Difficult to remember and forget

This is the view from New Jersey, along with a photo I took in the summer of 1970, when the towers were still under construction. (That's Jen in the stroller, Tracy alongside, and two nephews, Mark and Lewis. Kathy wasn't here yet.)
I knew the pic would be historic, but I didn't know why.

Almost a decade later, and Ground Zero is still Ground Zero.

I want my America back! When they topped off the first tower I put on a hard hat, grabbed a clipboard and sneaked my way to the top. I was ten feet away from the windows before I realized there were no windows!...We celebrated a family birthday at Windows on the World, a five-star restaurant on the 101st floor... We took the girls to the observation deck one evening in their PJs... WTC was THE venue for lower Manhattan power breakfasts... In the weeks following this tragedy, I drove several Madison families past the site, and wept openly every time. I'm weeping now, as I write this.

Do not forget this day.

Runnin' the DC Beltway

From Madison, NJ to Glen Allen, VA clocks in at 311 miles. With a little luck and a decent radar detector one should be able to get door-to-door in four hours.

HAH! In five years of trying, I've made that bogey just once; it was so euphoric I felt like spraying the family with champagne!

The first 200 miles fool you. You rip along down the NJT, across the Delaware Memorial Bridge and down into one of the Baltimore tunnels with ease, but the final 100 miles are KILLER.
Anything can happen and often does. Accidents, traffic delays, bumper-to-bumper through inexplicable 'construction' sites (where no one seems to be constructing anything).
Here is the latest beauty... just before the DC drawbridge, a wall-to-wall accident that completely shut down I95! Without explanation or any detour help, the men in blue just shovelled everybody back onto I95 North! It was 'Yankee Go Home' time!
The little MINI and I got around that with only a 30-minute delay thanks to the VZ Navigator app, but another accident 30 miles downwind and some truck-traffic slowdowns made this voyage log in at a mind-altering 7 hours and 41 minutes! Good thing I love my kids!