An unbelievable day. The tragedy that has struck America is of an inconceivable magnitude. Our hearts go out to the victims and their friends and families.
Our situation was extremely fortunate under the circumstances. Our flight was not diverted, we landed in Dallas - Ft. Worth before 9 A.M. Dallas time, and word of some kind of disaster had only begun to circlate. Our departing flight to San Diego was still issuing boarding passes, scheduled as "on time" and all seemed routine. We expected to be home by noon San Diego time.
As we waited to board, we began to hear more, that the World Trade building had been hit by an airplane, that they thought a bomb had been set off at the Pentagon, that there was something very wrong. Our flight called for a short delay, then a longer one. I had started off to find a snack to eat, but in passing the gate next to ours, I heard the attendant tell the waiting passengers to get their luggage and go home, that their flight was cancelled. I turned around and went back to the group, and we started to discuss what to do.
Word came that our flight would not depart before noon, then that it was postponed until the following day. Richard Esparza and I looked at each other, and decided we had to get vehicles immediately. Both Richards and I went to the bank of telephones that connect airport patrons to rental car agencies and began calling. Few would even answer the phone, all who did said there were no cars available at all.
We were asking for two vans early on, to be driven to San Diego and dropped off there. All the agencies said no except one, National. I had the extremely good fortune to have the phone answered by Lisa Daniels, who said yes, they had a very few vans available, and that she would contract with us to drop off in San Diego, that she would hold them for us but we had to get there immediately. I thanked her, and Richard Esparza and I started for the National rental counter, which is located away from the terminal, accessible only by shuttle.
The sight at the rental center was amazing. All the agencies are housed in one building, and every one had lines between 50 and 100 people deep. We began our wait in the line to National. Several times during our wait an agent came out, walked the line and told the people waiting that if they did not have a reservation they should leave, as there were no more cars available. A number of people left the line when told they were required to have a reservation. We stayed in line.
When we reached the counter, we were greeted by a lady named "Kitty" who asked our name. I gave her mine, and she serched the database. We were not in the computer. She asked if we had a reservation and I explained that I had called and reserved two vans. She asked if I had a confirmation number. I said no. She serched a while longer, and could not find us in the computer. To her credit, she did not simply tell us to get lost, she went searching the counter for some confirmation of our story. Thankfully Lisa had made a note of our conversation, including the one-way arrangement and the daily rate, and Kitty found the note.
Back at the computer, Kitty worked for about 15 minutes to materialize 2 vans from her database. During this entire process, Richard Esparza had realised he had removed his drivers license from his wallet prior to departure to Peru to avoid the possability of loss or theft. The interesting thing is that I had done the same, keeping only a credit card and an ATM card, but then said to myself "no, you are going to have to rent a car, so put your license back in". I also put in my AOPA membership card, which provides discounts at the car rental companies. Both these items were critical to the process we wre going through.
Well, we were at the counter, two vans reserved, and only one drivers license. Kitty made out one contract for one van under my name, and I signed up. We confirmed that to add a driver, that driver had to present their driver's license. We had to go back for another driver with a license. At this point I was concerned about losing the other van. I asked if we could go ahead and make out the contract, sign me up, then come back and add the other driver. Kitty said yes, we could do that, but our clock started ticking at the time of the signing of the contract. I said that was great!
Kitty put the signed contract off to the side and said to go get the other driver, come back, stand off to the side until she called us over, then we could add the other person. Extremely grateful, Richard E. and I walked out to the parking garage.
The garage is a very large parking structure. I have seldom seen such an empty building. The attendant at the door indicated a small group of vans over in a corner, and informed us we could select any from that group. We spotted a Chevy Astro that was larger than the rest, and climbed aboard.
the trip back to the terminal was difficult due to very poor signage, but we eventually found our way, so I pulled up at the curb and Richard E. went in to send Richard A. out to acompany me back to the National counter.
Back at the counter, we waited until Kitty noticed us, then called us over. A few minutes later, Richard and I were back in the garage, selecting from the diminished group of vans. We proceeded back to the terminal and parked at the curb. This was a bit after 10:00 A.M.
By now people knew that there was indeed a terrible disaster in progress, that the air traffic system had been closed down entirely, but there was still uncertainty as to how long flights would be delayed. Other enterprising members of the group had confirmed reservations for us on a flight scheduled for the following morning, others were searching for luggage. Susan J. was staying at our former gate coordinating the direction and location of the various elements of our group as people checked in for information and assignments.
By now we had been two vans sitting at the curb of an airport for almost two hours at a time terrorists were attacking our nation, but the police were very corteous and did not throw us off the airport, giving us time to get our group together.
Some of us were saying "screw the luggage, let's get the hell out of Texas" a sentiment I can relate to well, but Richard A. was making one last ditch effort to locate our luggage. That group was successful just as our "drop-dead deadline" arrived. 12:00.
Picking up our luggage, elegantly stowed under the direction of our masterpacker Richard E., we were on the road home, feeling very grateful to National Car Rental, Lisa and Kitty. There were 12 of us and every bit of our baggage aboard 2 vans, headed out across the plains of Texas.
