9/11 anniversary riders arrive in Confluence
‘the ones who keep it alive’ The need to remember the first responders killed in 9/11 arrived in Confluence Borough in the form of 21 guys on bicycles – hungry, muddy and worn out from being chased through the woods by a day of thunderstorms. The Confluence Volunteer Fire Co. hosted the Bay to Brooklyn…
‘the ones who keep it alive’
The need to remember the first responders killed in 9/11 arrived in Confluence Borough in the form of 21 guys on bicycles – hungry, muddy and worn out from being chased through the woods by a day of thunderstorms.
The Confluence Volunteer Fire Co. hosted the Bay to Brooklyn group overnight Sept. 4th on their cross-country trip to New York City. Riders from California, Oregon, Idaho and elsewhere gulped sloppy joes and green beans and pie prepared by the fire company auxiliary. And before going to sleep Sept. 4, they read aloud the typewritten names of the firefighters who died that day 25 years ago from strips of paper that had been laminated, soggy in their pockets from the day’s downpour.
It was a ritual they’d done every night since setting out Aug. 2 from the San Francisco Bay area, pedaling an average 100 miles per day. They arrived in Confluence after an 88-mile ride from Pittsburgh along a rain-soaked Great Allegheny Passage.
The trip was expected to take 40 days.
“Our big thing is to connect people from the east coast to the west coast,” said Darrell Sales, a 63-year-old firefighter from Santa Clara, Calif. and ride organizer. “The ones who keep it alive walk the road.”
On Sept. 11, 2001, four planes were hijacked, two of which slammed into the World Trade Center’s North and South towers in New York. The third plane struck the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the fourth crashed in a field in Shanksville.
Nearly 3,000 died, including 345 firefighters the Bay to Brooklyn group seek to remember as memories of that terrible day fade and new worries take their place: war rages in Ukraine and the Mideast while closer to home, grocery prices have shot up and the cost of home heating oil has nearly doubled over the past year.
But Sales and his riders refuse to let memories of 9/11 fade. The 25th anniversary is Sales’ third cross-country ride to remind the public of the ultimate sacrifice of those first responders and his goal is to be at Ground Zero in New York City Sept. 11, despite the rain, hunger and sleeping on makeshift beds of chairs and tables in firehalls and community centers and churches along the way.
“When I first met him, I thought he was insane,” Tony Maffei, 59, a retired firefighter and biker from San Francisco, said about Sales. “Then I figured out he’s just dedicated.
“It’s very easy to get on board with his mission.”
Confluence Volunteer Fire Chief Tyler Byrd said he didn’t hesitate when Sales called in February about hosting the group overnight.
“We’re glad we can be a part of it,” Byrd said.
Early morning fog lazily draped the mountains around Confluence Saturday Sept. 5 as the bikers wolfed down a breakfast of eggs, hash browns and coffee at the firehall. They packed up clothes, unplugged their phones, checked bicycle tire pressure.
Sales surveyed the 128 miles they planned to ride today into Hancock, Maryland from Confluence. Weather was a concern; they’d had five days of biking in the rain already.
“There’s a 25% to 35% chance of rain between 10 and 11 this morning,” Sales said, studying his laptop.
Maffai chose another view.
“That means there’s a 65% to 75% chance it won’t rain,” he said.