1000 Islands, New York – Attack on America!
Tuesday, September 11
Dan writes:
I trailered down to Chaumont again this morning, and spent the day under high, blue skies running around to perhaps a dozen different places in Chaumont Bay and far out into Lake Ontario looking for fish. The post-frontal conditions though, while making for a beautiful day for a boat ride have put the fish into a definite holding pattern, and I did not catch nearly as many as I would have liked to today.
At 6pm I loaded the boat onto the trailer and pulled out. I also pulled my cell phone out of the bag and saw that I had missed thirteen calls. Thirteen? Something’s wrong. That’s too many. Just then the phone rang in my hand. It was Annie, and she was immediately mad at me for not having checked my messages any earlier today. She said “Have you heard any news? Do you know what’s going on?!” She told me that we were at war, that America had been attacked. She had had no TV and no radio all day, and what little info she did have she had gotten from people emailing her throughout the day, which she had had to read via the cell-phone hookup. I told her I was already on my way home, that I would listen to the radio as I drove, and that I’d call her back before I got to the campsite.
A half hour later we were both huddled in the back seat of the Suburban watching the TV, trying to absorb the horrible news of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. At 8pm we went over to the B.A.S.S. registration meeting, and B.A.S.S. officials at that time did not have enough information to make a decision about canceling the tournament. We watched some more TV with Craig and MaryAnn after that, then headed back to the campsite for a fitful and anxious night’s sleep.
Annie writes:
I can not think of the right words to express my feelings of today. This morning I was not feeling well, so I stayed in bed until about 9am. When I eventually got up and walked to the shower house, another camper informed me that there had been an attack on the World Trade Center. That is news that gives you goose bumps, and you pray to God the families of the victims will get through it. I checked our email throughout the day and the story just kept getting bigger. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. We were being attacked everywhere, it seemed. We were at war. I tried calling Dan all through the day and had no luck. Most of the time the lines were unavailable. Dan’s mother finally got through to me after trying for two hours. I am out in the woods with no TV, no radio or newspaper, and am just listening to stories I can pick up here and there.
After trying Dan about 10,000 times, I finally reached him at 6:26pm. He answered the phone “Love Boat.” I started yelling at him because he hadn’t checked his messages all day, and he started asking what was wrong. He had no idea what was happening in the world. I started crying, told him that we were at war, and explained everything that had happened today. He was already out of the water and on his way home.
These are the things you hear about in other countries, or read about in your history books. Never would I imagine going through something like this in my lifetime. I called our parents, and the kids, and made sure everyone was okay, telling them to stay close to home, and letting them know we were safe.
We had a registration meeting tonight and they told us that as of that moment, the tournament was still scheduled. We went over to Craig’s for dinner and watched TV until about 9:45. We just cannot believe what we are seeing. I am very afraid. We do not know if this is the end of it, or if we will go to war. I cannot believe we are living out here in America, right here in the same state even (New York), what we would expect to see on TV happening only in other countries.