"Mem'ries, Light the Corners of My Mind"

In our previous post ("From Here to There") we mentioned the 2001 family sailing trip we took with four of our children.  On that trip we sailed from Houston, TX along the Gulf coast, around Florida, up the eastern seaboard to New Bern, NC, crossed to the Bahamas, and back. At the time, we were living in Midland, TX.  The trip, unfortunately, was interrupted by the tragic events of 9/11. Upon returning home, The Midland Reporter Telegram, did an article on our trip.  Stephanie Sparkman wrote:

According to Leah Bowden, a senior at Lee High School, her parents, Jay and Peggy Bowden, decided several years ago they wanted to buy a sailboat and sail off, into the sunset, after they retired ... "They didn't want to wait that long to realize their dream." So, her parents talked about taking a year off to sail once Leah graduated from high school in June 2003. Leah, however, didn't like that idea. She was concerned she wouldn't be able to make the trip because she would be working to earn money for college. A family meeting was called and the decision was made to leave two years early so Leah could take part in the adventure.

The original plan was to live on the boat for a year. But, those plans changed as they were sailing under a bridge near Camp LeJeune, NC on Sept. 11 when, according to Bowden, "A man on a catamaran that was passing us yelled out, 'Turn on your radio! There's been a terrorist attack.' ... "We had a decision to make. Everything was being shut down, but no one was talking about the waterway. We kept hearing rumors, but never knew what was really going on. Some reports we heard said that all of the major ports had been shut down. We didn't know what was going on."  So, a family meeting was called, options were discussed, and the Little Wing sailed north to Newbern, NC, where the family left the boat and rented a car.

"We wanted to let the kids see as much history as they could, so we rented a car," Bowden added. "We didn't want to take any chances. To this day, there's still a discussion about whether we could have taken the boat further." We visited Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown … "Next, we stopped in Washington, D.C. We toured the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Korean War Memorial, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery. We couldn't get very close to the Pentagon, it was all blocked off."

In upper New York state, they toured many of their church's historical sites, saw the Catskill Mountains where the trees were beginning to change colors, and, on Sept. 28, made it to New York City.  Although no one was allowed on lower Manhattan Island at the time, from different areas they could still see smoke rising from where the twin towers once stood. The family tried to tour the Empire State Building, but wasn't allowed in the building - security had just received the third bomb threat on the building since Sept. 11. 

The family decided to go home. They sailed back to Florida and were actually inside the locks on the Atlantic side of Florida's Okeechobee Waterway when the course was changed again. "The kids really wanted to go to the Bahamas," Bowden said.  So, they turned the boat around, hit the Atlantic and headed south … The Bowdens spent almost a month sailing and touring the Bahamas when a final decision had to be made. They could either continue south as part of their original plan or they could head home ...  Although the events of Sept. 11 caused them to change their plans, family members say they made the right choice by choosing to step out and take the adventure of a lifetime.  "We're much closer together as a result of the trip," Bowden said. "That was one of our goals. Peggy and I looked at the trip as being a gift that would be a life-long gift to our children. We hoped it would be an experience they would always look back on with fond memories." One of the greatest benefits of the trip was the family solidarity," said Mrs. Bowden. "We were pretty close before, but this just solidified everything."

Marissa, age 10, agreed. "I liked being on the boat with my family 24/7, getting family to be best friends because there's nobody else to talk to," she said. "It was definitely a rewarding experience," Leah added. "Everywhere we go, everyone tells us how lucky we are," she noted ...  "It was really neat to have a one-on-one relationship with the rest of the family," she added. "Before we left, my friends thought we were crazy but they kept telling me I'd at least come home with a good tan. I came back being best friends with my family - but I didn't have a tan. That's not what mattered."  What mattered was the time the family spent together, getting to know each other better and learning to depend upon each other.

To read the interview in its entirety go to: http://www.mrt.com/import/article_220c6df1-38b9-59b3-80b6-c0fd7240ec00.html

Thanks for letting us share our memories with you.  We hope all your memories are happy ones.  Fair winds.