Diana's View: Getting Back to Speed (9/21/2001)

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I'm Diana Nyad and this is The Savvy Traveler.

Last week we were stunned. America watched a fallen New York City, a crippled Pentagon fortress, in collective disbelief. And the mourning continues. The body count has not yet reached a definitive number. But the cry to carry on, to live our daily lives in spite of the hateful acts of these terrorists, has rung loud and clear from every corner of these United States.

And that's the spirit we at The Savvy Traveler intend to convey on this week's show. Travel is not an heroic act, but trips are a life privilege to millions of people. And, now that our leaders are urging us to return to all the activities we love, we are taking the first baby steps to get back to exploring and learning and even laughing as we travel the world. We can't escape the reality that the spontaneity of travel changed point-blank last Tuesday, September 11, so we're going to have to go about our trips with new, cautious strategies, even new attitudes.

To that end, we thought it might be helpful to you to hear from industry insiders about how to travel safely and what to expect over the coming months. We're going to talk to people on the ground - flight attendants, sky caps, security guards, and several different travel experts - as our nation's airports try to resume normalcy. We also turn to Americans traveling abroad for their reactions to being away from home when disaster struck.