Every generation has events that define their time in history. Ask anyone, and they can tell you exactly where there were and what they were doing when the event occurred. My generation knows where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news that John F. Kennedy was shot. I was only in elementary school when my mom told me of the shooting when she picked me up after classes.
Today is the 15th anniversary of another such event, 9/11. My clock radio alarm woke us to the horrific news that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. We immediately turned on the TV and watched the second plane hit a bit later. I didn't bother driving in to work that day until early afternoon when we had a better idea of what had happened. The images of that day are seared into the memories of nearly every American. Fifteen years later, the images are as fresh and haunting as ever. Thankfully, this year Congress renewed the funding for the care of the first responders that risked their lives that day.
Today was the first day of our eight-week trip to ... Ok, so we don't know exactly where we're going. We were supposed to spend eight weeks in Wyoming, South Dakota, and Utah, but the fires in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons wiped out that trip. We know our first destination is Farmington, NM. We had such a great time last year during our ten days at Bisti Wilderness, Chaco Canyon, and Crow Canyon that we're returning for more and hoping to add the Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness Study Area to our destinations. Farmington is only a couple of hours from Ouray, Colorado, to the north or Monument Valley to the west. At some point, we'll decide whether we're going to shoot fall color in Colorado or turn west to Utah and shoot the places from last fall's trip that we missed because of all the rain.
As usual, our first day was our longest travel day. We had a wonderfully uneventful drive to Williams, Arizona. We definitely knew when we left California. We went from smooth, well-maintained Interstate 40 to crumbling, pot-holed, rough-enough-to-rattle-your-fillings Interstate 40 in Arizona. It looked like it should be some county road to nowhere. And tomorrow, we have to drive across the rest of the state of Arizona.
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