So, Sunday we made our big move north with the truck, car and family all in a row. Not too much to say about all that except that it toooooooook fooooooreeeeeeeever. Apparently Penske installs some sort of speed-control device on their trucks so anytime I'd get going any faster than 75mph a not-so-gentle clanking noise let me know that the engine wasn't receiving any more gas. Not that I could get the darn thing going that fast most of the time anyway. Anywho, the speed plus a short detour meant that the trip took a little under 8 hours. The boys did great though and we made it alive and tired.

Above mentioned detour was about 10 miles north past Somerset, PA to the site of the United 93 crash site (see here for the basics).
At first glance, it looks like just a bunch of flags in a field. The Park Service has set up a little temporary memorial overlooking the crash site with lots of little gifts and rememberances from all over the country. The permanent memorial is pending construction while they work out a few controversies and cut a little red tape. In the picture to the right, Jon and I are standing in front of a row of flags that have a little bit of information about each of the passengers and crew (sent by their families I believe). If you squint (or see enlarged version) you can see a flag just above Jonathan which indicates where the bulk of the plane hit the ground.

The most amazing part of the whole experience was to see how common and normal those people were. They were just average joes who got on a plane one normal day and ended up being a few of that day's tragic heroes. Here's the tail end of a short presentation that they do at the memorial:



This was the last of the 9/11 sites that we had to visit, which I guess was something I really had to do at some point because it so fundamentally altered the course of our lives.