We Were Lucky! - eBook

By Robin Gryting

The author recounts an epic road trip from New Jersey to Alaska following the 9/11 tragedy. He and his daughter moved her things across the nation, encountering wildlife, severe weather, and car problems. They overcame them all in a delightful tale of misadventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781716355899

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WE WERE LUCKY!

By Robin Gryting

WE WERE LUCKY!

By Robin Gryting

Copyright: 2022

Published at Lulu.com

ISBN:  5-800108-532961  (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-716-35589-9  (eBook) 

Dedicated to daughter, Randi Gryting

The 9/11/2001 Affair

On September 11, 2001, the USA suffered a gigantic terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.  When that happened daughter Randi, who was a Flight Attendant for Continental Airlines working out of the Newark, New Jersey airport, was in the air working the trip coming back from London, England.  As a matter of fact, two other family members were also flying on commercial airlines at that time.

When authorities figured out what was happening, Randi’s Boeing 777 diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, Canada where she and passengers had to stay for 6 days while authorities worked things out to get them home.  To get some idea of the scale of the emergency, there were about 38 other diverted airplanes at Gander and at least 250 countrywide.

Daughter Kelly was flying from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Dallas, Texas for special computer training.  Her flight continued to Dallas where she completed four days of training and then, at the end of the week, drove a rented car back to Prior Lake, Minnesota.

Son-in-law Dan was flying from Seattle, Washington to Las Vegas, Nevada for training on pharmaceuticals.  His plane turned around half way there and returned to Seattle where he stayed for 3 days until he could fly back to his home in Eagle River, Alaska.

Randi’s experience was the most harrowing since her home base was Newark and she was scheduled to land right by the World Trade Center.  Frankly, she was lucky.  It could have been one of her flights that got hi-jacked.  She also had some responsibility for the 140 passengers on her flight during those tense hours and days.  They had to stay on the airplane, which was serviced by very busy Gander maintenance crews.  Luckily, the toilets held out and the passengers took the extreme inconvenience in good humor.

In the days that followed there were constant warnings that the terrorists would likely strike again.  There were fears of crop dusters spraying biological weapons or other hi-jackings or bombings of some type.  Then the anthrax poisoning ‘exploded’ right next to her home in Hightstown, New Jersey which is within 10 miles of 3 post offices that tested positive for anthrax.  The post offices were Trenton, Hamilton, and West Windsor, New Jersey.  So this, and all the speculation, added to the worries of the family (not to mention Randi herself) that Randi could be the victim of an attack or be affected accidentally, by being so close to all the activity.

As it happened, in September Continental Airlines gave employees the option of going on leave for 12 months while keeping certain benefits.  This helped Continental reduce their work force to meet the diminished passenger loads and gave employees that did not feel secure a chance to take a break and still return to service later as business picked up.  

Always an optimist, Randi refused the leave offer.  Subsequently, due to the cutback in personnel, she had to go back on Reserve where one of her assignments was to sit Airport Alert and work any flight that was assigned to her.  She had to fly to Tel Aviv, Israel on one of those occasions.  That is a high-risk place to be flying at any time.

Later, Continental offered a second opportunity for employees to take a leave of absence for up to 10 months.  Randi and the whole family were embroiled in the calculations and discussions about what to do.  At the last minute, on November 7th, just before the offer expired, Randi took the offer expecting they would have her work to the end of the month or so before the leave took effect.

She was not ready for the call that came the very next day saying that her leave was effective immediately.  Although the ‘negatives’ of a leave were discussed before, suddenly they were thrust upon Randi all at once, unexpectedly.  What would she do for money?  She had to terminate her lease that extended for several more months. Where would she go?  What would she do?  Her boyfriend, Aaron, was not in a position to stop what he was doing.  He was going to college and in the National Guard as part of a