I was on my way to Hartford, CT for work. i was connecting in Detroit and had a couple of hours to wait so i had breakfast and went to the gate to relax. the lady at the gate counter suddenly says that a plane hit the WTC. well, like others i thought it was a small one. five mins or so later she says it was a commercial plane and all inbound flights are being redirected. so, there goes my connecting flight. i then get my laptop out to get contact info for my customer and cant find a pen. the guy next to me offers one and says this friend works in the towers. i thank him and wish him and his friend good luck as he rushes off to a pay phone. at this point all flights, inbound and outbound, have been canceled and the airport closed. it is clear that i am not leaving the airport by plane. not only is cell reception poor in the terminal, but the lines are all being jammed because at this point everyone is headed for the exits and calling loved ones and business associates, i assumed. i finally find an available phone and call work and they tell me to do whatever i need to do to get home safely, with regard to spending money in the process. so, i head to the rental car shuttle bus because i have an emerald aisle card at national and can just get in a car and go........well, thats pretty much what everyone did. now, detroit has a pretty big airport with large rental car lots to support it. i arrive at the national lot and it is completely empty, save for one 15 passenger van! there is a group of 15 or 20 people standing outside the building one of which is a national employee taking names. this group is emerald aisle card holders so they get firsts on any available cars. there was a second group of 20 - 30 waiting inside to make a reservation at the counter. national was trucking cars in on semis and they would pull them off the truck, drive them in one end of the building to get washed and gassed up and give them to us EA card holders. so, after about an hour or so out pulls this new, red Cadillac SLS. the lady with the clip board butchers my last name, like most people, and some other dude in a suit speaks up that its him. i say, what is the spelling? she replies and i say oh thats me. so, with a smirk on my face that you couldnt remove with a baseball bat, i load up and am finally headed home. i ended up having to stop at a truck stop to use the phone because i couldnt get a line on the cell. i felt bad to find that my mother was freaking out and calling my office. but, i talked to her finally and all was well. anyway, i listened to the radio the whole way home and just didnt believe what i was hearing when they said the towers fell. i figured it was just the top or something and that the media was exaggerating. but, when i got to the office they had it on in the conference room i was shocked to see what had happened. very sad day, indeed.