay.

The airport is a considerable distance from town, but a modern light-rail train quickly whisked us into the city.

(Wikipedia Commons Photo)

A taxi took us to our hotel; the cabbie offered his condolences for the loss of American lives on 9/11.

We paid him 13,000 Lire, which included a generous tip for his kind words; he carried our bags into the lobby, saluted us, and wished us “Benvenuti in Italia!”

Sunday Night Out

We walked from our hotel to Milan’s Piazza del Duomo.

It was about 6:00 pm and the sun lit up the face of the spired cathedral, while the buildings on the western side of the piazza cast shadows over the host of locals and visitors gathered in the vast, public square.

(Romain Pontida Flickr Photo)

With Rick Steves’ guidebook in hand, we ambled our way north and west, past the Galleria that fronts the northern edge of the piazza.

It was early Sunday evening and, as residents of this northern Italian metropolis might do, we went on a passeggiata.

After completing a three-quarter circle from our starting point, we entered a restaurant and asked “Chisono due posti?” (“Is there a table for two?“). “Si, prego, signore e signora” said a waiter.

We were seated near a curtained window A British gentleman at an adjoining table had dined there many times and helped us make selections from the menu.

I excused myself to make use of the gabinetto; on the way back to the table I stopped in the lobby to talk to flight attendants from a U.S. airline who had been stranded in Milan since 9/11, waiting for a flight home.

The evening was like a pleasant dream after enduring a nightmare.

Thousands of people had died on Tuesday.

How could Sunday turn out to be such an extraordinarily good day?

Changed Circumstances

A young American woman we met at Lake Como had learned of the 9/11 attacks by watching news reports splashed across the screens of multiple TV sets in the window of a consumer electronics store in Milan.

(Pixabay Photo)

On returning to Milan by train from Lake Como, we planned to leave our bags in the checked-luggage room, then enjoy a leisurely lunch at a restaurant in the city before boarding a mid-afternoon train to Venice.

(Rob Dammers Flickr Photo)

But the process of carefully scrutinizing suitcases to insure they did not contain explosive devices would have left us standing in a long, slow-moving line of passengers wanting to temporarily rid themselves of their luggage, so we dragged our rolling bags into the train station cafeteria and settled for a more plebeian meal than we had in mind.

An older couple from New York City staying at our Venice hotel were heading home to a vastly different view of the Big Apple from the windows of their apartment facing the southern end of Manhattan.

(Rawpixel Ltd Flickr Photo)

Canadians standing in line with us to pick up rental cars on a Saturday morning in Florence hoped that Maple Leaf pins in the lapels of their jackets would set them apart from Yanks in the eyes of any malefactors bent on doing harm to tourists from North America.

Merchants in Venice and Tuscany bemoaned the fact that Americans who flood Italy in September and cart home lots of expensive souvenirs had mostly cancelled their European trips.

Police helicopters chop-chopped their way over Florence; our American tour guide told us that these surveillance flights had only begun after 9/11.

When we turned in our rental car at Parma on the last full day of our trip we thought we could drop our bags at the train station and spend the afternoon touring the town before catching a late-afternoon train to Milan.

(Wikipedia Commons Photo)

But the luggage room was being remodeled and, to prevent terrorist from planting bombs, no one was permitted to stash anything in the lockers on the station platform.

We gave up our plans for a final afternoon of touring, ate a modest meal (served by a middle-age Italian waiter who told us how much he loved America) in the station’s cafe, then boarded an earlier train, took a bus from Milan to the Malpensa airport, and went by taxi to a nearby hotel to spend our last evening in Italy.

Heading Home

Halfway into our trip, Alitalia cut its workforce by nearly 20%, announced plans to mothball or sell aircraft, and suspended all service between Milan and to Francisco, cancelling our non-stop return flight in the process.

Like other financially-strapped airlines, Alitalia had been “bleeding” money well before 9/11; the terrorists attacks, and the disruption of air service that followed, had inflicted additional monetary trauma on the company.

(Wikipedia Commons Photo)

On Wednesday, October 10, 2001, we boarded an Alitalia flight to Los Angeles.

We arrived at LAX about twelve-hours later, discovered that we could catch an earlier than planned connecting flight to San Francisco on United, rushed to check our bags, and ran off to the gate.

(Bill Abbott Flickr Photo)

On our first trip to Europe in 1999 we were startled by the sight of gendarmes and soldati carrying automatic weapons at the Paris and Rome airports.

We thought nothing of this when we encountered armed security forces on our next trip to Europe two years later.

But seeing the U.S. military patrolling Los Angeles International Airport in October of 2001 was unexpected and unsettling.

(Dick Jordan’s recollections of the 9/11 attacks and the outcome of his planned trip to Italy will continue tomorrow.)

(The first installment  of Dick Jordan’s recollections of the events of September 11, 2001 appeared yesterday. The story continues today).

Departure Day

I turned on my computer before breakfast on Saturday and went to the Alitalia Website.

Departures to the U.S. had resumed.

A plane from Milan to San Francisco was in the air, although it was three hours behind schedule.

(M McBey Photo)

I called Alitalia’s reservation number and someone answered the phone.

Yes, the return flight from SFO to Milan would depart later that day.

No, we cannot tell you whether you will be on it; passengers whose flights were cancelled earlier in the week will be given preference in boarding.

I was told that we must go to the airport to find out if we will be on the passenger manifest for the flight.

Ghost Town

Normally a late morning to early afternoon airporter bus from near our home to San Francisco International would be at least half-full.

(Twitter Photo)

But on September 15, 2001, there were just four of us headed to the airport: The driver, my wife, myself, and one other passenger.

Vehicle access at SFO has never been that great.

Buses, taxis, limos, shuttles, and passenger cars continually jockey for position on the roadway that fronts the terminals and baggage claim areas.

(Wikipedia Commons Photo)

But on this Saturday traffic at the airport was virtually non-existent.

It was like being in Bodie, California, or another “ghost town” once the home of numerous 19th century gold miners, but long-since abandoned by all except for a few, die-hard residents.

We arrived two hours before the scheduled afternoon departure of our non-stop flight to Milan even though we knew that the plane would be late arriving from Italy.

The voices of the few passengers present bounced off the walls of the new International Terminal like echoes reverberating in an empty subterranean cave.

(Wikipedia Commons Photo)

At the check-in counter we were assured that we had seats on the flight. Our bags were weighed, tagged, and sent off to be ultimately loaded onto the incoming aircraft.

We had a lot of time to kill, so we wandered around the airport, had something to eat, read our paperback books, checked the TV monitors for the ETA of the inbound Alitalia flight, and twiddled our thumbs.

About 6:30 pm we went through the security checkpoint. The only change we noticed was that now only passengers with boarding passes were allowed to proceed to the departure gates; friends and family no longer could see you off as you boarded the plane.

Police officers were at the gate for our flight. But despite Tuesday’s hijackings, they spent their time “chatting up” the attractive female Alitalia gate agents rather than looking for terrorists who might be lurking among the passengers waiting to board the plane.

Wheels Up

Shortly after 7:30 pm PDT, our wide-body jet pushed back from the gate, circled around the end of the International Terminal, turned right, and rumbled south down the taxiway before swinging its nose toward Oakland, on the other side of San Francisco Bay, before coming to a halt.

(BriYYZ Photo)

The tower instructed the aircraft in front of us to pull forward and hold short of the first of two north-south runways to allow other aircraft to depart and land. Finally, our plane moved into takeoff position.

Throttles forward. Rolling. 90 knots. 120 knots. 150 knots. Rotation. Wheels up. Flaps retracted. Right turn, northeast across San Francisco Bay.

Off to Italy at last.

Flying High

Dusk became darkness as we climbed to cruising altitude, passed over California’s Central Valley, and flew across Nevada.

Dinner was served; the movie started. Everything seemed “normal” about this flight.

The plane was full. Squeezed like sardines into our seats in the first row in “Economy”, we listened in chagrin to a passenger in the Business Class cabin just a few feet ahead of us tell her seatmate that since she was last to check-in she had been “bumped” from “Coach” into the more spacious accommodations just out of our physical and financial reach.

By about 10:00 pm PDT, we must have entered Canadian airspace, probably somewhere over the province of Alberta.

The movie ended.

The cabin lights dimmed.

I nodded off.

I’m not tall, and I was in an aisle seat, but the bulkhead in front of me restricted my leg room. I awoke, left knee throbbing, used the toilet, returned to my seat, and fell back asleep.

Sun glinting off the yet-to-be-melted-to-nothingness Greenland icecap peeked through a window whose shade had not been pulled completely down by a passenger on the left-side of the plane.

(Pixabay Photo)

People began to stir. It was probably about 5-6 a.m., local time.

Cabins lights came up, flight attendants started serving coffee, breakfast was on its way.

A little icon of the aircraft inched its way eastward across the video screen embedded in the bulkhead in front of me.

We crossed Ireland, flew past London, and headed toward Paris.

For two more hours or so I would remain stuck inside of this airborne metal “cigar tube.”

(Dick Jordan’s recollections of the 9/11 attacks and the outcome of his planned trip to Italy will continue tomorrow.)

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©2010 Dick Jordan and Tales Told From The Road. All Rights Reserved. Reprint, reuse, or republication in any

fashion without the express written consent of the author is strictly prohibited.

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“The Year of Flying Dangerously ” (Part 1)

When Evil Flies

It was Tuesday morning. I had four days to catch up on work, pay bills, board the cats, and pack up my bags before departing on a 26-day trip to Italy. I brushed my teeth. shaved, and showered. I turned the radio on and tuned in KCBS to catch the “traffic and weather together.” There was a big transportation problem, but not on the streets and highways of the San Francisco Bay Area, and it had begun in the skies over America earlier that day.

I went upstairs, still in my pajamas, and turned on the TV. What looked to be the 1974 Towering Inferno movie came up on the screen.

Wikipedia Commons Photo

But it couldn’t have been that movie because as I “channel surfed” I saw that it was being broadcast on every station.

This wasn’t a Hollywood “disaster” movie, it was a real catastrophe of monumental proportions.

As the morning of September 11, 2001 progressed on the West Coast, the details of what had happened on the Eastern Seaboard were revealed.

(Wikipedia Commons)

At approximately 8:45 am EDT, American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 that had departed from Boston bound for Los Angeles, struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York between floors 93 and 99. Four minutes later, the incident was first reported on TV and radio.

At 9:03 am EDT, United Flight 175, another Boeing 767 headed to L.A. from Boston, crashed into the WTC South Tower between floors 77 and 85.

A half-hour or so after the second plane flew into the World Trade Center, American Airlines Flight 77, flying to Los Angeles from Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., smashed into the Pentagon.

(Needpix Photo)

United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 flying from Newark to San Francisco was hijacked at 9:28 am EDT, 46 minutes after take off and shortly before American 11 hit the Pentagon. At about 10 am EDT it crashed into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburg, during an attempt by the passengers and crew to regain control of the plane.

All flight operations in the U.S. were halted and in-bound international flights to the country were diverted to Canada.

Shortly after 10:00 am EDT, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.

Then the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center toppled to the ground.

What Now?

Sometime late Tuesday afternoon I turned off the TV after watching the unbelievable events of the morning play over and over again in continuous news reporting. My wife and I now faced dilemma: Even if our Saturday flight toMilan departed as scheduled, should we be aboard that plane?

The passengers and crew on the four ill-fated 9/11 flights had no clue that they were about to make life’s final journey; only the hijackers knew that they would soon be arriving in heaven or hell. We, on the other hand, we acutely aware that our upcoming vacation could be a nerve-wracking experience and that it, along with our lives, could be dramatically cut short if terrorists commandeered the aircraft on which we were flying.

I favored staying home. My wife finally persuaded me to throw caution to the wind: If our flight to Italy wasn’t cancelled, we should go; if the flight was delayed a day or more, we could change our hotel reservations and stilltake an abbreviated trip

But our decision to risk our skins or save them was irrelevant; no planes were taking off or landing at U.S. airports, and none would do so in the foreseeable future. The U.S. government had quickly come up with new airport security measures and only airlines that had proved that they could comply with these new rules would be allowed to fly from anywhere or to anywhere in the United States.

The Days After

We started phoning our airline, Alitalia, on Wednesday, September 12th. We couldn’t get through most of the time and when we did we could not find a “live” person with whom we could converse about the status of our upcoming flight. A recorded message (and the airline’s Website) simply said that Alitalia would resume flight operations “as soon as possible.”

(Wikipedia Commons Image)

News reports confirmed that no flights were operating within, from, or to the U.S. You couldn’t fly from San Francisco to Sacramento, let alone to Europe.

And no one, but no one, could tell you if and when that would change.

On Thursday, September 13th, we learned that the Alitalia flight from Milan to San Francisco on 9/11 which had been diverted to Canada had been permitted to complete its journey to SFO and fly back to Milan later that day.

But Friday’s flights between Italy and San Francisco had been cancelled, and the status of our scheduled flight on Saturday was still up in the air.

(Dick Jordan’s recollections of the 9/11 attacks and the outcome of his planned trip to Italy will continue tomorrow.)