Hi Loy researchers! Just wanted to let you all know of a recent trip I took to Missouri to see my son graduate from the Army's basic training. We decided to drive out even before the disaster hit because mapquest said it was only a 15 hour drive from our house here in Maryland. Anyway, St. Louis was so beautiful just passing by it. But the reason I wrote you about the trip is that I just wanted to say that 15 hours. even broken up by a night's stay, is so long that it prompted me to wonder what on earth would prompt our ancestors to travel even from PA, MD, NC, VA or any state on the east coast to the midwest and sooooooo far from relatives back east. By modern car it is so far anyway. But by horse and wagon, I can't even imagine why they made such a trek. And some even returned to the east to live. Some may have even returned once more to the west, as Grady's last note seemed to indicate. I thought, could they have been really mad at relatives back east and wanted to get as far away as possible? But of course my husband would say that I am just displaying my negative ways again as usual. It is just that my husband and I are sooooo close to family here and especially to our boys, that I can't even imagine wanting to live so far away from them in times when they did not even have the speed of transportation that we have today. One more thing. We stayed in Indiana I think the last night we stayed over on the way there, We went to Fort LeonardWood, Mo. I always like to look up Loy's in phone books in hotel rooms. It must have been on the eastern border of Indiana that we stayed because the phone book included the Indianapolis area. There was an Angela Loy in the phone book. I almost called but did not think it was our Angela as I believe she lives in Iowa, right Angela? Anyway it was either late at night or after work hours the next morning when I thought of calling, none of which would work out anyway. One last thing about our trip and them I will stop boring you folks. On the way home we stopped off at the site of the plane crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA, as it was just 9 miles off our route. While we were there, you couldn't get too near the site unless you wanted to walk 1/2 mile across a field, and then it was fenced off, an off duty policeman was there and informed us that he was on duty in the area the day it hit. He said a man was operating a huge crane in a nearby field and related to him that the plane came in from the east and was headed westbound, made a sharp turn back east, at some point became inverted and then dove nose down into the crash site. There was debris strewn far into the neighboring pine forest and even up into a barn on a farm anbout a mile away on a hill overlooking the site. At one entrance to the area a policeman stands guard. At that entrance there are numerous flags. written banners, signs, pictures, etc. etc. collaged into one huge memorial. Then there are bundles of hay in the middle of the field off to the left with a flag draped across the front and more artifacts left as memorials. If anyone is interested send me your email address and I can scan pictures I took of the site and or St. Louis and send them to you. Tell me your picture preference. By now! Whew I had alot of mail to read on the Loys! But that is great! For a while there I thought the mail list was extinct. ( I know, not funny, but hey, I couldn't think of a better word).