We live in Texas and we had entered Canada near Niagara Falls, NY. After having a great trip across Canada and spending our last night at a hotel at Lake Louise, we headed south for the long trip back to Texas.

We stopped at a roadside park. A Canadian man, who had seen our Texas license plate, came over to us and said, “Have you heard the news?” We asked, “What news?”.

By that time, the attacks had already happened, and what the man told us seemed so far-fetched that when we got back in our car, we wondered if he had told us the truth. As we headed to the border, we wondered if they had secured the border and if it would be a problem to go across.

At the border crossing, they did take our drivers licenses inside to check us out. Permission was granted to go across.

We already had reservations at a hotel in Salt Lake City right next to the Strategic Air Command, as it turned out. All night we heard planes leaving the base. We were thankful we had a car because there were many people who wanted hotel rooms or rental cars, and there were none to be had.

The next morning we headed home and as we drove we realized how empty the sky was of air traffic. Since my husband was a FAA Flight Service specialist, we’d always been near air traffic during our marriage.

It was good to get home, and at that time we could read about everything that had happened and seen TV reports non-stop.

It sort of reminded me of when President Kennedy was killed in Dallas, just 30 miles from our home in Fort Worth. Time stood still as everyone was glued to the TV for the three days before his funeral.

We prayed for the families of the people who were killed in New York City, especially for their children.