Long story but very memorable
I was in-flight to Chicago on the way to an overseas trip to Hong Kong/China when the planes hit the towers on 9-11. We were nearing Chicago when the captain came over the intercom and said because of an incident on the East coast, we will be diverting our flight to Peoria, IL. Everyone on the plane looked as beweildered as I did. A few minutes later, the captain again came over the intercom and said that there was no available space at the Peoria airport to land and that we would contine on to Chicago. Once we landed, I walked through a completely empty terminal at O'Hare which was really eerie considering what I was used to there. Minutes later I found literally what looked like the whole city of Chicago in baggage claim. Long story short, 4 days later my travel agent finally secured a reservation for a 12 passenger van that I could lease to drive home to Memphis. While standing in a block-long line waiting for my turn at the reservation counter, I negotiated with a group of nurses who had destinations of Miami and NY with one vehicle reserved. One group took my van to NY, I rode with one group to Nashville and was rescued by my wife as they continued on to Miami. The most amazing part of that week was watching people leaving the parking garage of the rental car agency that morning and each of them stopping in the middle of the street, getting out of their car and yelling down the street at the line of people trying to secure a rental car and announcing that they were in route to whatever city across the country and welcomed any passengers to ride along with them. Nearly every offer was accepted; complete strangers helping out strangers. I will never forget the generosity shown that day.
