Samarth’s Travel Page

Alaska – June 2007

Reunion
Pronunciation: (“) rE-‘yün-y&n
Function: noun
1: an act of reuniting: the state of being reunited
2: a reuniting of persons after separation

Aptly defined in any dictionary, this was one of the best reunions I have had in years. I smile and recollect that Tapowan happened in our lives, way back in two thousand one. Forming of inseparable bonds amongst us, intricately interwoven with memories of millions of small and delicate moments, has helped all of stay together, and share, probably what all close friends share. But the one thing that brought these people together was their passion for the mountains. It was only driven by this passion that the Tapowan-ites got together again, outside of India, and accompanied by some more enthusiastic people, climbed the third highest peak in the states.
San Diego in the west, College Station in the mid-west/south, Cleveland in east, Toronto in Canada, and Mumbai in India; these were some of the places from where people descended in the mile-high city, to be greeted by the ever-bubbly Madhura. The drive from Denver to Aspen started at night, and was a thing to worry for Ashwini’s mother, back in India. Thankfully, Ashwini could convince her that “Samarth can drive”. With me and Rakya behind a steering wheel each, we reach Basalt, CO, and find ourselves fanatically searching the otherwise-visible-yellow-on-blue-sign of “Best Western”. I guess, it was just before everybody’s patience ran out, that we found the place to go and crash. Having volunteered to sleep on the floor, Kedar helped Rakya justify getting his sleeping bag (on a climb). It was only after we tried to sleep, despite the unstoppable bursts of laughter from our “other” room; we realize that I and Pitts, as if in a synchronized motion, interspersed with sound sleep, were snoozing away at the stupid alarm clock in the middle of two queen sized beds. Apparently, we later learnt that Kedar just couldn’t sleep that night because of the alarm. Having gotten immune to the fact that “always” something or the other is bound to happen to our luggage during a trip, we went to the Aspen airport to look for the supposedly “untraceable” bag of Manasi’s, and were disappointed to know that the status hadn’t changed. The agenda for the day takes us to Maroon Bells, from where the acclimatization hike to Buckskin Pass starts. The tiring hike, accompanied by blisters on a couple of peoples’ feet helped change the definition of the hike from a “hike” to a “summit”. Kedar, Rakya, Pittya, Mahadik, Soniya and I got to see the views from the top. “Is this ALL your food” – is what somebody asked Manasi, when she, Madhura and Ashwini were in the process of loading up the car with 20 hamburgers, French fries, soda glasses and tons of ketchup sachets and paper napkins. All humans pounced on the animals, i.e. chicken and bull, once the food was within reach, in the parking lot of the Maroon Bells tour bus. Tired legs, aching bodies, exhausted minds, hearty dinner and extremely sleepy condition placed a small doubt in everybody’s mind about the next day’s summit attempt on Mt. Elbert. And to top it off, heaters in the rooms of the motel in Leadville were not working. I guess, everybody was so sleepy, that it really didn’t matter.
The anticipated time for everybody to start climbing was stretched a bit from five in the morning to seven. I would say, the rest was badly needed. Familiarity with the area helped me figure out exactly where we (me and Gokhale) parked our car in November-o-5 and walked four and a half mile up to the trailhead of Mt. Elbert, with snowshoes strapped to our shoes, in five degrees Fahrenheit. Yes, the same desire, to pee, which had forced Gokhale to take his hand out of the glove, had changed to a feeling of dread, when his mind was racing towards the possibility of hand-amputation. It was a lucky day, because on these fourteeners, generally, a combination of “holiday plus perfect-beautiful-weather” is a rarity. The trail was swarmed with people, but we managed to fit our Malibu’s in the remaining space. Everybody hiked at their own speed. Occasional “walking together” sessions became a part of the otherwise single soul wandering through the woods, taking in the beauty, cursing the trail, wiping off sweat or just frantically sucking on the little blue tube coming out of the backpack. I and Kedar took our first stop at the tree-line, where a powerbar and a couple of sips of water refreshed us. With the knowledge that there are three false summits, we kept our spirits high to go and just do it! But, just before the first false summit, Kedar’s knee prompted him to stop and rest, forcing me to go ahead. Two calls from Madhura at that altitude and temperature were enough for my cell-phone’s battery to suddenly and immediately die out. Fortunately, it allowed me to call her up, when I summitted at eleven twenty five. Rakya and Mahadik followed at twelve. Usual photo sessions with the flag followed. It was nice to see Mahadik on the summit, considering the fact that he hadn’t hiked since two thousand one. A bar, washed down with Gatorade along with signing the summit log led to the beginning of the descent. Commonly more tiring than an ascent, Elbert took its own sweet toll on everybody. Mahadik’s shoe was biting viciously into the side of his leg, so we suggested him to come down with Pitts and Soniya, who were half an hour away from the summit, when we crossed them. The Indian flag was handed over to Pittya at the cross-over. Every time, when I and Rakya encountered a descent, our hearts sank. One very wrong notion which we had was “once we reach the tree-line, we are almost there”. After a two and a half hour walk from tree-line, the realization dawned upon us that we were ridiculously far from “almost there”. It was after ten and a half hours, that I and Rakya got a glimpse of our cars, and we were greeted by shake-hands and hugs. Amazing people crossed us, like a guy who had climbed South Maroon, parking lot-summit-parking lot in a day, a fifty something guy who had been hiking since the last six days, and was going to go on for the next 2 weeks, and a couple, carrying only a bottle of water each, crossed us, while descending the first false summit; they were going for the summit. They crossed us, while going to the parking lot. Puzzled at their speed, stamina, determination, endurance and what-not, I asked, “Did you make it to the top?” Their casual “yes” sounded all the more justified, when they said they were “Colorado-ians”, and had come just for some fun on the mountain. I guess, being from Cleveland and near-Houston doesn’t help much, when it comes to altitude. Manasi and Ashwini almost made it to the top of the first false summit, Kedar returned from there as well, Madhura and Leena made it up, just a little bit above tree-line, and the rest summitted. Everybody gave it, whatever they had, and had their own successes.
It feels good to see that everybody had a nice time, enjoyed, and bonded together. I am sure that the trip memories are permanently etched on everybody’s mind, for the time to come, and feed the passion in their hearts.
Who knows, couple of years down the line, writing another trip report will make me smile and recollect, and write “Elbert happened in our lives in two thousand six…”

Yes, it was kind of hard to believe, we were married for more than three years now, and this was our first trip together. But, what the heck, we find it fortunate that we have so many friends who are willing to come and share the traveling experience with us, that this time, it kind of felt weird to just travel by ourselves. Weird, but good.
So, being the travel freaks that we are, it was just a chance we needed to go and see another place. Manasi’s conference in San Francisco was just that chance, and we (or rather I should say I) pounced on it. And as always complained by my dear wife, I got together a trip plan, which was workable, but, umm, hectic as well. Well, the “hectic” part is my wife’s opinion.
Nowadays, we both have gotten immune to the “usual” incidents of a flight getting delayed, baggage going to the east coast, when you are flying to the west, sitting in the plane for two hours before it takes off, or just plainly missing a flight, and being a standby on the next one, with the airline personnel acting like a genie, granting you a wish, when you were begging for it.
So, Manasi had some of these above mentioned “usual” problems, and she arrived later than planned, throwing my well-charted-out plan out of schedule. A night at Lata didi’s place in Sunnyvale, CA, and the next day, we were off to Lake Tahoe. Being the long weekend, I probably experienced the worst time of my life, getting a hotel in each place we were planning to visit. Also, one more lesson from the trip was that the hotel, does not, in any case, look like the photographs they put up on the internet. So, folks, beware, you might want to change the definition of “luxurious” after having stayed in your internet-booked hotel. At first, I was strongly denying the hotel to which our directions led us. After one or two of “This can’t be it”, I gave in and checked-in into the “heavenly” hotel, as described on the internet. A nice meal at a local Thai place, with the special spicy fish made our day, followed by a sunset at the lake. As with most of the places, one day is not at all enough for looking around in Lake Tahoe. But, we did take the thrilling ride of parasailing over Lake Tahoe at a height of 1200 feet. The quiet, and peace, up there, is just something everybody should experience once. We were hanging with this balloon, attached the boat, way below, with a chord. Me, and my wife, with beauty all around us. It was spectacular.
Doing the long car journey is always a thing which Manasi dislikes. But, unfortunately, she didn’t have a choice, as we had a car, our hotels were booked, and California is a big state. After each journey though, she did end up liking the place, and was grateful that we had a reservation.
Our next stop – Death Valley National Park, CA. I won’t say that it’s near Lake Tahoe, in any way whatsoever, but the journey was a splendid one. The route we took, which eventually becomes 395, and goes through Lone Pine, CA was just too beautiful. For a moment, it felt like we were driving through European countryside. Beautiful snow capped mountains, held the valleys with their arms spread wide, letting the tar road slice through them in a winding serpentine manner. “What is there to see in Death Valley?” was the question I was constantly being hammered with by Manasi, all along the way, into Death Valley. Mt. Whitney looked beautiful, from the gas station in Lone Pine. It was my first view from here, as we (I and Rakesh) didn’t even have time to look for it the last time we stopped at this gas station, on the Memorial Day weekend. On the way to furnace creek ranch, where we had a reservation, we stopped at the fascinating sand dunes in the valley. Death Valley National Park, being the largest one in US, outside of Alaska, boasts of complex geology as well as extreme temperatures. It was the mad gold rush of California, which prompted pioneers to cross this arid land, thinking of it as a shortcut to California. After having barely survived it, it was named what it is called now. The place does have a short history of borax mining, which lasted about 30 years, from 1880 to about 1910. I will put it this way – “Death Valley is scorched, dry, hot, arid, weird, barren, abandoned, but beautiful”. I got the same feeling I had, when I visited Ladakh in 1997. Barren beauty is something different, and needs to be appreciated in a different sort of way, beauty in nothingness, for miles together. With plenty of time at hand after checking in, we drove, in the driest and the hottest place in United States, to the lowest elevation in the entire western hemisphere, the Badwater Basin. It feels odd to see the sign “Sea Level” way up there, on a nearby mountain, when you are standing 282 feet below sea level. The way back from there was through the Artist’s Drive loop, and I must say, that the time couldn’t have been more perfect. At sunset, god becomes the artist, when he plays around with colors and splashes them all over the place, in that valley. We could say that each mountain glowed with shades of red, brown, orange, yellow and pink. The 8-mile drive goes through the artist’s palette, where various deposits of minerals in the rock display splendor in their own way, to the last rays of sun touching them. The aptly christened “Devil’s Golf Course” and “Devils Corn Field” are interesting to see, basically, at nothing. But, here, one starts imagining, as to how much of “nothing” can there be? I don’t know if there is an answer to this question. In other words, Like the Grand Canyon, Death Valley seems eternal, with a human’s life encompassing not even a fraction of it. Death Valley was probably under sea at one point in time, filled with lakes millions of years later, and now, shows the remnants of alternating salt deposits from that era. Obviously, it’s not a coincidence that the highest and the lowest point in the entire United States are within 150 miles of each other. One more fact that makes us salute Mother Nature for some of the most extraordinary and incomparable creations she has given the world to marvel at.
Due to lack of time, we couldn’t visit Scotty’s Castle, one of the main highlights of this place. One thing which is different at this place is that, even as late as at 10 pm, when you exit from a restaurant, after a hearty steak and chilled beer, the heat hits you, and it hits you hard. With a temperature of 120 degrees F. It’s kind of hard to experience that at any other place, except probably Middle East, which I have heard is pretty similar. In a nutshell, visiting the “hottest and driest place” with “lowest elevation in US” during the hottest month of the year was fun.
Again, a long drive took us out of Death Valley, and into Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Forest. The “as the crow flies” distance from Lone Pine and Whitney to this park is approx 30-40 miles only, but being humans that we are, and with a car at our disposal, there was no alternative but to take the long “normal” route, which takes not less than 5 hours. My excellent navigator, Manasi gave perfect directions, as always, for us to be able to reach Sequoia through the shortest possible route.
Sequoia National Park reputes itself as the oldest national park in California, with high peaks, dense forests, and the main attraction – giant redwood trees. This is the home of “The General Sherman Tree”, the largest living tree in the world. Of the many giant redwood tree groves spread across the world, Sequoia has a couple. But, driving up the tortuous road for a long time gets justified, when one sees the plaque – “Giant Forest”, and within seconds, you are greeted by two giant trees, one on each side of the road, both with massive trunks, and soaring up in the air. The trees in this forest are one of their kinds, which dwarf pretty much anything that tries to stand beside them. Manasi picked up some huge pines from near the largest tree in the world (which I had to carry all the way to College Station, TX). A couple of usual photos, and missing the sunset from a famous point, just by a few minutes, we were driving down the never-ending-winding-road back towards our hotel. On the way, we spotted a nice place besides the river for a romantic candle lit dinner, so ended up giving them some business, which included a bottle of champagne and some nice entrees, and of course, dessert. The next day was our day out of the national park, and into San Francisco. SFO was where Manasi had her conference (yeah, this trip was an add-on to her conference). It was only while driving back that Manasi kind of realized it. In the total fun we were having, she had totally forgotten about her conference. “Just a place to crash down” in SFO was not the best of places, but was close to her conference venue. Michelle, her co-worker was staying at the same hotel. Her first day at the conference, and I was off to climb near SFO. I ended up being so frustrated, when I decided upon Copernicus Peak, the highest point in the nearby counties. A complete trip report of that so-called leisure walk can be found here. The second day, I lazed around in the hotel, and had lunch with Manasi and Michelle, after which we went to the Pier 39 area of Frisco city. A suggestion from one of my friend – take a bike ride from over the Golden Gate Bridge, was promptly obeyed. We biked around 8 miles one way to the small town called Sausalito, on the other side of the bridge. This town is supposed to have a very good Indian restaurant, but with the bikes we had, and the return ferry tickets, we couldn’t try out the food there. After returning the bikes, we were off to the second part of the suggestion – eat at Shalimar, in downtown. This place was owned by a Punjabi guy, and it was jam packed with Americans and all kinds of international people. All this, besides me giving it a minus ten on a scale of one to ten on the ambience parameter. You guessed it right – the food was out of this world! The third took me Mt. Diablo. It was a good 23.4 mile hike, on which I had the whole area to myself. The trip report of this climb can be found here. The day ended, when Manasi finished with her conference, and we both drove to the wine capital of the United States. Napa, and Sonoma valleys, though competitors, produce probably ninety percent of the wine in the states. Napa, with its quaint little shops, wineries lined up one after the other, was very pretty, both in terms of scenery as well as expense. To put this in a general statement, I would say, that it was here that we had the most expensive nights’ stay as well as dinner in life. The Escargot at “Bistro Jeanty” were really good (Manasi got so freaked out that she took photos of me eating them), the steak was fabulous, but the taste of their dessert is the one which is unforgettable. It was some kind of pudding, with a layer of burnt brown sugar on top, which made it pure heaven. One of the restaurants in Napa, called French Laundry, is supposed to have featured on the TV for its cuisine. Now, agreed that the 13-course meal would be fantastic, but I think $400 per person is a little bit too much. Especially, after having read a testimonial that emphasized on the need for a Taco Bell Burrito after the dinner. We stayed at one of the bed and breakfast inns which seemed like the ones you see in movies. The next day, the guy with whom we had booked the wine tour promptly picked us up at ten. Going through the famous wineries like Beringer (Manasi is a BIG fan of the white Zinfandel), V. Sattui, Robert Mondavi (their merlot is pretty good) and Grigich Hills (which put Napa on the world map of wine-making) and tasting wines made Manasi a bit tipsy, but we sure were enjoying the feeling so much, that we ended up buying eight bottle of wine (also something I carried all the way to TX). Our tours ended at the famous winery cum resort called the “Domain Chandon” where I had intended to go for dinner, the previous night, but were just too tired to make it there. That place was the perfect place to end the tour, and had we not planned to go to Frisco city at night, we would have dined there for sure. In all, Napa was one of the most romantic places to be.
A long drive to Cupertino, CA and we were with family. Yogini atya had invited us over for dinner, and her parents had come over. It was fun to just relax and unwind, with a glass of chilled beer, and casual chat with nana, Ashwini’s grandfather. The chat was followed by awesome Desi food, which we, as usual, hogged on. As decided, we went to Lata Didi’s place at night, and she had to stay awake for us, which we felt bad about. But, there was no other alternative. The next day was our day to fly back to Houston and Tulsa respectively. And, it was also the day of the soccer world cup final. A hearty Indian lunch which Lata didi brought in from a restaurant, with the world cup final, was the grand finale of our grand trip.
To top it all, nothing pleased me more when my wife said “Thanks” for showing her a beautiful lake, desolate vastness, sand dunes, arid multi-color landscapes, huge trees, the sea, and beautiful wineries, all in one trip. Yes, it was our first trip together, and it was truly unforgettable.

Mr. Murphy once said, “If anything CAN go wrong, it WILL go wrong.” We may be just one of the many unfortunate people, having experienced it. The parking lot dude takes 20 minutes to take me to the airport, which otherwise takes around 10 minutes. And to top it off, the guy who checks in my baggage, tells me to run to C 38 for my flight. Now, tell me, how many times does one check the details of the stickers on the envelope that holds your boarding pass? So, I sprint like a madman, through Houston airport, without my shoe-laces tied to C 38, to realize that the flight at the gate was departing for Chicago, and my gate was E 9. This is how I miss my flight to Vegas. The news worsens when the lady at the customer service center smiles and confirms that my baggage is checked in under some “Tiffany Guske” and was on its way to Chicago, plus I am on a standby for the 9:10 flight, but confirmed for a 10:45 pm flight. A long harrowing debate with the manager at the Vegas airport concludes in his accommodating us in a hotel in Vegas, with an eight dollar meal coupon. The bags, due to arrive at 10:30 am flight the next day, arrive at 3:45 pm, and we (I and Rakesh) leave Vegas for Lone Pine, CA at approx. 4:30 pm. So, our trip starts with a bang, little did we know that many more bangs were in store for us.
Instead of taking the route 395 and then 15, we take the route through Death Valley National Park. After having learnt that our permit was not where it was supposed to have been, we reach Whitney portal at 11:00 pm, Friday, the 26th, when we were supposed to have camped at Upper Boy Scout Lake (UBSL). In short, we lose a day, and we have no buffer day for the summit attempt. Too much time and money (buying of equipment) was at stake for this expedition. Under the assumption that Yamini and Sunil must have left for Lower Boy Scout Lake (LBSL), we camp at the portal campground, and leave for either LBSL or UBSL, early at 7:15 am. Both of them had ALL the fuel for our stoves, required for cooking, as well as melting ice for water, in case the streams weren’t running, because we knew for sure that that all the lakes would be frozen. As if like a rule, we climb up the narrow portion of the Ebersbacher ledges, and try finding the route ahead of us, and get lost. After a couple of trials on the ledges, we give up, turn back, find the correct route, and get on it – result – we lose almost two hours in this ordeal. During the creek crossing, one has to literally lie down and cross it, without letting your heavy backpacks getting entangled in bushes. You feel as if you are doing push-ups with a 30 lbs backpack, and a stream running from under you. Imagine how effective the push-ups would be! Another waterfall crossing and we reach the bottom of the famed Ebersbacher ledges. Two patches on these ledges were a bit too exposed, but as everybody else, we realized that, compared to the last section of the mountaineer’s route, from iceberg lake, this was like a walk in the park. Huffing and puffing, we reach LBSL at around 2 pm, to find that there was no trace of our fuel-carrying buddies. I hoped that we would find them at UBSL. Rakesh had his doubts about their presence at any of the camps. But, for some reason, I was optimistic about them.
From here, it was snow, all the way up. But a group of mountaineers at the camp recommended us against using crampons, as the snow has softened. So, following the trail in snow, we reached UBSL at 5:00 pm, where, again, my hopes crashed when we learnt from the only two guys there that they had not seen “an Indian couple” pitch their tent anywhere nearby. We pitched our tent, unfortunately broke one of the poles within the tent pole sleeve, and tore the tent up a little bit on the sleeve.
I still had hopes of meeting Yamini and Sunil at the Iceberg Lake campsite, where I thought they must have headed, and we will meet them tomorrow, and summit Whitney together. Then, it dawned upon us that we didn’t have even a single can of fuel with us, as Sunil had bought all 15 cans for our climbing expedition. Having got sick of energy / protein bars and trail mix, we asked the other two guys for a BIG favor – if they could give us two cups of boiled water. They agreed, and we tasted our first warm meal, which was Santa Fe Chicken and Rice, one of the many “backpacker’s pantry” freeze-dried dinners, which, at that time, seemed utter useless weights, we were carrying in our backpacks. Readied up everything for the next day’s summit attempt and we dozed off after a hearty meal in our sleeping bags, in a hope that we will get up at 3:30 am, and start the attempt at 4:00 am.
The other two guys left at about 4, and we woke up due to their constant talk outside our tent. Finally, when we left for Iceberg Lake, the wrist watch showed 5 am. Rakesh, at first was a bit doubtful of the summit, but later we both got into the monotonous rhythm of ice-axe, first foot and second foot, which was spiced up by occasional slips as well as the whole ice axe going in, in the snow. The glacier travel from UBSL to Iceberg Lake ends at the foot of a steep 100 / 150 feet climb, which itself takes around 45 minutes to climb. Whitney’s majestic east wall faces you, in an imposing manner. This wall was a straight 2000 feet of sheer rock. After the steep climb, we spotted a bunch of people getting ready to climb the East Buttress of Whitney. This was the Iceberg Lake campsite, and we reached it at 7:20 am. I really had to go and “feed the fishes”, so off I went behind a huge boulder, and realized how DAMN HARD it is to do your everyday activity with crampons, ski pants, inner thermals and gaiters! After an awkwardly positioned but successful attempt, myself and Rakesh re-hydrated ourselves with Gatorade and Bars (what else do you expect), before the final assault.
It was 8:20 am; we started climbing the right side coulier, and soon realized how steep it was. It took a while before started seeing the notch, at the end of the coulier. And, then it took a while to reach the notch. I felt as if the notch was going further away, as we inched our way towards it. One slip of foot in this coulier, and if you don’t self-arrest, you are toast. At the notch, we, again took a ten minute break, when we reluctantly tossed some trail mix and chewed on it, washing it down with a couple of sips of icy-cold water.
Now, what lied in front of us, as all mountaineers’ (who are aware of this route) know were two options. One was a near-vertical five hundred feet of almost bottomless (very exposed) snow covered slope, with some rock sections in between, and a traverse towards west side, which was equally exposed. People are known to have preferred the steep slope, as compared to the traverse, as the exposure is just too much to handle, even if one gets roped up. So, like others, we start up the five hundred feet of snow. I led the way with front-pointing in the snow, as the snow was relatively compact. I remember doing three things – NEVER to look down, never to lift one foot unless I have my ice axe and second foot firmly dug into the snow, and going ONE STEP AT A TIME, without hurrying through it. Rakesh followed me, and encouraged me to keep on going, as he could recognize the summit, from down below. The last two moves on this route were mixed climbing – rock and snow / ice, with very less space to move, and, as usual, had absolutely NO margin for error, whatsoever. Believe me, it was scary as hell. I wasn’t even thinking about negotiating this patch on the way down, because while going down, one thing changes – you HAVE to look down, into the never-ending gully, because you have to place your foot accordingly. But, anyway, we made it to the summit at 1:50 pm. I couldn’t believe that we were climbing this last section of 500 feet for almost two hours! The usual photography sessions followed, and we were fortunate enough to meet an Everest summiteer on the summit. This was the second Everest summiteer we met after S.A, who partially trained us for Mt. Thelu, in the Garhwal Himalayas. The view from the top is, as usual – great!
We were ACTUALLY standing on the top of the United States of America, and it surely felt good. Pictures were taken with the tri-colored Indian flag, and slowly we started thinking on the lines of descending the 2000 feet of slopes we had just climbed. As noted mountaineer Reinhold Messner quotes, “Going up is winning half the battle; the real battle is coming down.” Being completely aware of the fact that the maximum number of accidents happen while descending, we slowly looked down the treacherous gully. Following a fellow polish climber on his way down seemed like a good idea, until the moment when I actually had to start descending. From the edge, when I faced the slope, and dug my ice-axe and looked down to place my feet, fear overtook me suddenly, and I retreated not once, but twice. Believe me, it was SCARY! One’s mind immediately starts racing with thoughts of how one can do a self-arrest, if one slips from here. Finally, as there was no other alternative, I started climbing down. The steps made in the snow by the polish climber were certainly helpful, but the boot-with-crampon combination slipped once in a while. Rakesh followed me on the same route down to the notch. With the typical trail mix break, we started descending down the coulier, towards Iceberg Lake. Rakesh had planned on glissading down from half way, and I was not too much for it, as I thought the slope to be pretty inclined. I guess Rakesh also formed a similar opinion later on, and we both walked down the coulier. Rakesh was very dehydrated at the point when he reached Iceberg Lake. The two people who had just arrived at the campsite offered us hot water, and asked us if we had enough fuel to warm up stuff, when we reach our camp. It was actually shocking for them to hear that we didn’t have fuel AT ALL. Now, this is what I call generosity – approx. at 12,500 feet, where fuel is one of the most precious commodity, they gave us one can of fuel, which was half-empty for our use at our campsite. It was 8 pm, when we reached UBSL. So, we had been out of our home for 15 hours straight. But, that’s the way usually, summit attempt days are. We changed into comfortable clothes, and Rakesh made tomato soup. Our sincere thank-you prayers went to two parties that day – first one to the guys who gave us a half-filled can of gas, and second to Maggi, the makers of tomato soup.
The next day, instead of the planned departure of 6 am, we got up at 6:15, and finally left UBSL at around 9:20 am. After LBSL, the descent was fairly simple, except for the fact that we were still concerned about the ledges. And, as we correctly assumed, we lost our way, even while going down. Gosh! Can you imagine doing the same stupid mistake, both while climbing up as well as going down? Lost about half an hour there, and then, once we crossed the ledges, we were pacing downhill desperately, in search for the parking lot from where “one can ACTUALLY go forward, WITHOUT lifting one’s foot”. All one has to do is simply press on the accelerator. Well, the lot doesn’t come that easily and quickly. It takes about an hour after the ledges to get to your car. We reached the car at around 1:30 pm.
As usual, with no time left to celebrate the summit at the famous “Pizza Factory” in Lone Pine, we hurried through the Whitney portal store and bought some souvenirs, learnt that our buddies had taken back the 4 cans they left for us at the store, and started driving to the Sin City for our flight out from there.
Once the cell phone sprung back to life in Lone Pine, with a “roaming”, we learnt that Yamini and Sunil had been advised by people against attempting the mountaineer’s route, should the other two guys (both of us) don’t arrive in time. And, to be honest to god, I think they took the right decision, considering that this was their first ever experience with ice-axe, crampons, gaiters, rope and a very heavy backpack. They attempted the Mt. Whitney trail, but couldn’t summit, as their campsite experienced howling winds at speeds as high as 60-70 mph, bringing a cold front along with it. Yamini admitted to holding on to the tent while sleeping, as she feared the tent would fly away with the wind.
I and Rakesh felt bad that after having invested so much, they couldn’t summit Whitney. They felt bad that we didn’t have even a single can of fuel, up there. I guess, all I can say is that, “whatever happens, happens for the good.”
I always say that experience is the best teacher around, and one always learns new things from it. As regards our “bars-and-trail-mix-only-blitzkrieg summit” of Mt. Whitney, I must say that it definitely taught both of us something. First, always plan for emergencies. Second, we had it in us, what it takes to be able to summit the highest mountain in the contiguous United States of America, under not-so-favorable circumstances.
This planning for emergencies and a boost in our confidence would help us a long way when we attempt to proudly unfurl the Tricolor on the “The Great One” in Alaska next year. Who knows, we might be the second Indians to summit it, as I know of only one Indian soul having summitted it. I hope you all pray for our success.

WILD WILD WEST

Arid landscape, black tarred road slicing through the scorched earth, cacti and shrubs and bushes everywhere, absolutely no inhabitation till horizon, and miles and miles of visibility. This is what west Texas is all about. It seemed just like a shot from the western films I saw in my school days, thanks to my dad. The only element absent from the scene was stubble faced, tan skinned blondie (Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), on his horse, with the spurs on his boots digging deep in the horses’ skin, making him whine and thrust forward into a direction which leads…basically, nowhere.
We covered this long distance to the Texas border, not on a horseback, but instead in a Chevrolet Malibu. Still, it took us 9 hours. Before heading out in this wilderness, we visited what can probably be called the prettiest town/city in Texas – its capital, Austin. Yamini’s suggestion to go up Mt. Bonnell, the highest point in Austin, was a very good one. It was actually hard to believe that the picturesque vista we were witnessing was in Texas. Sweeping views of Lake Austin, with multi-million dollar houses lined up along its banks, with remnants of fall colors on the trees in their front yards were a very good change from the “typical Texas” views. The trip to downtown Austin, particularly on the famous 6th street was good. One can clearly notice why people call the city of College Station and Texas A&M University as conservative, and label the city of Austin, and University of Texas, Austin as liberal. Cosmopolitanism was at its peak here, but only second to the experience I had on the mile long street just outside University of Washington, Seattle.
While heading west, after a while, one starts seeing a faint outline of a range of mountains far ahead, which makes one wonder – Have we reached? It’s only after a matter of 3 hours more that we get the feeling of having actually reached it. It took us quite a while to reach the Carlsbad Caverns, and we were late…by half an hour. So, we drive 9 hours, and all we get is a closed national park. Also, the lady was nice enough to tell us in a courteous manner – “Guadalupe Mountain National Park is also going to be closed over Christmas, so I see no point in you guys going there.” That statement was basically hinting at the stupid act of driving out this far on Christmas holidays. But, with a feeling of “how can the rangers close a trail?” we went and camped overnight. Rakesh had a sleeping bag, whereas I and Manasi didn’t. The temperature drop at night forced us to take shelter in the car with the heater turned on. As a result of these temperature changes, Manasi fell sick in the morning, but she was successful in persuading me with her consistent encouragement, to leave her at the campground, and go for the climb. The climb was not much of a deal, with only 3000 ft. of height gain over a distance of 8.4 miles. We did beat the time of “6 to 8 hours” written on the board at the trailhead though. Going up took us 2.5 hrs, 1 hr on the summit, and 1.5 hrs to get back, totaling 5 hrs. The usual photography session ensued on the summit. The summit was a nice Christmas gift for me.
After loosing couple of frustrating hours on the campground, trying to work around the car’s security system which had got enabled, we started our return journey.
It indeed felt good to have summitted our first peak in US, although it was nowhere near the efforts it took us to summit Mt. Thelu in the Himalayas. On the way back, seeing the sun set on the horizon of the stretched out land, behind the endless number of pumping jacks installed on petroleum wells, going up and down in a never-ending monotonous rhythm, I witnessed for the first time, what a co-worker had told me, “Samarth, oil is never found at the prettiest of places.”

You look west on National Highway I-70, and all you see is the flat-as-a-plate state, the state of Kansas. With unending acres of farms and ranches on both sides, you feel as if you can almost see Denver, while still 500 miles away from it. But, the very same highway puts a smile on your face, as it goes through the picturesque and beautiful Colorado – The colorful state.
It was during my almost inhuman 2100 mile drive from Tulsa, OK to Seattle, WA over a weekend that I fell in love with Colorado. That passion for the mountains and natural beauty made us pack our bags and fly to Denver over this years’ thanksgiving weekend. A holiday perfectly planned, packed with leisure, adventure and a hope of achieving something. Madhura was courteous enough to take all of us, with loads of luggage, in her apartment, even a day before she was to leave for India. People here would understand the extreme state of confusion and hurry to check off stuff on a to-do list, when one is leaving for apna des. Our bad luck (or should I say worst ever) with horrible food (Now, imagine this coming from me, who is ready to eat anything that walks the earth) started with an expensive treat by Gokhale, the memory of which he is going to haunt Gokhale for the rest of his life! The uncooked kabobs at “The House of Kabobs” in Denver were a not-so-good experience. The drive to Vail was beautiful. Seeing the pretty snow covered mountains pumped in us (coming from FLAT lands of TX and OK) a fresh surge of enthusiasm. The information center people directed us towards a moderate hiking trail, as a practice and acclimatization trek for Mt. Elbert, which we were going to attempt the next day. We all felt good that we could adjust to these heights soon. The practice trek was a good one. We climbed for almost an hour, before we headed back to Vail. At first, Vail did disappoint us; it looked just like any other small town nestled in the mountains. But, as we entered Vail village, we were greeted by an unbelievably pretty town, lined up by shops, restaurants and gift shops, constructed in the typical European architectural pattern. All shops had nice little windows, lanterns hanging by the sides of entrances restaurants with wooden patios having candle-lit tables for quiet romantic dinners. A small stream running through the village, along with cobbled roads by its side and hotels with dimmed lighting on its banks gave the village a very “looking-through-a-soft-lens” appearance. It just makes you feel as if you are visiting Switzerland or some remote village in the French Alps. Now, if you think France, think expensive. Yes, that’s what the food was in Vail village. The lowest priced entrée was around $25, which made us hunt for fast food places elsewhere. With hard luck that got kicked off by “The Kabobs”, we munched on hot dogs and Manasi had to do with Nachos and cheese from a gas station. The drive to Leadville was in patch dark, and we reached at a time when all the restaurants were closed. The motel owner was an interesting person. He got each one of us, a plate with the complete Thanksgiving dinner. The menu was turkey, stuffing, salad, corn bread, and apple pie. It was only when we went to his office we learnt that this dude is an ultra-marathon runner, and after having won loads of medals, has gone into the organizing phase. Our reaction to the fact that he could run up Mt. Elbert in summer in 2 hours was nothing but blank. It was hard to imagine running up a 14-er at this dude’s age. The directions were accurate, as we drove towards the trailhead of Mt. Elbert the next day at 5 am. The jackets were not zipped and closed. The snowshoes were not worn. The gloves needed to be taken off to do all these activities. Now, its alright to do these elsewhere, but not when its 5 ° F outside. We both were chilled to the bones, and for a moment, we thought our hands would have to be amputated, after this climb. The feeling intensified for Gokhale when he had to take out his glove and liner for nature’s call. Our timing was perfect. We walked 4.5 miles just to reach the trailhead, a point where a car easily goes in summer time. We tackled all the diversions in the trail, as we were told by our HAP (High Altitude Porter), the motel owner. But, after an hour and a half’s climb, all of a sudden, the trail vanished. Despite desperate efforts to make our own trail, we couldn’t progress much in knee-deep snow. And, that was the hard time, when we decided to abandon the climb and head back down. We even had our own doubts regarding the correct direction of trail we had taken. It doesn’t feel very good when you don’t summit the mountain you set out to bag. But, as I always say – the mountain will stay there. If we survive, we can come back to it. But, if we summit, and die, it’s not worth it. Having got lost in the woods, and after an exhausting 11 mile walk in snow, we relished the comfort of our Pontiac G6 parked at the tree line. Frozen and almost wooden-like snicker bars were our menu for the hike. Returned the snowshoes, and after another pathetic dinner at the Pizza hut, the park rangers assured us that were on the right trail.

The next day activity on the charts was skiing at Ski Cooper, in between Vail and Leadville. The fun started when Manasi shouted and everybody, literally everybody watched her go up on the ski lift. Like me and Gokhale, she also tasted the snow for the first time while dismounting from the lift. My repeated trials to persuade her to come with me didn’t work, so I got her enrolled in a ski school. The 75 year old instructor was an outdoor freak, as his life was, in his words, “he skis’ in winters and jumps out of airplanes in summers”. While Manasi was busy learning, I and Gokhale thought of giving the BIG ski lift a shot, in other words, ski down a higher level slope. The duration for which we were going up scared us both, thinking about the slope length and inclination. The “Mary Mayfield” ski slope was a combination of relatively steep and lengthy sections. Both of us crashed a lot of times, out of which one of mine was to avoid hugging the trees at an extreme speed with which I was going. The skiing was so much fun that we decided to against going to Aspen, and headed directly to Colorado Springs. The 3-hr. drive through mountain passes was a bit risky, as there was black ice on the roads, which is sometimes not visible to naked eye. The drive next day to Manitou Springs, which is a suburb of Colorado Springs, was pretty, and the cog railway ride up Pikes Peak was also pretty. It was hard to imagine that the world’s highest cog railway and USA’s highest train is in service since the past 114 years. We could see the halfway point where people used to stay in olden times. We were fortunate enough to be the first one to buy the tickets, and hence, first ones to occupy the front row, maximizing our view. Pikes Peak was beautiful, but it would be even great to climb it. Going towards the Denver airport, seeing the sun set over the mountains, knowing in the heart that I failed to summit Elbert, I dreamt of climbing all the 53 fourteeners someday. As I bid farewell to one of the most beautiful states in the United States of America, I knew one thing for sure – In the case of Mt. Elbert, I couldn’t achieve my dream, but I tried, my level best, pushing my limits as far as I could.

A Different Kind of Feeling!

I am sure every student who comes here has a dream of getting his or her parents here, and showing them around. Showing them USA, the place called the superpower of the world, where abundance can be seen in all walks of life. “Opulence Stinks” is what some people refer to the situation in United States. But, still, a family member does feel uneasy and get worried when their children are going away to a culturally unknown, but materialistically abundant place, far away. And that’s the reason kids want to show their parents how they managed here, with whatever resources they had at hand. And, that they have done it all, by themselves, in an honest and righteous manner.
Finally, it was happening. Correct planning and prompt decisions at the right time helped my parents to get here, without much difficulty. The surprising thing was my 20 year old sister was granted a 10 year multiple entry visa, which was awesome. It was Manasi’s idea of giving them a GRAND welcome, which included hiring a Limousine for their journey from the airport to our home. It felt royal to sip a drink, while sitting in the Lincoln. The apartment was all lit up with candles, and chilled Champagne was waiting to be opened, which dad had the privilege of opening.

A drive to Dallas and a flight from Dallas Fort Worth to Boston was a little tiring, but the excitement of the trip ahead kept all of us pumped up. Chaitya and Mugdha had come to pick us up, and we were treated to a lovely dinner prepared by Mrs. Godsay. The next day, we set out on the freedom trail in downtown Boston, which very aptly portrays Boston’s distinct historic character, and its role in the American Revolution. The starting point was The Boston Commons, which essentially is a park, and anybody would be surprised if they were told that it was used in previous times for cows to graze. The Boston Commons is to Boston what Central Park is to New York. Just like NYC, the vast green patch right in the middle of downtown contrasts the concrete jungle encircling it. The stroll through Boston Commons was pleasing, as was the sight of the State House, which is the seat of the Massachusetts’s state government. The state house, one beautifully built building, strongly ties to history with the land belonging to John Hancock, the person with the largest signature on the constitution of the United States of America. Right opposite the state house is the snapshot in history of the first black regiment to have participated from the Yankees side, i.e. the north side, the 54th Massachusetts’s regiment. The trail takes you to the Park Street Church, winds its way around to the burial place of a lot of revolutionary era people. Kings Chapel at the next intersection of lights is the first church built in the USA, which was considered equivalent to any other church in England. The interiors of this church are truly amazing, a lot of things remain the same, as were in 1700’s. I am sure I have seen the church in at least two movies, probably one of them being Matt Damon’s Good Will Hunting. Just a little ahead is the statue of Benjamin Franklin, at the site of Boston Public School, which STILL ranks amongst top 3 schools in the United States. The old corner bookstore and old south meeting house are some of the next attractions on the trail. The old state house building, the oldest surviving public building was the one through the walls of which the declaration of independence was first read in 1776. After a hearty Middle-Eastern, Chinese and Italian lunch at Faneuil Hall, rain stopped our freedom trail journey midway, and we couldn’t see USS Constitution and the Bunker Hill Monument, famous for the first major battle of the American Revolution.
A visit to the Museum of Fine Arts and the two biggies in education was planned the next day. The museum of fine arts had a wide selection of works by almost all world famous painters including Monet, Vincent Van Gough, Rembrandt, and so on. The best ones I liked were “Picture Gallery with Views of Modern Rome” by Giovanni Paolo Pannini, and “Old Man in Prayer” by Rembrandt. The attention, which the artist gave to details, and the vivid impression it created just blew me away, after all, his name figures amongst the top known people in art. We crossed over to the other side of the river into Cambridge, and there we were, amidst those chosen few people of high intellect, creativity and perseverance, scholars of M.I.T. The main dome of M.I.T, standing with pride, reflected the architectural beauty of the campus. We even drove around the Harvard Campus, with its really old dorms and buildings, giving the campus a very artistic touch. A Malaysian cuisine was perfect for lunch, but we were unable to have the grand finale at Finale, the famous desserterie in Cambridge, MA. I felt that there was so much to be seen at these two campuses, but the time just wasn’t enough. I wanted to see Harvard Business School (HBS), the Sloan School of Management and lot more things, but I guess I will have to visit Boston again sometime. Swati was waiting for us since early evening, but we could only reach her place around dinnertime. A sumptuous dinner at a local Mexican place marked the end of our Boston tour.

Niagara Falls was the next day plan. Driving was almost 8 hours from Chaitya’s place. To go to one of the most visited places on earth indeed felt nice. The Niagara was out of this world. Also, it is hard to imagine how boring the Niagara Falls City is. The usual and very typical rides were on the agenda. Maid of the Mist lets you seep in all the beauty of the American as well as the Horseshoe Falls. It goes pretty near to the falls; to an extent that one feels the ride is going to go in the falls. The splendid view of thousands of gallons of water pouring down per second just takes your breath away. There is a museum, which has an interactive display of the details of how Niagara got formed, and how it is receding slowly. You actually learn quite a bit about the different time spans in earths’ lifetime, and I had the same feeling I had in Grand Canyon National Park – human life span seems no more than a second. The cave of the winds ride takes you RIGHT UNDER the American falls, which makes it almost impossible to click a photograph. But, still, I managed to click one, and as expected, it turned out to be the haziest picture of the trip. It really takes every bit of enthusiasm to drive back to Niagara after a hearty dinner, but if you miss that, I assure you – you will have missed one of the most awe-inspiring sceneries of your lifetime. Niagara at night is as beautiful as can be, a medley of colors with varying intensities over short times. Although man-made, it feels like god is holding a palette in his hand, and experimenting with his colors, occasionally dabbing and splashing tinges on the canvas he made for himself– The Niagara Falls. It was a good opportunity for me to try to expose the APS 400 film on a tripod, with the bulb mode on, without a shutter-release cable, at maximum aperture. All I needed was an EXTREMELY steady hand, and fortunately, I managed to get some good shots, although they were hampered by the scarcity of light. Having seen everything in a day’s time, we had a spare day at hand, so headed to Lake George, NY, a summer spot for the upper class of New York to spend a weekend. Rented a cottage in the Adirondacks, and took the hour-long boat ride on the lake. The boat was heavily populated (approx. 250) with kids from a school, so got a bit irritating towards the end. Next destination – Shilpa’s place at Hartford, Connecticut. It had been a while that a chat session had lasted throughout the night. So, this was the place. The growling stomachs were satisfied with beer and awesome food. The evening chat session started with Minti celebrating her birthday for the first time, by cutting the cake Shilpa had bought for her, clicking photos, and from there, went on and on and on, till about 5 a.m. The image of Rose Garden at Hartford was perfectly painted in our minds by Shilpa and Abhijeet, but everybody’s hopes was shattered when we were greeted by a handful of flowers at the garden and we learnt that the rose season was over.

We stayed at Meenal’s place for making daily trips to NYC. She was in New Brunswick, NJ. It was only after the first day we realized that changing trains twice or thrice to get to NYC was not a very comfortable idea, was expensive and exhaustive. But, we got to meet Meenal and Sridhar, whom we were supposed to meet since a long time. Meenal and Sridhar also bought an amazing cake for the regular 1200 hrs ceremony for Minti, on the 6th of June. This was the second time that Minti was getting to celebrate her birthday.
When we got out of the subway station, we were right there, at the place where tragedy struck on 11th September 2001. I still remember, I was making pasta in the UMR cafeteria for a bunch of school kids, when there was a chaos that made everybody run to the TV’s, to see the WTC buildings collapsing, and the horror associated with it. People did still not believe it, and it took some time before everybody finally gulped down the fact that indeed a deadly terrorist attack was unleashed on America. We suffered our share of repercussions in Rolla, a small mid-west town of 16,000 people. We got cans thrown at us, water thrown at us, shouted at, cursed at, and a lot of other things. It was definitely not a pleasant experience.
Getting back to present, the NY style Pizza was one hell of an experience. The slice of pizza is just so BIG, but it is also thin-crust, so one person can easily finish it. We all got our caricatures drawn just before boarding the boat for Liberty Island, to see the Statue of Liberty. The view of downtown Manhattan was breathtakingly beautiful. I imagined two WTC buildings in that concrete jungle, and the beauty they would have added to the skyline. Lady Liberty, a gift from France to the United States, stands tall, with overlooking the sea. Wall Street, NYSE, and Brooklyn Bridge were the next things on the must-see list. As a budding architect, Mints wanted to see the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which was in uptown Manhattan, somewhere around 86th Street. It was a structure, which was very weirdly, but differently built. Clicking a few photographs inside the museum and buying a souvenir was what excited Mints, but it was definitely worth it, from her knowledge point of view. Madame Taussad’s museum of wax in NYC is considered the next best one, after the one in London. So, it was a must-see too. The expression on the faces of these wax statues was unbelievably real, and you could actually feel as if they are standing, in flesh and blood, right next to you. It had all the famous people. From actors like Ben Kingsley (who enacted M.K. Gandhi) to Brad Pitt and the sexy Angelina Jolie (I have a photo with her, it was a natural reaction) to business tycoons like Henry Ford (whose famous line – “You can have Model-T in any color you want, as long as it is black”) and John D. Rockefeller (At one time, every American’s dream was to be as rich as Rockefeller) to famous physicists as Albert Einstein as well as world famous artists like Pablo Picasso (who started the strikingly different art of Cubism in art). It was fun going through the wax museum, at the entrance of which we were chased by none other than the HULK himself, and the hidden photographers got a perfect shot, captioned “Patwardhans and the HULK!” This was the end of the first day in NYC.
As Meenal had suggested, I had already bought tickets to the Empire State Building Deck online, which saved us around 2 hours of wait (although couldn’t avoid 2.5 hours of wait to get on the lift). The Empire State ticket area was hot, humid, crowded and we all were VERY exhausted. Manya had to almost wait 2 hours to meet us at the bottom of the building. The observation deck was the worst I have seen till now (as compared to Sears Tower of Chicago, Prudential of Boston, and Stratosphere in Vegas). We all could hardly see anything. People were not moving out of the building AT ALL, with more people pouring in. I could just get a glimpse of the Chrysler Building, one of the skyscrapers in NYC. There wasn’t even place to stand on the deck, and I really doubted if the deck is able to handle so many people or not (although it was a foolish doubt)? Manish took us to the famous Times Square, which is a place, which you have to “see to believe”. The amazing display of these advertisements going on continuously on these gigantic high-tech TV screens all around you makes you feel the deep impact technology has on our lives, and how deeply we have embraced it. It just takes a while to soak in all of that after which Manya took us to a pretty hep desi restaurant in downtown Manhattan, called Café Spice, (gosh – something different than India Palace/Taj Palace/Bombay/Taj Mahal, which happen to be the ONLY names of desi restaurants in the mid-west). Manasi and me were very impressed with the contemporary furniture, art and overall décor of the place, as compared to those typical Mughal paintings (which you get at Janpath for Rs. 400, at the max, and all it has are the prince and princesses/courtesans sniffing on flowers or sucking on the Hookah pipe in all the unimaginably awkward positions) hung on the wall. It was VERY DIFFERENT from the ONLY Desi restaurant in Tulsa, where Mr. Kaldeep Singh (the owner) hasn’t changed the contents of the buffet since years (at least not since 2001), and I am pretty sure that the pianist, Bryan Silas MUST have got tired of playing the same Hindi movie tunes over and over and over again! We all at Tulsa think of gifting the owner with some new CD’s when we leave town, so that he gets the message. The food at Café Spice was awesome, as expected. The best part was when Mints cut the small chocolate cake (the dessert) as her third birthday celebration and took her first official tequila shot, as she turned 21 that day. The sucking on the lime and tasting the salt looked pretty professional, although her face twitched a bit. The medium-intensity downpour was enough to soak all of us on our way back to the Subway station. The return journey to Meenal’s place wasn’t exactly exciting, as almost all of us were half-dead! Next day, after lunch, we left for Atlantic City, supposedly the Vegas of the east. Having got a fantastic deal on a casino-resort, we decided to stay in Hotel Tropicana. A sumptuous dinner at P.F. Changs was followed by leisure walks on the boardwalk, and the occasional peeping in the casinos was fun, but manasi and I ran a constant commentary on how fantabulous Vegas is, and how boring Atlantic City is. Some time at the beach, and a visit to (I think the best casino in Atlantic City) Borgata were the last things we did in Atlantic City, and left for our last destination – Washington D.C., to see if Bush was taking care of himself and his country in a right manner or not.
I found from Meenal that Vineet Deshpande stays well within commuting distance from D.C. It had been quite a while that we had met, so this was a good opportunity. So, the first night stay was at Vineet’s place. His wife’s name is also Manasi. The trains in D.C area are so much better than the ones in NYC. They look cleaner, are smoother and have much less crowd. We all really liked them. The first day on the National Mall, we realized that you have to come early enough to get the “first-come-first-served” free tickets to the tours inside the Capitol Hill building and Washington Monument. The first day was spent wandering about on the mall. The National Museum of Natural History was overcrowded, but interesting. Right at the entrance is a huge stuffed elephant from Africa. The museum covers a wide spectrum of things, from the dinosaurs’ era to polar wildlife to a completely dedicated section for mammals. After seeing the Capitol from outside, we walked all the way to the White house, and then, back to Vineet’s place. The next day was supposedly the busiest of days on the trip. Woke up early, early enough to catch one of the first trains into D.C., early enough to split up at the station, so that I could run to the Washington Monument to get hold of the free passes, and the rest could walk to the Capitol to get the free tour passes. The run from Washington Monument to The Capital (one end of the mall to another) was pretty exhaustive. Amongst the frenzied activities throughout the day was picking up Manasi’s dad from the D.C. airport, temporarily keeping his luggage at another location, running all the way to the Capitol to make it to the tour and then making it just in time for the Washington Monument tour. All Manasi’s dad had to say was, “Whew! What a DYNAMIC entry into Washington D.C.” Because of time constraint, we had to practically make him run everywhere with us; right from the time he landed in D.C. After visiting the Museum of American-Indian History and a couple of similar ones, our last target was the most exciting one – The International Spy Museum. It was one of its kinds, detailing the evolution, history and unimaginable ways in which spying can be done, and spies can operate. Matahari, considered the spy of the century, has her history laid out in the museum. It is said that she was originally Indian by origin, although I doubt this claim, as she mainly spied for the French. The various exhibitions on spying including the camera-pigeon, the kiss-of-death (lipstick pistol), cigarette pistol were very interesting but the thing that deserved the most attention was the infamous “Enigma”, the machine that made Germany famous. You actually get to sit on an Enigma-type machine and get to code messages using its rotor wheels with alphabets on them. I remember reading a book, which referred to the immense efforts undertaken by top notch Polish Mathematicians, in accordance with the British, to decipher these codes well in advance, in an attempt to stop invasion by Hitler. An early return to the motel at Pentagon City gave us ample time to relax and enjoy the desi-type Chinese fried rice.
The return journey from Washington D.C. to Boston started, but we made it a point to go and at least have a glimpse of The Pentagon. Chaitya and Mugdha were waiting eagerly for us to return (Its hard to sum up the feeling in words about what you feel when ANY of your relatives come and visit you here, in the States). The next day was scheduled for a visit to Chaitya’s office, their University, University of New Hampshire (UNH), and to the famous Rye and Hampton Beaches. Shilpa gladly showed her dorm room, in which we somehow managed to click a photo, although it was hard to fit everybody in. The Frisbee session at the beach, in the sea, sand volleyball game; all was topped with a hot slice of cheese pizza at a local place. At the beach, one can’t help but imagine sitting in one of those sea-facing balconies, sipping in beer, taking in the fresh breeze, reading a book or doing nothing but simply relaxing.
The flight from Boston to Dallas marked the end of this extremely fun-filled, mixed-emotion-packed fortnight. The Sixth-Floor Museum (JFK museum, where from a window on the sixth floor, Henry Oswald shot Kennedy during his campaign in Dallas) in downtown Dallas was one last thing I wanted them to see before driving back to Tulsa. Having seen it twice already, I had nothing else to do but to linger around. They said they thoroughly enjoyed it.
We were very happy that we could show them around. That, we had done the best we could to make this first trip of theirs to the US a memorable one. At the end of this entire stay, while leaving, I could see a smile on my parents’ face. And that was what mattered, and was the most gratifying thing for me. The satisfaction of having showed them around, the satisfaction of having taken care of people who shower you with their affection, love, care and the most important thing – their time. A polish proverb very aptly summarizes this very important relationship – “You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once.” Having experienced it for the first time, I will simply put it by saying that taking care of them was a very different kind of feeling, a very special one indeed…

TRAVERSING THE LEGEND.

The ol’ timers say, “Get your kicks on Route 66”. Well, we went, and we got our kicks. I clearly remember the first time when a friend of mine, Hrishikesh (Pintya) told me of his grand idea of traversing the entire United States on “The Main Street of USA”. It was then that I started dreaming about the doing one of the most well known road trips in the states. The 1920’s era of flourishing automobile industry, 1930’s era of depression or the golden era of 60’s and 70’s, characterized by drugs, rebels, Harley Davidson motorcycles, free love and rock n roll, the highway has witnessed endless number of enthusiasts, outlaws and angels alike, who have driven in the pursuit of “The Great American Dream”. The highway, which runs from Chicago to Los Angeles, and covers three-fourths of the country, out of which we got a chance to cover from Tulsa, OK to Los Angeles, CA, not to mention the “n” number of times I have done the “Rolla-Tulsa” patch. So, Chicago-Rolla is still left. But, fortunately we still have a lot of years to take care of a 9-hr drive.

The evening of 17th of June saw us leaving from Tulsa to Santa Rosa in New Mexico, because we had a reservation at a motel. Luck parted ways with us when we met this desi guy, surti to be specific, at the front desk of the motel. He was one of the most uncooperative guy we had ever met. Luckily, we managed at another place, and left for Flagstaff, AZ the next day. The car mentioned its ability of not going in reverse to us at a small gas station at a “middle-of-nowhere” location. Now, let me mention one thing here. The mid-west and western states of this country, unlike the eastern and northeastern states have loads of “middle-of-nowhere” locations. On one of my drive from Tulsa to Seattle, I witnessed a rare board – “Exit – Food and Gas, Next Services – 135 miles ahead.” In other words, an urgent situation of nature’s call on the road demands either going the illegal way (road side) or being in possession of an empty 44oz. soda glass, from the last gas station halt.

The car was given for repairing, under the pretext that the Grand Canyon would be covered in a rental car, and then the journey would resume in our dear own car. This latest incident with Gokhale’s car again strengthened the fact that Cars and Sameer NEVER go along. We had started saying this because this 1997, $ 9000 Toyota Camry was supposedly going to be his fourth “no-nonsense and completely reliable” car, after a Nissan, Honda, and a Dodge. Well, we were given a Pontiac Grand Prix, in which the only good thing we all found were the car speakers, and its ability to pump up the bass as we listened to all possible types of CD’s. The rear seat people had already started complaining about feeling like sitting in a jail, which sparked off the controversial issue of grabbing the coveted front seats.

To put it in mountaineering’s jargon, a small place/village called Tusayan could be called a base camp for the Grand Canyon. From an IMAX theatre showcasing “The Grand Canyon – The Hidden Secrets” to numerous campsites, it had it all. Unlike camping (or trekking or mountaineering) in the Sahyadri’s and Himalayas, where we leave the motorable road behind and come back to it after a long stint in the mountains, we did camping in a typical American way. At around 12.30 am, we paid $21 for a designated place in a campsite, parked the car RIGHT IN FRONT of the campsite, and pitched the great North Face Himalayan 47 six man tent, which Rakesh had bought. We all thought that it was the ultimate insult for the tent, which should have got inaugurated somewhere at 18,000 ft above sea level, in the Garhwal Himalayas, serving as a base camp manager’s tent, for a major Himalayan expedition (or at least at the base of Mt. Denali, the highest peak in USA). Well, I hope that the tent sees that day someday. This very expensive tent has been basically bought for similar anticipated Himalayan expeditions, when Rakesh, me, Pintya, Mahadik, we all return back to India for good, pair up with the likes of Bobby, Ajit and Martin to form “The Magnificent Seven” again.

Grand Canyon has been aptly christened. One has to see it to believe it. It feels like nothing else but like a gash in the crust of earth. A gash, which has been made around 2 billion years ago, and has helped form around six hundred smaller canyons within itself. All the canyons are nothing less than chasms, cliffs, rock faces, buttes, and spires running into shadows. The beautiful Colorado River runs through the canyon’s underbelly, roaring at some places, and serene and peaceful at some. The canyon has been an awe inspiring beauty of nature, probably since man has walked this earth. The abode of the Anasazi’s, or the ancient ones, the canyon has seen man come and go, time and again. It’s so surprising that the very people, who belonged here, have become a trailing edge of a timeline and have quietly passed into oblivion, when contrasted with the eternal presence of the canyon. The expanse and age of this natural beauty, makes one believe as if, like the Anasazi’s, for the canyon, man’s life passes is nothing but a whisper.

We were fortunate enough to be one of the 10 million visitors the canyon has each year. We tried to hike down to the Colorado River, but at a certain point, after seeing the “never-ending” trail. Manasi gave up. She really put up a brave fight up to six out of nine miles, which was the base of the canyon, from the top. Considering the situation at hand, we split and Rakesh and Gokhale went ahead with the tent, and me and Manasi climber up to the mid-point campground. The ranger at the “Indian Garden” campground was helpful to the extent that she provided us with a tent. It was a different story that the tent had one of its poles missing, and we had a hard time erecting it. After a bread-sauce ‘n’ cheese dinner, we went off to sleep in that rackety tent. Done with a night’s semi-peaceful sleep, I suggested Manasi to leave for the top at dawn only, before the sun starts playing its part of exhausting you. With a bottle of Gatorade, she started and reached the top, i.e. 4.5 miles in quarter to four hours, and I wound up everything, left an hour later than her, and reached in three and a half hour. Up there, she was waiting for me for quite some time. She did a commendable job of sprinting to the top though. Rakesh and Gokhale started ascending against the advice of the ranger, reached the mid-point at around 12, took a rest till 3, and then started to the top. The temperature at that location was the highest, i.e. a whooping 118 degrees Fahrenheit. They made it to the top around 7 pm. It was the first time that all of us had “hiked down” first, and then “hiked up” later. After 2 grueling days of hiking, all of us wanted to go and get cleaned up. The cheapest motel we got was for $95 per day. After all, that’s how it goes when the demand exceeds the supply. It was a different thing that they goofed up in their service, and we got a 30% discount. The next day, we watched the IMAX movie on Grand Canyon (me and Manasi watched it for the second time). It was awesome, with its little pieces of history about the heroic quests man had endeavored along the river in the canyon. On the way through the desert view drive, we met a Marathi family at the ancient watchtower. Rakesh was happy to know that they were from Cleveland, OH. Yeah, now Rakesh had a place to go and eat “home made food”. Had lunch with them, and we parted ways.

We learnt that our car was not going to be done till Tuesday, so we decided to carry on with the trip in the rental car itself. Hoover Dam on the border of Arizona and Nevada is nothing but a testimony to a country’s ability to construct monolithic projects in the midst of most adverse conditions. It was built during the depression and weighs more than 6.6 million tons. We didn’t get a chance to see the place, so we decided to visit it on the way back (we couldn’t make it). Took some photographs, and moved on to “The Sin City”.

Entering Vegas was like entering into a going into a city with trillions of watts of lights. Although we entered from the opposite side of the famous “Welcome to the fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada” sign, it felt nothing less than fabulous to enter Vegas. That night and the next night, we roamed about in all the casinos, lost money in the slot machines, black jack and wheel of fortune. The casinos were magnificently built. “The Bellagio” stood out from the rest of them, with the famous music-controlled fountain in front. They played the title track of Titanic and it was just completely outathisworld. The other casinos were also amazing. “The Venetian” has created Venice in the casino, with the European style buildings, shops, cafes and a canal with boats and the artificial sky was just-too-good-to-be-true. Manasi couldn’t believe that it was artificial. Rakesh tried to shake hands with a guy, who was pretending to be a statue, but to our disappointment, he didn’t. We thought the guy had got infuriated at Rakya. Well, after Bellagio, Paris, Treasure Island, The Mirage, Caesar’s Palace, The Venetian, and Luxor, we had covered almost all of the casinos. We saw the show called “Sirens of TI”, and the next day, saw another show in the Stratosphere tower. To put it in a few words, we enjoyed a lot, had a lot of fun. To keep you all guessing, you all know the famous saying – “Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”.

So, off we were to the sunny state of California, the home of the Hollywood. Now, to be specific, Los Angeles is second largest city in the United States. It is nothing but a myriad of highways crisscrossing each other at all possible locations, confusing the hell out of you. It took Rakya and Gokhale a long time to look for the motel where we had our reservation. We were roaming around in LA for almost an hour. The first day in LA was spent roaming around Kodak Theatre (where the Oscar Awards are held), the walk of the stars, the Hollywood Boulevard, the Sunset Boulevard (places where the stars shop), the famous Beverly Hills and its awesome sprawling mansions, with the most expensive cars like Rolls Royce, Porsches parked in front of them. The Santa Monica beach was very near, but on Manasi’s request, we all headed to Long Beach. To our disappointment and amusement, the Long Beach turned out nothing but a dockyard for ships, and there was absolutely NO trace of a beach there. While driving back to the motel, I somehow was too tired or something, but I couldn’t focus on driving, and was taking all the possible wrong exits. Gokhale replaced me, and we hit the bed as soon as we reached. The second day was reserved for Universal Studios. After reaching there a bit late (again due to the confusing roads), we took a front-of-the-line pass (obviously we paid a LOT more for that), which made us feel as if we are VIP’s in Universal Studios. We were being given access to all rides in the park, when there was a two-hour long wait for the rest of the general public. We were lucky because a new ride, The Revenge of the Mummy – The Ride had started that very day. It’s just a 2-minute ride, but scares you big time. You sit in the roller coaster and it takes you slowly in the dark, with eerie sounds and lights around you. Then, ALL OF A SUDDEN, you are plunging into the darkness at the speed of around 60-70 miles an hour. And, everybody thinks that it’s going to crash on a wall in front of you, but stops JUST an inch before smashing into it, and goes at the same speed, in REVERSE !!!. I saw Manasi; she had shut her eyes throughout the ride. The scariest was the Van Helsing ride, in which repulsive creatures with equally repulsive faces used to spring on you from rooftops, hollows in walls, from behind doors, and from below ground. At one instance, Rakya was so scared of the darkness ahead, he just pushed Gokhale forward, and in another, I and Manasi got shit scared when a creature just pounced on us from within a wall. His face was like, an inch away from Manasi’s. Whoooosh! It was some ride. Jurassic Park was fun too, except the highly inclined (almost 75 degrees) drop in the last, when you are busy avoiding the T-Rex from taking a chunk of your head. Waterworld and Spiderman were marvelously enacted pieces, whereas “Shrek” was a 4-D ride. They spray water on you when the donkey sneezes in the movie, and wrangled wires wobble at your feet, when the spiders come towards you. We ended our rides by sitting in Back to the Future ride, which gave all of us a headache. Our day ended by dining at the famous “Hard Rock Café”. It had a superb décor, with a 1950’s Chrysler rotating in the middle of the restaurant. It had photos, newspaper cuts and memorabilia of a lot of famous people, like Elvis Presley, Steven Tyler and others.

Our return journey to Flagstaff, AZ started the next day, where Sameer’s car was being worked on. So, in other words, we had to drive from Los Angeles, CA to Tulsa, OK in one day. Well, after having driven some unimaginably long distances in the shortest times possible, I didn’t exactly feel that the drive was that bad. It was just a 22-hour drive! We had already booked a one-way rental car (a Chevy Impala) from Flagstaff to Tulsa, which added to the already skyrocketing nature of the trip’s budget. Rakya offloaded his stuff from the old to the new rental car. In that hasty transfer, he took Gokhale’s shoes along, in our car. So, Gokhale was all alone in the city of Flagstaff, AZ, without shoes or a car, watching every single movie 3 times on cable, swimming probably 200 lengths in the “30ft by 20 ft” pool which the motel had. I think that he had become so familiar with the city that he should have become a temporary tourist guide; at least he would have earned something.

We hit the road, with Rakya at the wheel till about 3 am, after which I took over. I could see that the small towns, gas stations and convenient stores along the road had faded away into the past; I could see that the country had not remained safe such that one could hitch-hike his way from coast to coast; but at the same time, I was witnessing a truly beautiful site.

Cruising along the highway, listening to Pandit Jasraj’s classical music as the first rays of sun hit the road, I could see the “Mother Road” light up, and I got to know one thing for sure – However and in whatsoever condition, the Legend that traverses through eight states of the United States of America lives on!

LIVE FREE OR DIE!!!!!!!!!!!

20th of May, Monday – A hasty return journey from Tulsa did not leave much time for me to think and pack my backpack properly. So, packed whatever I could manage to lay my hands on and the next day, we (Myself and Manasi) boarded the flight from Lambert International Airport, St. Louis. We had a connecting flight from Philadelphia. So, the first plane was from St. Louis to Philly. This flight was a nightmare . In the sense, it was even worse than out State transport buses, which take us to the nooks and corners of Maharashtra. It had an approximate capacity of around 40 people, seats were of the quality of any normal Fiat’s seats , and of course it gave us the lifetime experience of wobbling of an aircraft, once it goes into an air bubble. It actually, never seemed to come out of that. AND, all of a sudden, an acute pain started off in my stomach……I had absolutely no idea as to why and how this uninvited guest is paying me a visit, that too right at the start of the trip? Took them to be gases, but realized later on that it was much more than that . Touched Philly, which comes in the Eastern Time zone. So, they were ahead of us by an hour. I did not know that the times on the tickets are according to the respective time zones. I was relaxed, but it was Manasi who forced me to run for the B9 terminal to board the next flight. And she was correct; we barely managed to board the flight. It was indeed a good decision because the B terminals had to be reached by the internal airport shuttle service. The pain had only increased to quite an unbearable extent. I did not know what to do, or what to take. But, as usual, continued with my usual habit of consuming everything that the flight attendants have to offer. Safely reached Boston at around 4.30 pm. Called up Chaitya (my cousin) and Mugdha (His Fiancee). 20th – was the day of her last exam, so they were on their way to the airport. They picked us up, and after an hour and a half’s drive, guess what was the first destination on this trip – Yes, it was Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, NH. On the way, Mugdha’s recollection of the symptoms before her Appendicitis operation in the last semester (at the same hospital) made me a little nervous. So, there we were, in the Emergency department of this hospital. LUCKILY, I had taken my insurance card from the IA office in my university a day before leaving (I had nothing during my Texas trip), which proved a very helpful and appropriate decision. Both the doctors as well as the nurses were stunned to see me as a patient, who comes straight from a place in mid-west to this hospital in northeast. The wait of around one and a half hour strictly contradicted the name given to the department as “Emergency Department”. We joked about how a doctor would come running once a patient dies in the waiting room, for a doctor to come and attend to him. Now, you know what, these guys actually made me wear a kind of a frock/gown. It felt so pathetic , that if I had gone out like that, anybody would have taken me as a guy who is interested in cross-dressing. So, with the stomach growling with hunger, and a list of things of “not permitted to eat”, we left the hospital for chaitya’a house. Dumped our stuff at his place, then went out or dinner. Had to choose a place very carefully, because of my health concerns. I hated that, but after thinking over, went to Bickford’s in Portsmouth and had Burgers. Had not had anything since morning. So, went home after the dinner and slept off……………..

21st of May, Tuesday – Got up late, as usual (you will know later why it was so usual), Mugdha had prepared lunch. After that, went on a scenic drive, which is along the coast and goes to Rye and Hampton beaches, two of the famous beaches of this part. The picture of Mugdha and Manasi in the soft glow of car’s headlight was taken at Hampton beach. Went to the nearest videocassette shop and rented out 8 cassettes for the whole week . Decided on Olive Garden (An amazing Italian Restaurant) to go and have dinner, but it was closed . So, went to Applebee’s and had a nice time there. Chaitya, Mugdha and I had beer, and manasi, as usual had wine (her favorite – White Zinfandel). The waiter was very friendly, and chatted with us while serving us. On the TV above us, a match was going on between Boston Celtics and some other team. So, all the people over there were enthusiastically watching the match. The steak at Applebee’s was out of this world, and the brownie fudge sundae was out of – out of this world……..hahaha (Please bear with the P.J’s, as they come along)

22nd of May, Wednesday – Had the “China Buffet” experience (which we had heard from Mugdha time and again). It was good, and had quite a lot of dishes (more than our Great wall at Rolla). Tried to taste everything, but, unfortunately, couldn’t do it (Pet ne Akhri mein saath chod diya). We had planned to go to a nearby dock, named Strawberry bank. This place was also very beautiful. There were benches in the garden nearby to just sit and enjoy the view. Mugdha confessed, “When we feel very romantic, we come here.” It was indeed a place that romantic. The most surprising thing to all of us was the rate at which we were seeing BMW’s here and there, parked everywhere. The way we see Maruti 800 in India, BMW’s were everywhere. We almost saw around 30/40 BMW’s in that span of 45 minutes or 1 hour. Roamed around in Portsmouth’s downtown for some time, and then left the place for the “Margarita’s”, a very well known restaurant over there. Had to wait for a long time outside the restaurant, because of the Wednesday night. On Wednesdays, they serve one dish free with one, if you have a student Id card with you. It was obviously famous for, yes, you guessed it right – “Margaritas”. The cuisine was Mexican, but that was after a round of the Margaritas. All of us had exquisite Margaritas, green, pink and blue colored. Manasi’s was blue colored. It was a mix of 7 different drinks. It was fun to drink it through the salted rim, and immediately sucking on a piece of lemon after a sip. Tasted really nice. Now was the time for the main course. I took a shrimp dinner, and Manasi took a chicken enchilada. Fate was playing a funny game with me through out the trip, whichever dish I used to take, was ALWAYS highly insufficient, and the one that Manasi ordered was 2 (or probably 3) much for her. So, ultimately, after finishing off with mine, naturally, I used to be out there to help Manasi. After all that is my duty, right? So, had a heartfelt dinner (I always have that) and left for home. Chaitya and Mugdha had some work in IOL, the place where they work. So, I had to stay on with manasi in the parking while they finished off their work (10 minutes or so). But I realized later that I had the time of my life in those 10 minutes. She had such a wide range of topics to talk and chat on. To be brief, Sachin Tendulkar’s batting in a particular match, his performance, Shabnam’s (a friend of ours in Pune) song in a party, Bachhan’s dance in Sharaabi. I also gave her all the support from my side, but I just couldn’t help laughing. She was not at all in the state to realize that I was laughing. So, in this manner, saw Manasi out for the second time in front of me (The first time was on our first Valentine’s day here in US of A) . She also is pretty casual about that, because she knows for certain that there is somebody to take care of me. Told chaitya and mugdha about this, went home and slept quietly.

23rd of May, Thursday – As usual, saw 12 in the clock the first time I opened my eyes. Lazily got up, freshened up. Straight away had our lunch , and went out for seeing Winnipesaukee Lake, a beautiful lake in New Hampshire. Further down the lake is Alton bay. There were all sorts of boats in the lakes, motorboats, pedal boats. Decided to go for boating. But, whichever boat shop we went to, were sellers only. So, ultimately, found a place, which rented out boats, but reached at a time when they had closed out the rentals. So, could not go boating in the lake . But the lake was very scenic, and the drive too was very nice. So, enjoyed in general, on a sand beach nearby, where Manasi tried constructing a fort in sand, but there was not much time so went straight to Deepak’s place (a friend of chaitya’s). He had arranged a barbeque at his place. Bought burger buns, sausages, chicken patties as well as soda on way and then what – Hunger struck again. So, a sumptuous barbequed food along with potato salad and soda was the dinner for the day. Deepak’s ex-girlfriend took the lead in being the hostess, and, in fact, played a good hostess. His place was right in the middle of woods, where he was staying as a paying guest at an American couple’s house. They were very learned people, had a good collection of books, ranging from history and science to fiction. They had a biography on Albert Einstein, which definitely would have been a pleasure to read, but I knew it was not possible. So, it was again good night to all after the barbeque, and we were on our next job – to look out for a cheap motel in Maine, or somewhere nearby Acadia National Park. Went to IOL (Inter-operability Lab) and started the search . Looked at quite a few, called a lot of them, but they were pretty expensive. But, finally we hooked on a “Belle Isle Motel”, which had the lowest rates to offer. So, called them up, and booked the room for 2 nights, Friday and Saturday. Now as the work was done, went home and crashed on the beds.

24th May, Friday – Chaitya had his meeting with his advisor in the morning. We had decided to go to Maine (Acadia National Park) and we were going to start after his meeting. Obviously did not leave immediately after the meeting (you know, we have to follow ISD – Indian standard time), but left soon. I booked the motel before leaving itself, just to make sure that it does not get occupied during the weekend. Finally, off we were to Maine, one of the most beautiful states of this country. Hit I-95 till Portland. We decided to take 1N (a more scenic route ) till Acadia. But the route had too many signals on it, as it passed through a lot of towns. So, took to I-95 again . We went on this interstate till Bath, an extremely beautiful town on way. From here onwards, switched over to 1N again to gulp down all the beauty this route had to offer. Took a halt at a gas station + subway at Wiscasset. Continued on 1N for the rest of our journey. Camden was another beautiful town, nestled between Camden Hills State Park on one side and sea on the other side. It has all its houses on the seacoast, with sprawling lawns in the front of each house. I even photographed a house in Camden . Reached Belle Isle Motel at around 8.30 pm, got freshened up and went out for dinner. Now, as it was so late (according to American Standards), there was no restaurant that was open at that time of night. Luckily, we found a place called “The Chart Room”. Now, this was an expensive restaurant , a really expensive restaurant. Instead of having individual drinks, we planned to order a full bottle of wine. After introducing Manasi as the connoisseur of wines , and after her approval, we went ahead with the wine and the main course. Chaitya had the famous Maine Lobster. Nobody of us knew as to how to go about eating this 1 and a quarter pound LOBSTER in front of us. Got a bit relaxed when the waitress agreed to help chaitya with that. The method by which one has to break the legs/arms, and carve out the flesh, dip it in butter, and THEN eat it, was kind of interesting. The problem was that it took a lot of time. We were over with our food for a long time, but the lobster was making chaitya struggle hard, very hard. The tail section of the lobster had already grown cold when chaitya reached it. So, it was felt nothing but eating a blob of rubber………..not good. After having the most expensive dinner of our lifetime ( I wont tell you how much) , all four of us went and hit the bed.

25th May, Saturday – Time to go out and explore the whole of Bar Harbor. Went to the downtown, did some shopping and were on the lookout for a “Papa Johns” or a “Hardees” or something like that. But later we realized that the tourism of Bar Harbor had not allowed any of the fast food chains to set up their branches there. So, that means, we would be having anything and everything in a restaurant……………Whoosh………THAT is going to cost us SOME money, right?? Luckily found a local “Subs & Pastas” shop, and went inside. The chicken subs, which chaitya and manasi took was tasteless. I had a plateful of Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti. As usual, I liked every bite I had. Then, considering the time, the first thing we did was booked the Kayak tour for the next day. WOW – We were going to go for deep sea kayaking the next day . But what for now? – Thought of another adventurous and exciting thing – Scenic flights . There were these two clubs in Maine, which operated at the Bar Harbor airport. They had scenic flights, from which you could see the whole of Acadia from a bird’s eyes view. The first club was the one, which had flights in a glider. But, it was very, very expensive. The lowest one was $79 per person. This included a flight at the height of 4500 ft above sea level. So, we decided against it and went to the second one. This was a more reasonable one. It had flights categorized according to their method. The minutes in air were directly proportional to the cost of the flight. So, we all had a choice between flight A, B, C, D, E, F and G. They had a powered aircraft. So, we (I and Manasi) chose flight D. Chaitya and Mugdha chose to take flight C. It was one of the most beautiful things to see the whole of Acadia from a height of around 2800 feet above sea level . There were loads of things to be seen. The southwest harbor and the northwest harbor of the Acadia were to be seen. He sand beach was seen from top. This was the only sand beach in an area extending over approximately 10,000 square miles of coastline. Rockefeller Island, a privately owned island was also very beautiful. Mt. Cadillac was also visible. The whole area was very beautiful from top. Manasi felt a little sick while landing. Immediately, the sick bag was thrusted into her hand by me. After our flight, it was chaitya’s turn to “charter the plane” .They went for a longer duration flight. We roamed around till they came back. Then, decided to go on the park loop drive, a drive around Acadia. The 27 mile-long scenic drive known as the Park Loop Drive offers a spectacular sampler of the island’s coast and interior. It officially begins at the Visitor Center in Hulls Cove, but it may be entered at many points along its course. But, most of its length is one way . Although you can drive the complete circuit in just over 1 hour, to really enjoy it, one has to have more time – 3 hours or more. There are parking areas near breathtaking overlooks, which encourage you to linger longer than you expect. The scenery of moonlit sky, with its reflection on water, was one of the most pleasing and serene sights to see. The sea, smooth but, yet calm and placid again made me realize the beauty as well as immenseness of nature, in its untouched state . The sand beach was good, and the thunder hole was also good. It was, kind of scary. This place is formed by the continuous erosion of the rock by water, and at the time of high tide, the water, with full force, splashes against the rock in this eroded hole and produces a thunderous noise. That’s precisely the reason why it is called TheThunder hole. It was already pretty late, so went to the “oddly named” restaurant called “Rupununi” in downtown Bar Harbor. And guess what they had for appetizers? Our very own Samosas!!!. In a fit of enthusiasm, we all ordered Samosas with tequila shots. The size of those 2 samosas was a bit 2, no 4(double) much. Ultimately we all had to take them in “to go” boxes. Manasi had banana Split, a sweet cocktail. Then, we persuaded her to take give us all company in gulping tequila shot down the throat. “CHEERS” and the shots went down, followed by lemon and salt. It was good man….. Manasi’s and mugdha’s Honey Barbequed chicken also had the fate of going back in the “to go” boxes. Manasi madam again provided us with some entertainment. This time, it was Sachin tendulkar, but the inclination of the floor of the restaurant. Hahahaha. A little dispute on the EXACT inclination of the floor, and off we were back to the motel. Hic…GOODNIGHT….Hic…

26th May, Sunday – Last night’s hangover was not at all that much, but, as usual, we got up late. Had to reach the kayaking shop at 840 a m., but reached at around 9 am. Everybody was waiting for the distinguished members of that lot (obviously four of us, who else?). So, off we were to this spot called pretty marsh, on the other side of the island. The route started from there. It was an approximately 5/6 mile route. The breeze was so damn cold that for a second after all of us got out of the bus, we almost froze. But, it was ok after some time. The instructions given to us in a span of 3 to 4 minutes (including what to do when your kayak overturns) seemed very less (actually nothing) when we saw the daunting sea, in front of us. Somehow, we swallowed the Crashest of course given to us, looked at each other (and in a way gave confidence to each other by nodding helplessly) It was surely frightening, to go kayaking right in the sea, with depths to the order of 200 feet or so. We are also only a few inches from the water, that’s it. But, now, as we had voluntarily come, we listened and tried to absorb as much as we can from the instructor. His name was Otto. We (I and Manasi) decided that I take the back seat in the kayak, from where one steers the kayak, in whichever direction you want. It took a while for us to get the knack of steering and paddling at the same time. For around the first 20 minutes, we were circling in the sea, around a spot, as if we were offering “pradikshana” to something, some unknown deity, not to be seen in water. But, after some time, we were on way towards the right track. BON VOYAGE, I shouted out and enthusiastically started paddling. Manasi was helping out in whatever way she could, and I was giving direction to the kayak. Instead of repeatedly telling manasi to shout out “left or right”, she kept to her own jargon – “Samarth, DIRECTION, DIRECTION…………….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” It was my job to see which direction did madam exactly mean. We went through many islands, past lots of rocky beaches and shores. It was fun, but suddenly, I lost control and the paddles, on which my feet set, slipped away from my feet. For a moment, it was like – “ SHIT, what now, because for setting them again, one had to lift the kayaking skirt (lifting the skirt and all………….this might sound funny to you, while reading this on your PC’s, but there, at that time, it was not, and besides all that, I had a track under my skirt………so my USA (Under Skirt Area ) was not exposed……….hahahahaha), which one has to wear before sitting in the kayak. But soon, the instructor came religiously and helped me with the paddles . I also tried to click as many good pictures as possible, with my good ol’ Pentax, which was NOT a waterproof camera. This was the camera , which had been with me right from Khardung-la Pass (At 18.380 feet – the highest motorable road in the world, Ladakh) to Mt. Thelu (19,750 feet above sea level) to this place, right in the middle of sea, not even an inch above sea level. Luckily got a few pictures, clicked chaitya and mugdha pooling their efforts in the new sport. The instructor made us “pull-over” to take a halt at one of the places (rocky shores), but a lady there did not allow us to spend even 5 minutes there. So, all we did was a stint of getting down from the kayak, and then boarding it again, to go into the sea again. Manasi’s hands started aching after some time, so I steered as well as paddled. But this was for a short period, because Manasi was all the more excited about this whole kayaking stuff. We saw sea seals peeping at us from a distance. Otto said, “They might come and overturn your kayak. ” Automatically, everyone started avoiding that region, and took a sort of a longer route, but nobody was repenting for that. After giving sufficient exercise to our shoulders and arms, we finally came to the finish of the course. It was FUN…………loads of FUN……… we enjoyed every bit of it, the thrill, the excitement, everything………… the ride back to the kayak shop was kind of relaxing, after such strain. After desperately looking for a reasonable restaurant, finally found one. All of us were very hungry, so stuffed pizzas were followed by pastas (2 main courses)and desserts. Then, decided to go on the park loop drive again and up to Mt.Cadillac. There is both a motorable road as well as a trail up to the top of Mt. Cadillac. I thought that the hillock should not be given the suffix “Mt.”, as generally is associated with huge mountains and peaks (Mt. Everest, Mt. Thalaysagar, Mt. Shivling and so on and so forth). It was very windy out there; nothing could be seen because clouds had taken complete charge of the atmosphere. So, stopped there for a while, and then descended and started heading towards New Hampshire , our trip to Maine had come to an end . It was already dark, Manasi’s arms were aching like hell, and we did not have a booking for Sunday night at the motel. So, we decided to head back towards New Hampshire. On the way down, visited Jordan Pond, and I bought 2 caps, one for manasi, and one for my Advisor, because he suggested this place to me. He liked the cap very much. The return journey started. Everything was going on well, I took to driving after some time, as chaitya had to relax a bit. It had been an hour or so of my driving, when I saw fumes coming out of the car. I thought something must have happened to the radiator, as this is a common problem in India. So, had to pull over on the interstate. The radiator had developed a crack and it was leaking. We were approximately 50 miles away from Dover, the place where chaitya and mugdha stay. The AAA insurance card came very handy at that moment. Chaitanya had a card which had a facility of towing the car for a distance of 3 miles for free, and after that a charge of $2.50 per mile. But, fortunately I had an insurance, which provided 100 miles of free towing . But, again a problem – the AAA guy was going to take only 2 people with him. So, Chaitanya and Manasi went with him, and both of us, in a taxi, went to the nearby town, decided to spend the 2 or so odd hours sitting in Dunkin’ Donuts, as it stays open 24 hrs. Chaitanya came in one of his friend’s cars, a Honda without power steering. All of a sudden, I realized while driving as to how much I had got used to power steering. Reached home, pretty late, and the tired souls went to sleep……………………….

27th May, Monday – We all got up late, almost at lunchtime. Mugdha had prepared lunch for everybody. Had lunch, and at around 2 pm, started out for site seeing in New Hampshire. The famous places in New Hampshire included the old man of the mountain, the Franconia notch, Mt. Washington and quite a lot of places. But, as we had started out late, the Franconia notch was closed, but we could go and see the “Old Man of the Mountain”. This is a face, which, they say, got formed in a crude form by erosion of one side of the massive Boise rock. Then, for it to look more prominent and lively, people carved it. And necessary precaution has also been taken that rocks don’t fall from the face and also on the face from above. We could not see anything else that day, as it had already become very late. So, on the return journey, took a food exit and as usual (for me) “Burger King” Zindabad. It took a double whopper with cheese and a King Supreme to satisfy “mere pet ki aag”. The return journey in Deepak’s Isuzu SUV was good. I drove a SUV for the first time in my life. It felt as if I am the pilot of a plane, because my car in Rolla is at a very low level. As Burger King was not sufficient for any of the remaining three people, Mugdha prepared “Kacchhi Dabeli” after we returned. After a little bit of “no, no”, I also succumbed to the aroma of the Dabeli. And I ended up having 2 of them. This was followed by a movie session, after which all of us were dead sleepy…….So, haha, I shouldn’t say……..ya, we went to sleep, Obviously………

28th May, Tuesday – This day was nothing but Relax-Singh; at home…………..Mugdha and Chaitanya had already left for their jobs, as they were going to start on this day. Now onwards they were going to busy from 9 to 5 in the evenings. Mugdha had already prepared lunch before going; we did the job of finishing it up. I actually got a chance to see my emails, after a looong time. All the mailboxes were more than flooded. No mail was being sent, no mail was coming in inbox, and it was in a pathetic state. Manasi madam played “The last of the Mohicans”, a nice movie, which has won an Oscar for best music. These people came at 5.30, and then did some time pass. Chatted for quite some time. Then decided to go to Olive garden, the Italian restaurant chain all over US. The pastas were very good, mine was nothing great (quality as well as QUANTITY wise). Manasi had taken Alfredo sauce over chicken and fettuccini. As usual, madam retired after some time and the plate came to me, which I delightfully finished off. Desserts followed, Tiramisu, was the obvious choice of everyone. The atmosphere at night supported us in dozing off in the car itself. So, when did we reach back, when did we get out and when did we sleep, we don’t remember………….

29th May, Wednesday – Our plan to go to the Franconia notch failed when Manasi started preparing bhindi ki sabji. Saw “Dil to pagal hai” while having our lunch. Manasi had made such tasty sabji that it forced me to finish whatever she had prepared. The whole afternoon went in laziness, and chaitya and mugdha returned in the evening. They had planned for a dinner at a place called “Punjab” in Boston. According to them, it was the best place in that area for an Indian Cuisine. The drive to Punjab was one and a half hour from our place. But it was worth it. I bet!!!. Starters of Chicken Tikka (one plate for each) were followed by garam garam naan and Chicken, paneer, duck (Actually, I did not like it that much) and whatever we could think we could order and finish………we did finish everything……. we never believed in wasting food ……The cooking out here in this restaurant was ACTUALLY done in a Tandoor, not found in any other Indian Cuisine restaurant……Then, an hours and a half’s drive back and again a BIG CRASH on the bed……………..

30th May, Thursday – After a lot of planning we set out in chaitya’s car for the Franconia notch and Mt. Washington, at 2.30 pm. The notch was going to get closed at 5.00 pm. Made it in time . The notch is also called “The Flume”. The flume is a natural gorge extending 800 feet at the base of Mt. Liberty. It is made of granite rock and these walls rise to a height of 70-90 feet and vary in width from 12 to 20 feet. The flume was discovered by a 93 old “Aunt” Jess Guernsey. She accidentally came across it while fishing. At that time a huge boulder hung suspended between the walls. It was 10 feet high and 12 feet long. In 1883, a huge rainstorm swept the boulder down . This storm formed two beautiful waterfalls, table rock cascades and avalanche falls. As we walked through the area, we noticed some very large boulders, weighing over 300 tons. During the glacial period over 25000 years ago, a great ice sheet more than a mile thick moved over this area. The mass of ice was powerful enough to move both large and small boulders. As the ice sheet retreated, these boulders were left behind. They are called glacial erratics. We also came across a phenomenon called “something I don’t remember”, which was a combination of Algae and Fungus, which gets formed over a period of thousands of years. Then there is a picturesque covered bridge, which is one of the oldest in the state. It has been erected in the 1800’s. Such bridges are often called “Kissing Bridges” , because of the darkness and privacy they provided (No testing or experimentation was done ). This one was built to cross the scenic Pemigewasset River, which means “swift or rapid current” in the Abnacki language. So, after having a walk through the Flume, we started off on our return journey. Hunger provoked us to take an exit and hunt for some place to eat. It was purely coincidental that we took the same exit we had taken on this road before. I enjoyed Burger King and Manasi had a bagel from Dunkin’ Donuts. The return journey was a good one, as usual. The beautiful sunset’s soft glow of light swept across on the slopes of the hills by the side of the highway. And it felt as if the greenery is never ending……….just going on and on and on…….. Reached home, had some dinner, packed for the next day’s flight back and went to sleep for the last night in New Hampshire, our last night of the trip……………

31st May, Friday – Chaitanya and Mugdha had their work, Friday being a workday. They tried to make it possible to come and drop us at the airport, but it was just not possible. So, they suggested us a shuttle service, which drops you to the airport. It starts off at a distance of 12 miles or so from their place. Went there, bought the tickets, and off we were to Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, the place where we had landed 10 days ago………………..

The days just flew past us……………we did not even realize the passing away of each day………it was as if somebody had circled a magic wand in the air, and we were in this beautiful place………..the magic wand again, and now we were heading back to our respective places………to our respective daily routines…………..back to square one…………….
As the plane took off, my mind drifted towards the list of things to take care of……….once I reach Rolla.
The meetings with professors, the financial aid scenario in summer, the on-campus job somebody promised me, the credit card bills, dropping Manasi back to Tulsa, the cooking turns, the research, the dull atmosphere in the summer, and the list went on and on and on…………………….
I thought, GOD, so much to think of, so much to do now………………….Help me in everything……….
Down there, I could see the beautiful city of Boston……………

Adios, Boston………

The First Trip of US of A.

After buying the car in a span of 3 days, the insurance, registration, the safety inspection etc etc etc was done within a day and on the 18th of dec, I was off – – for the first road trip in the US of A.

Reached Tulsa on the 18th of Dec. was there for a couple of days. 24th of Dec, we left for Gokhale’s place – Kingsville, Texas. It was great drive from Tulsa to Austin, where we took a halt in the youth hostel. The interstate I-35 is one hell of a route. Driving on this route for around 9 hours was just gr88888. Austin night – nothing to eat, it was the day b4 christmas. All shops closed, all eateries closed. This made us roam around for food for an hour in Austin. But then, when everything fails, there is always Denny’s. Went there, had a hearty dinner on Chicken Fajita skillet. It is so good that Manasi has started eating Chicken at least. That was precisely the reason why she did not face any problem throughout the trip. One always gets chicken everywhere. She has had soo much of chicken in this trip, that she probably has never had in her lifetime.

So there we were, the next day, off to Kingsville. This was going to be a drive of around 5 hrs. Left at 11 am, the checkout time for Youth Hostel. The interstate I-35 joins I-37 to go further down south. This was an even better road. Greenery on both the sides and the smooth travel – it was damn good. The car on cruise control at the speed around 80 miles per hour (around 125kms per hr.), the Dil Chahta Hai CD blasting, and manasi by the side, what else do you want?????????????? Singing and chatting all the way, reached Kingsville at around 3.30 pm. Had not had anything during the travel, and were fortunate that Gokhale had prepared Alu Matar – WOW, the lunch was too good……….. went to Corpus Christi, the HOT SPOT nearby. But by the time we reached, everything had closed down. So, sat on the side of the beach for some time, had a hearty talk with Gokhale, with the soft cool breeze on our faces, it was such a good atmosphere. Went home, planned for the next week’s trip and slept off.

Next Day – The official day assigned to visit Corpus Christi. Went to BEST BUY to buy a camera for the trip. Gokhale bought the camera on his credit card. We were going to return the camera after the trip ended. Most of the shops have this policy out here. So, we now had an AMAZING Nikon N-65 with a 28-80mm lens, along with 4 rolls of 400 ASA. Now, the actual photography of the trip started. Went to the USS Lexington, the WW-II ship, which the Americans have turned into a War Museum. The efforts they take to preserve their history could be seen at every point during our trip. Did some TP near the ship, took some snaps, and then went to have Indian Cuisine at TANDOOR. It was pathetic; the way the owner was treating Indians. He got the bill on our table when we were having our lunch. While going, I made it a point to have a good talk with him and remind him of the ways Indians are supposed to behave. That it’s not a Bloody McDonald’s, where you pay first and then have your food. That Indians are famous for good hospitality. And that his behavior certainly did fit the norms of the Indian Hospitality. Now, we had planned to go to South Padre island, and its Mustang Beach. The road to this island is thru a patch where u have sea on both the sides of the road. It was very beautiful. This Mustang beach extended to – god knows how many miles – we were driving on the beach for around 15 minutes and it was never ending. Manasi grabbed the opportunity to drive the car on the beach. Being an automatic transmission, it was not at all a problem for her. So, all the way up to the entry of the beach, manasi had the controls. From there on, went home, ordered Pizza, had bought beer and coke on way, so it was gala time with the pepperoni pizza and our good old Budweiser. Now, U all SHOULD READ THIS!! Gokhale showed us a movie on a video cassette – It was Sholay – u must be thinking , whats new in Sholay??????????????? A BIG NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This Sholay is different, – This is the Sholay of USA – – u know, in this Gabbar Singh ACTUALLY DIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of us have seen sholay N no of times and we all remember the police coming and warning the thakur of not taking the law in his hands by killing Gabbar. But, in this movie, the thakur kills gabbar and then dharmendra (viru) and the thakur actually sob in each other’s arms for around 2 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the movie ends……………. It was shocking to see such a big difference, a totally different ending of the movie. Gokhale said he even has a plan of copying the movie and sending it to mumbai, to the director of sholay, and ask him what this shit is all about…………………………..After a full meal and a good “different sholay”, slept off as we had to leave for Galveston the next day, early morning.

This early morning started at 9.30 a m. The start of Manasi’s trip in the back seat of the car is a photograph in one of the albums. Last night, in spite of bidding for quite some time, did not find a good hotel room on priceline.com , so decided to go in and check out when we reach. But it darkened by the time we reached Galveston. So, finally started looking out for the Youth Hostel in Galveston. We did not know it had been incorporated in a motel. After searching for around 2 hours, we finally got a place to stay. It was on the beach. That very night, Manasi clicked our photo with the same coloured trackpant and t-shirt, sitting back to back. Actually, it was manasi’s t-shirt, which i was wearing, and as u can see i am hardly fitting in that. Next day, went to the railway museum of Galveston. Many of the photographs in the albums are in the museum of Galveston. We walked thru around 4 small theatres, which had shows explaining the westward expansion of the United States, and Galveston’s role in it.
This was a strategically located port and was very functional from the trade point of view. B4 Texas was made a part of US; Galveston was the capital of Texas. Enjoyed a lot at the museum. The photographs in the luxury suites of the trains show how lavishly the officers of the Railway service used to travel. It had a conference room, a dining room etc etc in the train. They were very advanced even in the mid 1800’s. The photos with me and gokhale sitting besides plaster of paris models depicts how the models were created. It was said that real people were made to pose for the sculptors, with a thin layer of plaster of paris on them. That is why they look SOO real and lively. Moved on to have lunch and then to the beach. The beach was great. It was so cold up there in Rolla and Tulsa, but in Texas, we were roaming around in shorts and t-shirts. That way, we could afford to go into the sea. We were in the sea almost for 2 complete hours. Seeing us, a lot of people joined later. Clicked a lot of snaps, which are there in the albums. Then as per the plan, went to Moody Gardens. This is a real big complex, where you have a lot of things to do. There were two glass pyramids in which they had created the typical environment of a tropical green forest and another of the same kind. There was an aquarium, IMAX theatres . Now, these theatres are giant ones with a screen of 80 ft by 80 ft. in dimensions. We saw a movie on the true story of mailing services in Argentina. A pilot used to deliver mail by flying across mountains. This was a 3-D movie and so, we were flying the plane with the pilot, we were with him when he was in a storm, going down in a crash etc etc etc. it was simply great to c such a movie on this giant a screen. It is indeed true that one day is not enough for seeing what this entire place offered. We were running short on time, as we had booked a motel from priceline. So, we had to leave Galveston that day and reach Houston, because if we did not, we would have wasted our money – our credit card had already got charged for the booking at Houston. The drive was not all that far. It was only an hour or so. The motel had all the channels on the TV. Again, Papa John’s pizza was ordered at the doorstep, and we were hogging away at the pizza and the soda, while watching the movie. The photo in which manasi and I are there with the papa john’s is the same motel. Chatted for a while, and then that was the end of a long day.

Next day – Destination Houston.
Houston is so big that everything is impossible to see in one day. So, we decided upon going in for the Johnson Space center (NASA), Houston. It is one of the research plus training centers for the astronauts going on the space missions. A particular section of the space center has been converted into an interactive tour for the tourists. There were movies on the space missions taken up by the US so far, then there was this robot (a photograph is there), who guided us thru a show on the history of American Space programs. There was another IMAX screen there. Got a chance to see the building of the international space station. This space station is being built with the coordination of 16 different countries. Got a chance to see the development of the space recovery vehicle (SRV) being used to bring up to 7 astronauts from space. A video was shown on the manner in which these astronauts would be coming back to Planet Earth after the mission gets completed. It took us the complete day to see the space center. We had no booking in san Antonio for the night. This was the night of 29th of Dec. We had planned to spend the whole of 30th and 31st of Dec. in San Antonio. We searched for a good motel, which could be cheap as well. But each one of them was very expensive. They were quoting in the range of $45-$50 per night. Besides, there was this game the next day, which had attracted a lot of people to San Antonio. Manasi, sleeping on the rear seat, 12.30 am, we were on the lookout for a nice place. We had almost decided to spend the night in the car in one of those rest areas by the interstate. A lot of people do the same to save on money, which goes into lodging. There was this motel, by the name of Relay Station Motel. Went to check out our luck out there. There was this Gujarati guy at the reception. After a long chat about our universities, our courses, the places we belong to in India, and a whole lot of other topics, somehow, he got impressed. This guy gave us a room for the 2 nights, 29th and 30th night for an unbelievable price of $46. He was extraordinarily generous on us. We were really lucky to have found this guy in the midst of a crisis situation.
So, god was with us that night. Next day, as usual, got up late, went to the Indian restaurant for a buffet. Generally, out here in the US, u have the buffet system in the afternoon, which in fact saves a lot of money. Because if you plan to have a ordered meal according to menu, the bill goes up to around $40-50. Otherwise the buffet per person is between $6-$7. This place was one hell of a place. The owner was indeed very much concerned about his customers. While taking a sumptuous amount of chicken tikka masala, had a word with the tandooriya over there. “Saasriyakaal jee, kii haal chaal hai?” this “not-getting-that much-of-an-importance” guy enthusiastically replied – “ Change hai, tussi dasso”. Similar conversations made both of us feel at home for a moment, were glad that we met a fellow Indian to speak to. This guy was so happy that he did not let me take naan from there and said – “saab, tussi baitho, main tainu asli makhni naan table te wich la ke dewanga, aisa hai, garam garam naan khane ka maja hi kuch aur hota hai, hai na?” So, there was this one plate full of garam garam makhni naan (butter naan), on our table . Otherwise, the naan served at the buffet were normal ones. This was great. Seeing the naan in front of us, everybody’s appetite increased a bit. Gokhale and manasi also joined me in another round of the buffet. The lunch ended on an extremely good note of “chawal kii kheer and mango custard”. Aur, obviously, bahar jaate hue, saunf was provided for good digestion. U all must be thinking that why is he emphasizing so much on the food in the trip. It is actually inexplicable. When u get to see things like naan and tandoori chicken once in 4/5 months , u are so very happy that u just cant resist urself from explaining all the details of the food. My friends in the US would understand this situation better. Automatically, venue for the next day’s lunch was fixed. The gr8 India Palace. We were indeed going to make the most of it. Gokhale and I were so full that while walking on the river walk that afternoon, we were almost sleeping.

This river walk in San Antonio is a proper cobbled road along a small river that runs through the downtown area of this place. This river walk is the hot spot for the 31st Dec. this walk is all lighted up and has all sorts of outdoor restaurants on the side. One sits on those chairs laid down by the river, and has lunch or dinner. The cuisines vary from Thai, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, continental and some other types. Loads of people, restaurants, eat outs, pubs, bakeries, shops, malls and enthusiasm. The photographs of the river walk are in the albums. We could see the Alamo, all lighted up. This historical tower has an interesting piece of history associated with it. It is said that only a few people from this side of the Alamo (a fort), fought the invaders and saved the town of San Antonio. So, the Alamo is the main strongpoint that saved this town from invaders. That night, after roaming around the whole place, went to the top floor (11th) of Hyatt, on the river walk. It was indeed beautiful from there. Went to the motel and slept off. There was absolutely no need for a dinner. Whenever we have lunch at any Indian restaurant out here in the US (which is usually a buffet), we make it a point that we directly have the lunch the next day. So, the next day was the last day of the trip, 31st of Dec. Gokhale’s friends from Arlington joined us and all of us were heading towards our lunch destination. Again, had a good meal, went back to the motel and slept for around 3 hrs. This was because I had to start my drive at around 3am the next day, immediately after the New Year starts, and reach Rolla, 900 miles away. It was going to be a 15 hr drive. Called up my roommates from Austin. They had come to Austin to drop one of my other roommates, who changed his university after the 1st semester. These 5 guys arrived in a luxurious mercury sedan, which they had rented out on the 28th. Then the party time started. After searching for a parking space for around 45 minutes, parked our vehicles in the lot for a fee of $10. Went to the river walk, and sat down to see the live performance of these 5 hot babes dancing to the tunes of Latino music. This stage was on the other side of the river, approx. 15 ft. away. So, from this side of the river, saw them perform. The tunes were so catchy that rohit, a friend of Manish’s, went and joined them from this side of the river. Had a nice time, and started our walk besides the river. There was this Irish pub, a place where a lot of people were partying their hearts out. Tried to enter, but in US, they ask for identifications at the entry of all pubs. A driving license is enough but everybody did not have one. So, dropped the idea, and went on. Doing TP was fun. Clicking photos here and there, we moved on. There was this bridge on the river, where a lot of people had gathered for the 12 am spectacle. Joined them. The fireworks started. The 2001 on the distant tower turned to 2002. Fireworks everywhere, and everybody shouting their hearts out. Kapil and Rohit started our usual desi seeti, with both the fingers in their mouth. The amrus were so bloody amazed at what these guys were doing. These buggers went on continuously for around 15 minutes. Then it became irritating. So, one of us made them stop. That was the end of the whole show. Went back to the parking. Drove back to the motel. Dropped gokhale. He was going to go back with his friends to Kingsville. These guys had the plan of reaching Austin, dropping Vinayak, who was going to stay over there, going to Wichita, dropping Kapil, and then coming to St. Louis. I said I would be directly making it to Tulsa (10 hrs), and would be taking a halt over there. But, madam slept off happily, tucked herself away in a comforter on the back seat of the car. Now, I was all alone. Got so damn bored that decided to take a halt at Austin with these guys only. So, went to Vinayak’s apartment in Austin, slept for 5 hrs, and 9.30 am, the final return journey started. Reached Tulsa at around 5.30 or 6 in the evening. Took a break of an hour from driving, and headed for Rolla.
11.45 pm – we reach Rolla. I recorded the miles. I had driven 900 odd miles that day itself, and a whopping 3500 miles in a span of 13 days. I had to reach Rolla on the 1st as my Teaching Assistantship workshop was starting on the 2nd (8.30 am). Had to get up early. This workshop went on till 9 pm. Then after that, had to go and pick up these three guys from St. Louis, as they had returned the car and Greyhound costed them around $83 to come back to Rolla.

So, there were we, both of us at 1502, N. Pine Street, 2 extremely seasoned drivers. Manish had driven a total of around 2400 miles in 5 days.

The trip ended. The car gave us no problems throughout the trip. It was an amazing performance from her side. Manasi performed both the roles very well – that of a navigator, with maps in hand, and that of an accountant for the complete trip (Remember daddy and mamma, chaitanya and myself were the accountants for the complete Kerala trip down south.)
It was one hell of an experience. I did everything possible to satisfy my passion for driving. Unfortunately, it hasn’t still died down.
So, more trips to come, more driving, more places to see, more people to meet, more experiences to take, more to learn from them, more to learn in life (I go by – “there is no better learning experience than traveling”)………………..the cycle will go on till we are enthusiastic as well as curious about learning.
I just wish this enthusiasm never dies……………………………………….