My girlfriend and I were planning a nice day trip down to IKEA in NJ when my friend called as we were walking out to my truck. He said “see the news? the trade center was hit by a plane.” Knowing our trip would take us very close to the chaos we canceled our trip and stared at the TV. The plane out of Boston flew right over Albany, NY where we lived. NYC is just 2 hours south of us and our proximatey made it even more eerie. I’m a volunteer firefighter from a family of career firefighters so I knew the danger of colapse was there, and then it happened. 343. It was tragic. My brother in law is on the NYS Urban Search and Rescue team and he went down the next day to work on the “pile”. To this day, I get that lump in my throat thinking about it.

They have a pretty intense 9/11 exhibit at the NYS Museum a few blocks from my house. Destroyed firetrucks, personal effects and even a piece of one of the planes are on display. If you’re ever in the area check it out.