Tour of Tears

I made it.  Gone since last Monday.  Whirlwind bus tour trip with my parents and sisters.  I think it was really tough on my parents at their age...especially my dad.  He was looking pretty well worn down by the time we got home.  Mom says he has been moving slower and spending more time reading...although he has that old corvette he bought to restore that he has put some time in puttering on.  He is 78 and my mom is 77.  They really didn't look their age compared to some of those ppl that were the same age that came on the trip. 

The trip was called "The Freedom Tour".  It was hosted by a pastor by the name of Randy Keeling.  His family used to tour around the country doing christian music concerts.  They recorded several CD's and sold them.  Their concerts grew and grew in audience number as word of mouth traveled.
(http://www.thekeelings.org/about_us.php) Randy wanted to do a tour of 9-11 memorials with a few places of the origins of this country thrown in for more perspective. 

Randy is really a great guy.  He LOVES to talk and he really cares about people.  He is the same age as my husband and he also shares a similar journey with my husband...going off the deep end into drugs and leaving his family, only to return and be saved by the sheer grace of prayer.

Our first stop was in Shanksville at the Flight 93 Memorial.  The black wall that ran the length of the edge of the debris field was long.  Along the way was little indentations where ppl had left coins, flowers, and personal items (such as bracelets, canes, stuffed animals, hats) in homage to those that had sacrificed in their fight against the terrorists.  It was a long walk...and I left quarters face down so that they would display "In God We Trust".  I cried all along the way...and with tears streaming down my face, I traced the names engraved on each of the marble panels that memorialized the passengers.  One marble panel for each one that died.  I stopped in front of the one that bore the name of Deora Bodley...a 20 year old college student.  She's older than my daughter, younger than my son.   The tears streamed down my face uncontrollably as I tried to imagine what it might have been like for her parents.  I could almost feel the all consuming pain. 

Our next stop was not until Washington, DC.  We took a night tour of the Memorials and monuments: Lincoln, Jefferson, World War II, Vietnam War, and Korean Conflict.  We stood and gazed upon the Washington Monument from the site of the WWII Memorial.  I took pictures of them all...the Wall of Ghosts, the Vietnam Wall of names and I stood in silence as I toured the WWII Memorial from one end to the other.  Such a magnificent site!  The soldiers moving through the 'rice field' at the Korean Memorial was truly a thing to behold.

My youngest sister and I walked up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to stand at the feet of Lincoln, we ALL climbed the stairs of the Jefferson Memorial to read the words etched in the walls of the building surrounding his statue.

The next morning we made our way to the Pentagon where we had received security clearance for an inside tour.  I stood in dumbfounded disbelief when we were shown where the jet had come in and how far of a path of destruction it made and I, again, teared up when I read the names of all that had been killed.  I cried as I walked through the Memorial that had been made outside the Pentagon.  It is just all so moving...

(to be continued...pictures will be posted)