Samarth’s Travel Page

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!