Community Corner

Ride Across Nation Honors Flight 93

A group of family members, friends and supporters of 9/11 victims set off from South San Francisco Monday for a ride across the country.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Eric Bay’s wife Lorraine squeezed his cheeks, kissed him goodbye, and walked out the door at five in the morning. It was the last time he saw her.

Lorraine Bay was a flight attendant on Flight 93, one of the four flights hijacked on 9/11. While the other three flights crashed into targets at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the 40 passengers and crew on Flight 93 fought back, causing the plane to crash in a field in Shanksville, Pa., killing only those on board.

“She was the best friend I ever had,” said Eric Bay, 73.

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Monday morning at 8 a.m., Bay pulled into the parking lot of South San Francisco’s on his motorcycle. Ten years after losing his wife, and 55 years after starting to ride motorcycles, Bay came to the Bay Area from his home in New Jersey to participate in what has become an annual tradition: he’ll ride across the country by motorcycle with other Flight 93 family members and supporters.

In a 13-day ride that left from South San Francisco Monday and will end on Sept. 11 in Shanksville, Pa., Ride With The 40 aims to honor 9/11 victims and raise money toward the Shanksville memorial.

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Since the cross-country ride started in 2009, the ride has raised around $150,000. For the last two rides, riders traveled from Newark, New Jersey to SFO, the intended route of Flight 93. This year, they decided to do the trip in reverse to end in Shanksville.

A small number of core riders, including Bay, will make the entire trip; others will join with the group for smaller legs. Marci Nacke, whose brother-in-law, Louis Joseph Nacke II, died on Flight 93, and whose husband, Ken Nacke, is a ride organizer, will drive along with the riders in a U-Haul to provide on-the-road support and transport their luggage. (U-Haul is a sponsor of the ride.)

Nacke said his brother, Joey, the oldest of four siblings, was adventurous as a child. Once, while pretending to be Superman, he ran straight through a window and ended up needing 144 stitches. Later, he got a Superman tattoo “to remind him of his childhood.”

Unlike some family members, Nacke didn’t get a call his brother when his flight was hijacked.

“Joey wouldn’t do that even if he had the opportunity,” Nacke said. “He wasn’t a person that was going to tell you what he was going to do or say goodbye. And I think his motivation would be: ‘Look, we can win, and let’s just get home to have dinner with our family.’ I think they did what they did so they could just go home and have dinner with their families.”

The riders make their first stop in Lee Vining, Calif., tonight. To see their full itinerary, visit their website.


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